A southern woman’s husband was 30 years old, and a grocery clerk at $50 a month. Both were hoping for something better, when a good idea came to the wife. It was to start something new—a grocery on wheels!
She had saved a few hundred dollars before her marriage, but had never told her husband, as she intended to surprise him with it when the proper time came—and that time had arrived.
With this money to start with, she drew a plan for a wagon arranged with shelves and compartments for holding canned goods, preserves, breakfast foods, coffee, cheese, fresh-baked bread, cakes, pies, fresh fruits and vegetables—everything to be found in a well-ordered grocery. Sealed packages were a specialty, for sanitary reasons.
They had rented a neat little store in a suburb and put in a fine stock of groceries, which the wife took care of while the husband made the rounds of the entire neighborhood with his wheeled grocery. The women were more than pleased to come out to the wagon every morning and make their purchases for the day, without having to go to a market for what they wanted, so that his wagon was in constant demand in every part of the suburb. Later a motor truck took the place of the horse.
The sales manager for a large Chicago concern was married, had three children, and was getting further and further behind every year, with debts that constantly increased. Then the wife thought out a plan that she hoped would bring a betterment in conditions, and decided to make it win.
She began by selling their grand piano for $800 and buying a second-hand up-right for $185. Then she sold her buffet, china closet, two extra bedroom suites, four good rugs, several sets of silverware, some china, cut-glass, pictures, etc., at private sale, and from these she received $720 more.
Out of her total receipts, she paid the family debts and had $640 left. She paid $300 for a lot in the outskirts of the city; $54 for enough second-hand lumber to build a shack 20x40 in size, she and her husband putting up the building and putting in a cement floor, and lining the building with tar paper. They divided the shack into four rooms with straw matting for partitions, bought second-hand windows at $1 each, and made their own doors. Then they placed rugs on all the floors except the kitchen and moved in, thus saving $40 a month in rent.
They still had $200 in the bank, and out of this she paid $40 for putting down a well, then she gave piano lessons to country children, at 50 cents an hour, and earned $20 a month that way. She set up her grandmother’s old loom and wove rag rugs until she had earned $700 that way, and at the end of three years they had $3,000 in the bank, had raised the house, put in a foundation, dug a cellar and built two porches.
In two years more they were another $2,000 ahead, so her husband resigned his position and they began buying vacant lots at $250 to $400 each, bought old houses “for a song,” tore them down, and with the material built several tiny new bungalows. The husband did the carpenter work, she did the interior decorating work and the children helped a good deal. When a bungalow was finished, they readily sold it for from $1,700 to $2,200 and made a nice profit on each.
To-day they are living in a modern 9-room bungalow, and own twenty-seven vacant lots besides, all paid for, and have an income of $4,000 a year.
A practical and profitable idea came to a woman in an eastern city when she thought of the large number of business girls and girls in government employ who so earnestly long for the taste of home-cooked foods, which they never get.
Instantly she had formed her plan to put up ready-to-serve, homemade soups, potpies, beans, clam and fish chowders, and other things, to be delivered in glass jars, just at dinner time, to those girls who would love to have a hot meal at home, if they had anyone to cook it for them, or had time to cook it themselves.
Making sure that nothing left her kitchen until its taste and attractiveness were tested and proven when it reached those tired women and girls, it was a veritable blessing in glass jars.
She baked beans without pork, but with an onion in the center instead, and covered with salad oil. She made Dutch potpie cooked like a stew, made fish and clam chowders and prepared them all in the most appetizing way, so that anyone would relish them.
Later she set up a table and an electric stove in the corner of a hall in a large office building occupied mostly by men, where she served lunches taken from her fireless cooker, and these the men took to their offices on trays provided by themselves. On these she realized a profit of 40 per cent, besides having enough food left to supply her own family.
A married woman in New York, who had formerly been a stenographer but could not return to that work on account of her household duties, which included the care of two children, yet who was anxious to help in enlarging the family income, decided to bake cakes and sell them through various woman’s exchanges.
Her sales were very good, but often there would be cakes left over, and, to avoid this, she changed her selling method so as to supply a certain number of families with bread and cakes. Her entire capital was but $5, and she started with seven customers, having discontinued her deliveries to the exchanges.
She wrote to a number of people who were able to pay her prices, and soon secured a good list of regular patrons. In six months she had forty-five steady customers, was baking all kinds of cakes besides raisin, whole wheat and brown breads, and rapidly increasing the number of her patrons, so that in six months more she had a total of seventy-eight. Some of these, when starting on their summer vacations, arranged to have her supply them regularly by parcel post while away, and when they returned in the fall they continued to buy her baked products.
She employed a boy at $2 a week to make deliveries two afternoons each week and all day Saturdays, and before very long her net profits had reached $150 a month.
In some sections of the country thousands of bushels of fine apples are allowed to go to waste every year, simply because there is no one to gather them and make practical use of them.
A man in eastern Ohio, where the supply of apples is largely in excess of the demand, made profitable use of this apple surplus by a new method of concentrating cider, through freezing and centrifugal motion. This method consists of first freezing the raw cider until it is solid, by placing it in shallow trays and exposing it to a freezing outdoor temperature. Then it is crushed up fine and put into a receptacle like a barrel churn, and whirled very rapidly. This throws off the juice in the form of a syrup and leaves the water in the machine as ice.
One gallon of this concentrated cider, or syrup, is as strong as five gallons of ordinary apple cider, and when put in a cool place will keep from six months to a year without fermenting. It also reduces the bulk about four-fifths, so that it can be shipped at a low transportation cost, thus increasing the profits by a large percentage.
