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THE  PHARMACEUTIST  AS  A  MERCHANT. 
business  policy  should  dictate  such  conduct  aside  from  moral 
conviction. 
We  all  know  a  thousand  tricks  in  trade,  the  prevarication, 
the  exaggeration  and  other  nameless  ways  of  making  things 
appear  as  they  are  not,  and  which  so  often  overshoot  the  mark, 
till  it  is  a  common  thing  for  the  community  to  allow  an  ample 
margin  on  almost  every  thing  that  comes  from  a  drug  store, 
between  semblance  and  reality,  utterance  and  truth.  This 
is  not  as  it  should  be ;  for  truthfulness,  in  all  our  ways,  is 
the  best  business  policy,  as  it  is  most  satisfactory  to  the  con- 
science. 
Now,  supposing  our  beginner  to  be  possessed  with  a  fair  edu- 
cation, moral,  ethical  and  scientific,  but  no  experience  as  a 
business  man,  what  points  are  there  to  be  observed  in  trade  that 
will  be  most  likely  to  lead  to  pecuniary  success  ? 
There  are  many,  of  small  importance  singly,  but  in  the  ag- 
gregate help  to  swell  the  tide  that  leads  on  to  fortune. 
The  Pharmaceutist  as  a  merchant  must  be  industrious  ;  the 
details  of  the  business  are  so  numerous  as  to  tax,  almost  to  its 
utmost,  his  endurance  and  patience. 
When  the  aggregate  yearly  business  is  any  considerable  sum 
from  the  retail  sales  of  medicines  and  accessories,  the  details 
to  accomplish  that  require  a  vast  number  of  steps  and  much 
labor  of  hand  and  brain  ;  so  it  becomes  a  fixed  fact  that  there 
is  no  moment,  in  a  well  organized  business,  that  there  is  not 
something  to  do;  there  are  no  leisure  hours. 
This  industry  must  be  personal,  too,  in  a  proprietor,  to  be 
seconded  by  his  assistants  ;  this  industry  also  implies  a  personal 
eye  to  all  the  details  of  a  business,  consequently  there  can  be 
little  leisure  for  outside  occupations  ;  better  do  one  business 
well  than  trust  to  the  chances  of  success  in  two  or  three  at 
once,  none  properly  conducted. 
What  is  termed  business  tact,  as  it  may  be  applied  to  our 
art,  consists  in  knowing,  as  it  were  intuitively,  how  to  win  friends 
and  draw  customers  around  you. 
It  is  shown  into  a  proper  selection  of  a  business  stand.  Had  I 
the  choice  between  a  good  stand  with  little  means  to  expend  in 
fixtures,  and  an  indifferent  one  with  rich  fixtures,  I  should  choose 
the  former,  trusting  to  the  future  to  make  up  the  last  want. 
