Our third store was seventy-five miles to the westward at a place
called Flowers Cove. Here the parson came in with a will. Being a
Church of England man, he was a more permanent resident, and, as he
said, "he was a poor man, but he would sell his extra pair of boots to
be able to put one more share in the store." What was infinitely more
important he put in his brains. Every one in that vicinity who had
felt the slavery of the old system joined the venture. One poor
Irishman walked several miles around the coast to catch me on my next
visit, and secretly give me five dollars. "'Tis all I has in the
world, Doctor, saving a bunch of children, but if it was ten times as
large, you should have every cent of it for the store." "Thanks,
Paddy, that's the talking that tells." For some years afterwards,
every time that he knew I was making a visit to that part of the
coast, he would come around seeking a private interview, and inquire
after the health of "the copper store"; till he triumphantly brought
another five dollars for a second share "out of my profits, Doctor."
That store is now a limited liability company with a capital of ten
thousand dollars owned entirely by the fishermen, it has paid
consistently a ten per cent dividend every year, and is located in
fine premises which it bought and owns outright.
A fourth store followed near the lumber mill which we started to give
winter labour at logging; but owing to bad management and lack of
ability to say "no" to men seeking credit, it fell into debt and we
closed it up. Number five almost shared the same fate. Unable to get
local talent to manage it, we hired a Canadian whose pretensions
proved unequal to his responsibility. He was, however, found out in
time to reorganize the store; but the loss which he had caused was
heavy, and it was his notice of leaving for Canada which alone
betrayed the truth to us. The most serious aspect of the matter was
that many of the local fishermen lost confidence in the ability of the
store to succeed, and returning to the credit system, they found it
modified enough to appear to them a lamb instead of a wolf. However,
number five is growing all the time again and will yet be a factor in
the people's deliverance.
Numbers six and seven were in poor and remote parts of Labrador, very
small, and with insufficient capital and brains. One has closed
permanently. They were simply small stores under the care of one
settler, who guaranteed to charge the people only a fixed percentage
over St. John's prices for goods, as the return for his
responsibility. Number eight was the result of a night spent in a
miserable shack on a lonely promontory called Adlavik.
God forbid that I should judge traders or doctors or lawyers or
priests by their profession or their intellectual attitude. There are
noble men in all walks of life. Alas, some are more liable than others
to yield to temptation, and the temptations to which they are exposed
are more insistent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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