This man gathered up several hundred bushels of the apples that were going to waste, rented a cider press, and turned out the cider in immense quantities, late in the fall when the weather was freezing cold. The concentrated product he shipped to the city and sold it at big profit, the first netting him nearly $1,000.
Even in those times when eggs were selling to the middle man for 20 cents per dozen, a man who lived in the suburbs of an eastern city, and kept hens that laid large, rich-looking, golden brown eggs, worth twice as much as the tiny white ones in the dealers’ stalls, always sold every egg he could produce for 60 cents per dozen, or a nickel each.
The way he did it was to advertise in the city papers that he would send eggs by parcel post the very day they were laid, and guaranteed them to be strictly fresh and safe for sick people as well as robust persons.
That brought in the orders, and the way he kept them coming from the same people, year after year, was by making good—by actually shipping the eggs the day they were laid—and strictly fulfilling every promise he made. These facts, once duly impressed upon the minds of his city customers, made the eggs he sent them worth three times the price of ordinary market eggs of small size and uncertain age. Anyone, situated as he was, can do the same thing and make money out of it.
In order to interest city merchants in the possibilities open to them for country trade through the parcel post, and to interest the farmers in the goods carried by the city merchants, an advertising man in a western city thought out a plan that would do both.
First, he secured the name of every farmer within fifty miles of the city in which he lived. Then he got up a little 16-inch page booklet, with an attractive cover, and filled one-half of every page with interesting and useful information for farmers, such as recipes, methods of gardening farm, garden and orchard products, etc.
He then went to merchants in various lines, showed them the plan of the booklet, exhibited his list of farmers’ names, assured them that he would send a copy of the booklet free to every farmer on that list, and got them to fill the other half of each page with an advertisement of those goods especially for farmers’ use. The front of the cover he used as a title page, while the three other cover pages he sold for advertising purposes at good rates.
That little booklet netted him over $250, after he had submitted affidavits to the advertisers that copies of it had been sent out free to all the farmers, as he had agreed. He prepared another booklet, using the same matter, except the ads., and these he obtained from another set of advertisers. The matter already set up for the first booklet saved a great deal on the cost of composition, and at the end of the year his profits amounted to more than $2,000.
A mail-order man back east decided to work trust plan by which he could keep in close touch with those selling the goods, and have settlements where necessary.
From a catalog issued by a reliable house carrying a line of novelties adapted to the trust plan, he selected a few attractive ones which any child could sell at 10 cents each, and which cost him about $1.50 per gross, and these he advertised in the local papers, offering a premium to anyone selling a certain number of them.
He was thus enabled to place a large quantity of these novelties in the hands of children and others, who sold them and promptly remitted or called personally to make settlements and receive their premiums.
This system reduced his losses to a minimum and greatly increased his profits, so that he sent no more goods on the trust plan to outside towns, but confined his operations to his home city.
Another good parcel-post idea was worked out with success by a mail-order man, as follows:
He bought a quantity of ice wool shawls from a Chicago supply house, at a price which allowed him to retail them at 98 cents each, and still make a good profit. He secured the names of all the farmers’ wives within 150 miles, wrote a neat circular describing the beauty and stylishness of ice-wool shawls, and, wrapping one of these around each shawl, he sent them by parcel post, stating that if they wanted it for 98 cents, to remit him that amount, if not, to notify him on a postal card enclosed for that purpose.
But a very few of the shawls came back. Hundreds of money orders for 98 cents each did come, and he sold thousands of them in that way, realizing a good profit on each sale.
A cigar man in Denver made up a special brand of cigars, placed two of them in a neat little case, and sent them by parcel post to several hundred farmers, with a note saying they were presented with the cigar maker’s compliments. He also enclosed a coupon, good for a certain premium with each box of cigars ordered. The cigars were good, and many of the samples sent out brought orders for a full box, at the regular price.
Instead of that disagreeable method of selling goods—house to house canvassing—an agent in an Illinois city made use of the parcel post, with good results.
Selecting the article he wished to sell, he prepared a strong circular fully describing it, and wrapped the article in this circular, ready to send out by parcel post.
From the city directory he obtained a list of householders in various parts of the city, and mailed the article to them, with the statement that it was sent for inspection, and that his agent would call in a few days and give a full explanation.
He sometimes mailed out as many as 1,000 a day of these articles, and later sent out agents to close the sales, on a commission basis; and, as the sales were much more numerous under this plan than by canvassing from house to house, the increased profits fully justified him in assuming the extra expense the new plan involved.
A Chicago man who knew the truth of the saying, “a woman loves a bargain,” made a practical application of that principle to his own profit.
From the catalog of a supply house he selected an article that could be bought for a few cents, in considerable quantities, and yet would be a good value when retailed at, say, 26 cents. In a local paper he placed an ad. descriptive of the article, with a coupon at the bottom, saying: “We have only a few of these on hand. If you wish one, send this coupon and 26 cents, and we will send it by parcel post.” He sold large quantities of goods by this method.
A Seattle man originated the plan of selling goods on the installment plan by parcel post, and made it succeed.
Running an ad. in the local papers, describing the article for sale, he attached a coupon upon receipt of which the goods would be sent by parcel post for inspection. If approved and desired, the first installment was to be remitted at once, the others at stated intervals, but in all cases the names of two references were required.
He sold quantities of goods, sustained no losses, and made a good profit each year through this plan.
A San Francisco man, who knew something of the medical and other properties of Cannabis Americana, commonly known as hemp, experimented with it and found that it would grow in this country as well as in India, and decided it was a good thing.
He procured enough seed to sow one acre of land, sewing it broadcast the same as oats or buckwheat. He kept the weeds down until it had obtained a good start, and, as it then grew fast as the weeds, it needed no further attention. In the fall he cut it, cured it like hay, and sent it to the market, where it brought 45 cents a pound. There were two tons of it, and that 4,000 pounds sold for $1,800, all from one acre.
A market-man’s wife, who wished to make her husband’s place of business the most popular in that part of the city, did so by planning the meals for about forty of their regular customers. She charged nothing for her services, kept well within the weekly limit of each family, and relieved the housewives of all anxiety in the matter of deciding what the menu for each day should consist of. It not only made them permanent customers, but enabled the storeman to order only what he knew would be sold on any one day, so that his stock of meats and vegetables was always fresh, his prices no higher than those who gave less attention to their patrons’ needs, and his place was soon what the wife set out to make it—the most popular and profitable market.
A woman in California, who was impressed with the waste of gas and other fuels by women who devoted long hours to cooking “little dabs”, of oatmeal and other foods for their children, concluded to make that an unpopular and unprofitable pastime for these women, by having such things all cooked in her husband’s bakery, where there would be no waste, while it saved hundreds of mothers many anxious hours and tedious toil that were wholly unnecessary.
Her husband agreed with her that it would be a good thing all round to cook all these things in the bakery and place them on sale at prices that would mean a great saving of material as well as fuel, and guarantee their quality at the same time.
They began by cooking oatmeal guaranteed to have been steamed four hours, and baked small individual rice puddings in attractive little brown pottery molds, all of which sold so well that they added mutton broth with rice, plain beef broth, chicken broth with barley, and bean, pea purees for the children.
Desiring to expand their field of activities, they induced well located bakeries, delicatessen and other stores to handle their products on a commission basis, and, while their profits were not large, the business finally became so extensive that it paid exceedingly well.
Finally they gave up all this, and established a small model factory for children’s foods, and now have two motor wagons distributing these foods, which bring them a profit of several hundred dollars a month.
A lady in Reno, Nevada, who had long deplored the woeful waste involved in the throwing away of women’s stockings as soon as a small hole appears in the foot, hit upon an excellent plan for effecting a great saving in this regard, and one that at the same time brought her a good income.
Her plan was to make patterns for stocking feet, as the material in one pair of women’s hose will re-foot three or four pairs, and thus save the cost of a new pair when all that needs replacing is the small foot part of the stocking.
Ripping up a stocking of a good make, she succeeded in cutting out a perfect-fitting pattern from this, the only change necessary in using it being to adapt it to various sizes, and then she advertised to save the women of the country thousands of dollars in hosiery expense, if each of them would send her 10 cents for a pattern that would enable her to replace the feet of stockings whenever a small hole appeared in the heel or toe. No matter what the material, whether it was wool, silk, lisle or a coarse cotton, women realized that it would pay to re-foot them instead of buying new ones, and thousands of them sent for the pattern.
Many of the women who bought the patterns admitted that they did so for the purpose of making a business of re-footing stockings for women who could not do it for themselves.
A grocer’s wife, with only a few square feet in the back yard of a city lot, cultivated a rhubarb bed that paid for itself hundreds of times over, and required but little care from the time it was started.
She obtained several pieces of old root stock from a variety she knew to be of the very best, and in the spring had the ground spaded up and pulverized until it was almost like powder, then she added some good fertilizer, and set out the roots in hills four feet apart each way, leaving the top or eye an inch or so below the level of the ground. These began to grow at once, and during the dry season were kept well watered, being frequently hoed to kill all the weeds.
A considerable number of edible stalks were pulled the first season, great care being taken to let none of them go to seed, by snapping off the seed stems as fast as they appeared.
The second season the growth began early and was remarkably rapid so that before any one else had rhubarb, she had a good display of it in her husband’s store where it sold readily at a very high price.
Ever since then this small rhubarb bed has kept her in pin money, and all the care it has required was to keep it free from weeds and to water it occasionally.
An Eastern Washington farmer, who had raised scrub poultry for years, without ever being able to decide whether or not they were really worth their keep, finally decided to raise pure-breds, and now feels justified in making the change, as the returns from his high-grade fowls have been large.
He simply selected the breed he liked best, and gave them the care to which birds of high degree are entitled, and they have repaid him many times over for his efforts.
He now finds he can get more for a single pure-bred fowl than twenty of the common or barn-yard variety would bring, while their cost to raise is considerably less—bird for bird. Another thing: A single setting of eggs from a pedigreed hen brings him more than he could ever hope to receive for all the eggs an ordinary hen would lay in an entire season, and he is not only much better off financially, but feels that the satisfaction of having a breed that everybody else wants is worth a good deal to him.
A preacher’s wife, living in Michigan, has had to support the family for the last fifteen years, and this she has accomplished by cultivating a truck farm a few miles from the city in that state.
From this she derives an income adequate for all immediate needs. Her good judgment and experience in the selection, sorting and selling of farm and garden products have made her an expert. Her services command a high figure and she earns a good living each year through this skill.
A woman in a New Mexico city, where dust is one of the most plentiful of products, earned a good living by making and selling dustless dusters and oil mops to the people of her town.
To make a dustless duster, mix—out of doors, of course—1 quart of gasoline, 1⁄2 pint of turpentine, 1⁄2 pound of whiting and 1⁄2 ounce oxalic acid. Mix in a 2-quart fruit jar. Shake the cloths well, then dip into the mixture, and hang out on the line to dry. The above amount is enough for making several dustless dust cloths. She sells them at 25 cents each.
To make an oil mop, she gets 20 cents worth of paraffin oil, warms it up by setting it in a pan of hot water, and dips the cloth in this and squeezes it quite dry, then hangs it up to dry thoroughly. In this mixture she also dips broom bags made of the legs of stockings sewed together. She puts the oil in a bottle to use again.
A little farmer girl, who is not a bit afraid of work, earns enough to clothe her nicely every year, and here are some of the ways she does it:
Picks strawberries in June, at 2 cents a box; earns five dollars.
Picks huckleberries and blackberries in July and August; makes from eighteen to twenty dollars.
Gathers wild grapes in September, and sells them at $1 per bushel or 50 cents for a peach basket full.
Gathers hickory nuts in October, and sells them from Thanksgiving to Christmas at $2.25 to $2.50 a bushel. Also gathers chestnuts; sells them for 15 cents a quart.
Plants 5 cents worth of popcorn seed in the spring; gets five bushels; sells it at Christmas time for $2.50 a bushel; or $12.50.
In summer she gathers wild balsam blossoms and fresh pine needles; makes them into small head pillows; sells these in drug and dry goods stores at 25 cents each, net.
Gathers bayberries in August, and combines their natural wax with paraffin, melting them into pretty, green-tinted candles. Ties these in bunches of three with baby ribbon, and sells two bunches for 25 cents.
Planted sage bushes in a corner of the garden. Gets $1 to $5 from these every summer.
She is now going to raise medical herbs, such as boneset, catnip, wormwood, mullen, etc., and will sell these to a wholesale druggist at big prices.
A street-car conductor on a Massachusetts street-car line, some twenty years, would probably be a conductor still if it hadn’t been for his wife, who took the initiative in launching an enterprise that finally robbed him of his $16-a-week job and gave him one as joint owner, with his better-half, of six prosperous stores, any one of which would make a good living for an ordinary family, besides a fine home in the country. The long hours and close attention of his position as conductor was wearing on him, and the wife decided to take a hand in managing affairs.
A small creamery near their home was for sale for $800. The wife had $500 she had saved, and she borrowed $300 more on her furniture and the store fixtures. She at once changed the name of the creamery to that of “Clover Farm Dairy Products,” cleaned the place all up, had the landlord paint it white, put in new linoleums, and had the doors and windows washed, so that everything about the place was “spick and span.”
She had previously arranged with the dairy above named to handle their products, which were popular, and opened up for business. The first week her profits were only $10, but in seven months the mortgage was paid off, and the place was clear. She then put a counter in the storeroom, and served sandwiches and light lunches all of which paid well. At the end of the first year she had $2,500 laid away as profits.
By that time she proposed to buy another store, and each of them own one, as her husband was ready to resign his position, and this venture proved as profitable as the first one, they kept on until they now own six stores and a nice farm.
A man who made his living by doing odd jobs found the cleaning and repairing of cisterns about the most profitable work he could find to do.
Using a hand-pump to remove the water, he would go down into the cistern and scrub the walls clean with a broom, then dip up and remove the dirty water and debris from the bottom. Then he would throw in several buckets of clean water to wash down any particles of dirt remaining, dip this all out, and the cistern was clean.
But repairing was necessary in most cases, and if there was a leak, he would enlarge the hole with a hammer, force in some beef suet and then fill the hole with a mortar made of cement and water. For cracks in the wall, he gave it a coat of cement and water, throwing dust-dry cement over it until the cement set hard enough to hold. If the leak was so great that the above method would not stop it, he cut a hole in the bottom, set in a pail that could be emptied when full, and treated the leak as above, afterwards filling the hole in the bottom with stiff clay, cementing it with the mortar.
These jobs paid him well, and his time was fully occupied.
A very convenient grease-spot remover, made in tablet or stick form, was put up and sold in large quantities by a traveling man, who realized how easy it would be to use it while on the road. This is the formula he used:
Soft soap, 2 pounds; powdered Fullers earth, 2 pounds; turpentine, 6 fluid ounces. Mix the soap with the earth, gradually working in the turpentine, and give a dash of cheap scent, such as nitro benzol or even lemon oil. Then fashion into sticks or cakes. The spot or stain is first moistened with hot water, is rubbed with the cake and allowed to soak for a few minutes, or to get nearly dry, then it is well rubbed with a little warm water and a brush, or a piece of clean woolen, and afterwards rinsed in clean water and finally rubbed dry and smoothed off with a dry cloth or a brush.
Introducing this among other traveling men, merchants and others, he soon found such a demand for it that he gave up his position on the road, began making it on a large scale.
The society reporter of a leading daily newspaper in a middle western city, who enjoyed an extensive acquaintance among the prominent people of the place, devoted her vacation to accumulating the material for a “social register” in addition to the knowledge she already possessed regarding the foremost families of the city.
She was on intimate terms with most of the society leaders, and therefore had but little difficulty in inducing them to pay her $2 each for including the family name in the register, which was open only to those who were representatives of good citizenship, and properly entitled to such prominence.
The $2 paid by the head of each family covered the entire charge for having the names of all members of the family in the book, and included the family name, given names, address, telephone number, “at-home” days, names of daughters having made their debut, as well as those “coming out” the present season, the names of social societies or clubs to which any members of the family belong, with official position, if any held therein, the families, summer address, etc. In a word, it was a complete record of the city’s best people.
She appointed one or two solicitors capable of approaching exclusive people, for the purpose of enrolling them, and solicited only enough advertisements of the highest class to fill six or seven pages, charging very high rates for the same; and, although no capital was required to start the enterprise, by the time the solicitors and the printers were paid, she found she had cleared nearly $600 from the publication of the book. Every two years thereafter she published a new edition.
There are comparatively few persons who are really qualified to make a success of this work, but once in a while some person is found who can give a very close analysis of the individual character.
A young lady in Indianapolis, who possessed this gift, made a great success of this work, and not only gave satisfaction to those who sent photos for her reading, but derived a good living from it.
She advertised in the “personal” columns of several widely circulated newspapers that she would describe the character of any one whose photograph was sent to her, detailing the habits, vices, virtues and other characteristics and traits of the individual, the strong and weak points in his or her make-up, whom the person should marry, the line of business to which he or she was best adapted—in short a clear and complete delineation of that person’s character, yet not through fortune-telling or anything of that kind.
She announced that, while the regular charge for such a reading was $1, she would make the price 50 cents for a limited time, and guarantee satisfaction.
Hundreds of photos, with the requested enclosures, were received as a result of her first ad. and she was soon in receipt of a steady income of $150 to $200 a month. The secret of it was that she could do just what she said she could, and by honestly performing what she promised, she gained the confidence and the patronage of those who answered her ads.
A city man, who had formerly lived in the country realized how welcome would be the sight of a covered express wagon, containing a sign, “Ice Cream, Pop Corn and Bananas,” coming up the road toward a farm house on a long lonesome Sunday afternoon. Why, everybody would be customers, and that gave him an idea.
He owned just the kind of rig that would serve this purpose, and all he needed was a neatly printed canvas sign tacked on each side of the frame that supported the cover. A sign painter soon turned these out at a small cost, and he next visited the headquarters of a large dairy company noted for the excellence of its products. Here he made arrangements to be supplied with from ten to twenty gallons of their best ice cream, of different flavors, each Sunday, at wholesale rates.
A corn-popper, operated by a kerosene lamp that kept the pop-corn warm as well as fresh, was his next purchase, then a few bushels of popcorn, while a wholesale fruit house was glad to supply several hundred nice ripe bananas at the regular prices to dealers.
The next Sunday was a beautiful day—just warm enough to make one wish for ice cream—and he started out in his rig for a long drive into the country. His coming created a sensation and the further he drove the more he sold of his goods, until, just before sundown, the very last of the ice cream, popcorn and bananas were sold. That night after supper he figured up the results, and found his net profits amounted to just $18.75 for that one day’s work. But that was only the beginning of a profitable business.
A man in Seattle, who had never made an ounce of candy in his life, bought a book on candy making at a stationer’s, then worked in a candy factory for almost nothing for two months, and came out a skilled confectioner. The following are some of the candies that proved to be the best sellers and biggest money-makers, and he gives the formulas below, with the statement that the making of any one of them will provide a good living for any person who will work and stick to it. Each is therefore submitted as a separate plan for making a living.
White sugar, 2 pounds; sugarhouse syrup, 1 pint; best molasses, 1 pint. Boil until a little of it hardens when dropped into cold water, then work in the usual manner.
This enjoyed a tremendous popularity, and yielded an immense profit.
White sugar, 1 pound; essence of peppermint, 1 teaspoonful; add sufficient water to work into a stiff paste, roll into thick sheets, and cut out with a round stamp of the required size.
Profit enough in this to support an entire family.
Boil a quart of best molasses until it darkens, then put in water. Before removing from the fire, add 4 ounces of fine chocolate. Pour a thin layer into tin trays slightly greased, and when it hardens a little cut into small squares.
His customers never seemed to get enough of these.
Nut candies are always in demand, and those he made as follows were particularly delicious:
Put the meats of walnuts, hickory nuts, peanuts, or any other kind desired, to the depth of half an inch, on the bottom of tins previously greased. Boil together 2 pounds of brown sugar, 1 pint of water, and 1 gill of molasses, until a portion of it hardens when cool. Pour the hot syrup on the meats, and allow it to remain until hard, then break it into small chunks.
This was one of his biggest money-makers.
Chop a pound of figs fine, and boil in a pint of water until reduced to a soft pulp. Strain through a fine sieve, add 8 pounds of sugar, and evaporate over boiling water until the paste becomes quite stiff. Form the paste into thick sheets, and divide into small pieces with a thin-bladed knife. Roll the pieces in powdered sugar, and pack in wooden boxes.
A delicious and healthful confection that proved its popularity all the year round.
No matter how great the supply of chewing gum becomes, the demand for it always exceeds the supply. There is none better than the following, which was one of his biggest sellers:
Chicle, 7 pounds; paraffin wax, 2 pounds, Tolu balsam, 4 ounces; Peru balsam, 2 ounces. Dissolve the gum in as much water as it will take up, melt the paraffine and mix all together. Now take finely granulated sugar, 20 pounds; glucose, 8 pounds; water 6 pints. Put the sugar and glucose into the water, dissolve and boil them to a “crack” degree (confectioners’ term), pour the syrup over an oiled slab and turn into it sufficient of the gum mixture to make it tough and plastic, adding any of the following flavors, if desired: Cinnamon, chocolate, sandalwood, wintergreen, myrrh, galangal, ginger and cardamon. When completely mixed, remove to a cold slab previously dusted with powdered sugar, roll out into sheets and cut into sticks.
Spruce gum, 20 parts; chicle, 20 parts; powdered sugar, 20 parts. Melt the gum separately, mix while hot, and immediately add the sugar, a small portion at a time, kneading it thoroughly on a hot slab. When thoroughly mixed, roll and cut into sticks.
One of the most popular and profitable chewing gums made.
Even in a large city, where bill-board and distributing agencies are already operating, there is still room for an energetic man to make a good living by working independently.
A man in a western city did this:
By giving honest service at reasonable prices, he worked up a nice, paying business, all his own, inside of a year’s time.
He not only obtained work by personal solicitation among the home merchants, but mailed neat circular letters to large advertisers in other towns, and advertised occasionally in the local papers, guaranteeing the prompt delivery of printed matter anywhere at any time; and, as those who employed him once found the service satisfactory, he was able to enroll many of the large advertisers among his regular customers.
When an Omaha man had lost all his property, and began to think he was “down and out,” he suddenly remembered that he was a regular “jack of all trades”; that he could do almost anything around a house, and that there was a good living for him in making use of his talents.
With a few dollars he had left after the collapse of his business, he rented a small shop in a central location, and had some circulars printed stating that he would do all sorts of repair work needed around residences, such as fall to the lot of a bell-hanger, locksmith, carpenter, plumber, gas-fitter, painter, paper-hanger, glazier, carpet cleaner and layer, etc., on short notice and at reasonable rates.
He received many calls to do work in these various lines, and did it so skillfully, quickly and reasonably that many housewives engaged him permanently, at a stated sum per month, to look after such repairs as became necessary to make around their homes.
His earnings the first year were nearly $1,500 and his income increased.
An old man in a western city makes a profit of $25 or more a week by buying used barrels from grocers and others and selling them to manufacturers for about twice what he pays for them.
There are several firms in his city that buy all the barrels they can get, and those that have been used answer the purpose just as well as new ones. He first makes contracts with these firms to deliver so many barrels per week at a certain price. Then he drives around in a little wagon to all the groceries and other places where there are empty barrels, and buys them cheaply, as most people are glad to get them out of the way. With these he fills his contracts and makes a good living from it.
Selling popped corn is an old story, but selling popped wild rice is decidedly new. A man in San Francisco has done this for some time, and made good money out of it. Wild rice is a complete food in itself, is used largely by Northwestern Indians, and costs about 20 cents a pound, in 100-pound lots, while it retails readily at 60 to 75 cents a pound, as it is put in smaller packages than popcorn. When popped, it swells and breaks open, and is very brittle and delicious. He also sells the whole rice at a very good profit.
A Chicago man paid $6.50 for a machine for making, renewing and re-inking typewriter ribbons, and built up a good, paying business in a very few months. With this machine new ribbons can be made for about one-fourth the present prices, and it renews worn ones at a cost of one cent each. It is very simple and easily operated.
He had 1,000 cards printed, saying: “Don’t throw away your worn typewriter ribbons. I will pay you 2 cents each for them.” These cards he distributed in business offices, and soon had so many calls that he was obliged to hire a man to collect the old ribbons for him.
Most of the ribbons were as good as new, needing only to be re-inked, and when he had done this he sold them at 25 cents each, as the demand exceeded the supply.
He also advertised to re-ink ribbons for 25 cents each, and got enough of these to keep him busy his extra time. He soon discovered that he had a business of his own that paid him better than any salaried position he could hope to obtain.
Two boys at a popular eastern resort made a living by operating a paddle-wheel—one of the simplest yet most profitable enterprises one could find.
The wheel was a small wooden affair, something like the wheel of an old-style baby carriage, and in the front side of the rim were driven twelve wire nails, an equal distance apart, which stuck out about an inch and a half, and the spaces between the nails were numbered from one to twelve, with about 1-inch figures (clipped from a calendar, pasted on cardboard and tacked on the wheel). The hub of the wheel was set on a round peg fastened in a wooden pole about two inches thick and about seven feet high; the bottom of the pole being propped in a foot-stand like those that are used to hold up Christmas trees, and the rim of the wheel was brought up to within about two inches of the top of the pole. To the top of the pole was fastened an extension finger that came out about two inches beyond the front of the wheel, and to this finger was fastened a strip of thick leather about three and a half inches long. This strip of leather was set so as to drop into the space between two of the nails, so that when the wheel was spun around the leather was struck by each nail every time the wheel went round.
Twelve paddles were used in connection with the wheel. These paddles were merely flat pieces of wood in the shape of a broom with a small handle, or, to be more exact, shaped like the back of a hair brush and of about the same size. The paddles were numbered from one to twelve, to correspond with the numbers on the wheel.
Chewing gum was sold at 5 cents a package, and a half pound of chocolates was given away each time the wheel was twirled, each purchaser of the gum being given a paddle to hold, with a number, and when twelve sales were made, the wheel was spun around. Whoever held the paddle with the number corresponding to that of the space between the nails designated by the leather finger, when the wheel stopped, got the chocolates.
Sales were many and the profits large—the cost of the gum and candy being 27 cents, while the receipts from every turn of the wheel were 60 cents, a profit of 33 cents. And that wheel turned several hundred times a day.
An Illinois woman who wanted to help out in meeting the insurance premium on her husband’s life policy, realized a good profit from making and selling potato chips, which in nine weeks netted her $80, besides selling $100 worth of home-baked doughnuts at a good profit.
Make the chips slice very thin, with a slicer. Have ready a pot or two of real boiling hot grease. After the slices have soaked about two hours in real cold water, fill a wire basket full of sliced potato and let drain a short time and put them into the hot grease. You can purchase a wire basket for this purpose for a very small sum.
One peck of potatoes with sufficient grease usually makes about six gallons of chips. She sells a measure, one-half gallon scant, for 25 cents. This was easily handled in her home and it was possible to make a good living and not neglect the family.
A blind soldier, at a soldiers’ home in Illinois, earns money by making fancy articles and ornaments of different colored beads. The number of notches on each box designated the color of the beads therein, and he very seldom makes a mistake. These ornaments are very pretty, and visitors, as well as people in the town, buy many of them at good prices. That poor old blind soldier is not complaining of hard times, no matter how many younger people with good eyesight complain.
Making and placing house numbers is the kind of work a Washington man follows with profit.
His method is to first determine on the height of the figure—3 inches high being about right. Then cut a set of plain block figure stencils, from 0 to 9, and mark the outline of the figure on a plate of zinc of suitable size. Then trace the figure with white enamel and, when dry, scrape off any enamel that overlaps the outline of the figures. The background is then painted with bicycle enamel. When dry, punch a small hole in each of the four corners and put up with round-headed nails.
The prices charged for the numbers put up, is usually 25 cents for a 3-figure number, 20 cents for a 2-figure number and 15 cents for a 1-figure number.
The making of the stencils is about the only difficulty connected with the work, for after they are made the printing of the figures is purely mechanical.
A New York lady who had accompanied her husband on his vacation in the mountains became, by accident, the originator of a pleasing and profitable idea. She had promised several friends to write them often concerning the many experiences of the trip, but found her time so taken up that all she could find time to write was a few post cards. Even then, she was interrupted while writing the first one by her husband calling her to hurry up, as they were to go to a certain lake at a certain hour, so she added to what she had already written the words, “To be continued,” and mailed the card. The next day she wrote another, with the same ending, and before long had made of them a regular series, which delighted her friends, while they anxiously waited for the next installment.
When she returned and they showed her the cards, all fastened together in book form, making a complete story of the series, she decided upon a plan:
Selecting a good, short love story from a popular magazine, she first obtained the consent of the publishers to use it as she wished; then she divided it into ten chapters, and had each chapter illustrated with an appropriate cut, printed on a post card, and fastening them all together, took them to the stores making a specialty of post cards, and offered them for sale. She received many orders for the series, and they sold well, so that she made an excellent profit on them, while engaging in a delightfully agreeable work.
An eastern lady of considerable literary talent and business ability, who could not canvass figured out the following plan:
Securing the agency for several of the most popular magazines, she made a list of her friends, and at odd hours she wrote them, mentioning the fact that she was agent for certain magazines, and calling particular attention to some special feature in which she knew each lady to be interested. She concluded by assuring them that she should regard it as a personal favor if they would subscribe; and, to make sure of a reply, she enclosed a stamped, self-addressed envelope in each letter. The number of those who sent their subscriptions in answer to these personal letters was surprisingly large, and in acknowledging the receipt of remittances she would ask if they would not favor her with the names of some of their friends. This they did in most cases, and by writing these friends’ friends, and referring to the former, by permission, as having already subscribed, she built up a list of regular patrons that paid her very well.
That there is good money in the making of rubber stamps, is proven by the experience of a 20-year-old youngster who started in business for himself in a western town of 8,000 inhabitants.
He bought a complete outfit, consisting of a vulcanizer, screw-press, assorted type, etc., for $25, and as he had learned to set type in the office of the local weekly paper, the business was easily learned. Here is the way he started:
Set up the desired name and address in common type, oil the type and place a paper guard about half an inch high around the form; now mix plaster of paris to the proper consistency, pour on the type and allow it to set. Have your vulcanized rubber all ready prepared in long strips the proper width, and about 1⁄8 of an inch thick, and cut off the size of the intended stamp. Remove the plaster cast from the type, and place both the cast and the rubber in a screw-press; apply sufficient heat to thoroughly soften the rubber, then turn down the screw hard and let it remain until the rubber receives the exact impression of the cast and becomes cold, when it is removed, neatly trimmed with a sharp knife, and cemented to the handle ready for use.
The inks to be used with rubber stamps, he made as follows:
Aniline blue, water sol., 1 B. 3 parts; distilled water, 10 parts; pyroligneous acid, 10 parts; alcohol, 10 parts; glycerine, 70 parts. The blue should be well rubbed with the water, and the glycerine gradually added; when the blue is dissolved, the other ingredients are added. This makes a fine blue ink. Other colors may be produced by substituting for the blue any one of the following: Methyl violet, 3 B. 3 parts. Nigrosin W (for blue black), 4 parts. Vesuvius B (for brown), 5 parts. To make a superior red ink, dissolve 1⁄4 oz. of carmine in 2 ozs. of strong water of ammonia, and add 1 dram of glycerine and 3⁄4 oz. of dextrin.
He not only supplied rubber stamps to his home town but a little ad. in the local paper brought orders from other towns, and he soon had all the business he could handle.
In a small Illinois town, where there was no competition from the big city concerns that claim to do this work for practically nothing, an elderly gentleman who had formerly been employed by a big picture-framing house in Chicago built up a nice little business by framing pictures and doing his work reasonably.
He rented space in the rear of a news depot, and bought a well selected assortment of mouldings from his old firm at wholesale prices. He purchased a mitre box, saw, hammer, glue-pot and some small brads, in the use of which he was very skillful, and arranged with a dealer to have glass cut any desired size at a reasonable rate.
Having done a little quiet soliciting among the people of the town and surrounding country, aided by a modest but tasty display of mouldings and finished frames in the show window of the place, he secured a large number of orders. His work was skillfully done and his charges were reasonable, which brought him a steady business.
It made him an excellent living, and he had no fears of losing his position, a fate which often falls to a man as soon as his hair begins to turn grey. He had a business of his own.
While some people, who do not know any better, may smile at the man engaged in so small a business as selling popcorn and peanuts, the persons who do the selling know there is money in it if properly conducted.
A man in an eastern city spent his last few dollars in buying a two-wheeled cart, fitted with a glass case on top, bought a gasoline lamp, a popper and a few pounds of popcorn and started out to make a living.
His profits the first day were $2.25, but that was the smallest day’s business he ever did, for his sales increased rapidly and in two years he was the owner of a large bakery, running several delivery wagons to supply his trade.
His success was partly due to his methods of preparing his popcorn for sale which was as follows:
Popcorn Balls. To 4 quarts of the popcorn, take 1⁄2 cup of molasses and 1⁄4 cup of sugar. Do not add water. Boil the syrup until it will harden in water (not brittle); then add 1⁄4 teaspoon of soda to improve the color. Pour over the corn, mix well, and make into balls. Wet your hands in cold water when molding the balls, so the corn will not stick to them. To make the popcorn bricks, use the same process, but have molds made the size required, but without a bottom. Set the molds on a smooth surface and fill with the prepared corn; then have a block the size of the inside of the mold, and about 1 inch thick; place on top of the corn in mold and hammer down until the top surface of the block is level with the edge of the mold, then lift up the mold, leaving the corn and block on the table. Remove the block from the corn, and your popcorn brick is ready to wrap in wax paper.
Sugared Corn in Bulk. Take 1 cup of best white sugar, three tablespoonfuls of water, and one teaspoonful of butter. Pour all into an iron kettle, and boil until ready to candy; then throw into the mass 3 quarts of freshly popped corn. Stir continually until the sugar is evenly distributed over the corn; then remove from the fire, and stir until it cools a little. You then have each kernel separate, and all nicely coated with sugar. It should be watched closely while on the fire to prevent scorching.
An automobile salesman in an eastern city experimented with various kinds of dressings for leather tops on carriages or automobiles, until he finally struck the right combination, and found such a demand for it that he resigned his position in order to manufacture it. Here are the ingredients used and their various proportions:
Orange shellac, 30 ounces; Venice turpentine, 1 ounce; castor oil, 1 ounce; gum sandrac, 1 ounce; nigrosin, 1 ounce; wood alcohol, 9 pints and 6 ounces. Mix all together and shake until dissolved. Directions for use: Carefully remove all dirt and dust from the leather with a damp cloth, after which apply the dressing with a soft camel hair brush. This preserves the leather, renders it waterproof, prevents all cracking, and imparts a beautiful glossy finish, making old, faded leather look like new.
He put this up in pint tin cans with screw tops, and retailed it at $1.00 per can.
He also took orders for dressing carriages and automobiles, one can being enough to use on the top, side curtains and rain apron. This could all be done in half an hour, and he charged $2 to $3 for each job. Livery stables and auto garages bought a dozen or more cans at a time, as it is the best dressing on the market. It can also be used for rubber and cloth tops, and will last for years. Water and mud do not affect its luster.
On a capital of $25, a 19-year-old boy in a western town of 1,000 people opened a news depot in a small way, yet made it pay him a profit of $900 the first year, and it now pays several times that amount. An eastern news bureau supplies him, through its agency in the nearest city, with all the paper-bound books, magazines, weekly and monthly periodicals for which there is a demand, and takes back the copies unsold. He also added a small line of cigars and tobacco, secured the agency for a steam laundry in the city and has built up a very thriving little business of his own.
A young farmer lad who wanted to live in the city, found a way in which that could be done, without any danger of his going hungry, or of being obliged to look for a job.
Knowing the value of buttermilk as a food and a drink, he decided to go into the business of selling it. There was a large creamery near the city in which he had chosen to cast his fortune and he visited the manager to learn the lowest price at which he could be supplied with fresh buttermilk every day in quantities of not less than 100 gallons, and was surprised at the low price quoted. He then visited a large number of restaurants, hotels, saloons, etc., and offered to deliver to them the quantity required by each every day, for 12 cents per gallon, which was three times what it cost him.
Having a few hundred dollars, he purchased a rig especially adapted to this purpose, and began his deliveries at once. He had attractive showcards printed, “Fresh Buttermilk Sold Here,” and put up one of these in a conspicuous place wherever he was making deliveries. He also had the hotel keepers mention buttermilk on their menus, which they were glad to do, as it cost only about half the price of sweet milk.
He had a publicity man prepare for him a number of articles dealing with the healthfulness of buttermilk, and thus created an increased demand for it by publishing one of these in the city papers once a week.
The owner of one of the leading papers in Cheyenne, Wyoming, during the oil boom found that the Denver papers were obtaining all the advertising while his paper, which was in the oil district, was not receiving any business.
He knew it would be difficult, if not impossible, to send a salesman to Denver and obtain this business. The matter was discussed pro and con in his office as to how this business could be obtained. He told his advertising man about a plan of getting business by day-letter—upon which this man proposed they secure this business by long distance telephone. This the owner thought impossible but decided to try it. All Denver papers running ads. were gone over carefully and his $35-a-week advertising man began work. The business of that paper increased $4,500 a month for over three months and the $35-a-week man became worth $150 a week. The plan provided a new and very direct method of reaching the man who had the giving of the business. The salesman in this way had the right of way. He got a quick decision. In talking to the prospective advertiser he stated his name and the newspaper he was representing, then complimented the advertiser on the excellent copy he was running in the Denver paper and suggested that this ad. should be run in the Cheyenne paper, stating his reason why it would be an advantage. He was tenacious and intelligent and got the business before he hung up the phone receiver. This plan brought more than $10,000 worth of business to the paper in four months. Many claim that it is impossible, but it has been successfully handled. It cost something like $300 a month for phone charge, but that expense was made up by adding to the cost of the advertising space. He did not lose 5 per cent in his collections.