Chapter XIX: Section 1754: applies to all branches of the service, in Washington, D (10)

He was half convinced that there was a way, and one day there were two men from the University of Michigan selling books in his home town. He became acquainted with them and found that they had no money and were spending their vacation in his town raising money to complete their courses. It was too late for him to go to work with them that season, so he asked their advice. He was told there was no record of a young man starving to death at Ann Arbor while working his way through but that there were many thousands from all parts of the United States who had worked their way through. They told him to go up to Ann Arbor about two weeks before the college opened and get a job waiting on table. This would take care of his board, and it was not considered a disgrace to wait on table at the university. At the same time they advised him to call at some houses and get a room where he could arrange to do odd jobs for the landlady in payment. This advice he followed, obtained the jobs, entered the Engineering Department, and got into the band, as he played a horn, which gave him admittance to all games and affairs of the university. He finished his first year O. K., and the next summer he sold books and saved more than $300 for his next year’s schooling. Each summer he sold--sold--sold, and put out other agents, who sold for him until he had completed his college course with credit to himself and no debts and a cash reserve.

Any young man can to-day do as well as he did a few years ago. Don’t let anyone tell you the high cost of living makes it impossible.

PLAN No. 372. A STUDENT’S WAY THROUGH COLLEGE

He was a quiet going young fellow and always had a smile but had very little to say--as a matter of fact he had no gift as a talker. I remember he had a very pretty girl at school and she had one wish and that was, for Charlie to talk more. But when it came to class work, Charlie always hit the “bull’s eye.” He knew bluff and enthusiasm did not count there but the right answer went a long way.

Charlie was without funds and could not sell, so his case seemed hopeless, but he found work which just suited him and there were few who could do it so well as he.

Professors at college and universities are always writing books, so Charlie, who could brief cases and write on law subjects almost as well as the professors, worked for a couple of these professors and made his home with them. His board was unsurpassed at the college and his home accommodations far excelled those of the best student’s, and he had their intimate companionship, which meant a great deal to him at college as well as to his subsequent career.

Students with qualifications such as his will find their college expenses an easy matter.

PLAN No. 373. HE WENT THROUGH THE LAW COLLEGE AT WASHINGTON, D. C.

His father was always active in politics and raised his son on the plan to depend on himself. When his son finished high school, the question was, how to finance his college course. He wanted to be a lawyer and he desired as broad a training as possible. His father’s answer to his inquiry about the college expense was, “I know my son has ability sufficient to finance himself through college.”

The father was right but, nevertheless, he helped the boy to an appointment in one of the departments at Washington, D. C., where he served during his entire course.

The young man had plenty of funds during his entire course and had a wonderful opportunity to study our national government and its workings at first hand, which opportunity comes to but few men in a life time.

There are many postmasters or men in our government service who would be pleased to help you get a position in some government department at Washington when they know that by such assistance they are helping a young man to realize a high ambition.

PLAN No. 374. FARMER IN A MINING DISTRICT

He was a good natured bachelor of good habits who felt he might as well live in the country with plenty as to work hard to live in the city and submit to the inconvenience of having ordinary food and poor neighbors.

So in 1907 he went to Grand Forks, B. C., and there took up a homestead on the Washington side, which cost but a few dollars.

This was a simple thing to do, as many men do the same in the northwest, but he immediately cultivated thirty-two acres, built a log house and out buildings. Then he made an investment of $675 in fourteen cows, one bull, twenty calves, twelve heifers and eight steers.

He had plenty of spare time so he worked in the mines near his homestead and in this way earned more than $1,800 a year.

Here is what he accomplished in four years--1907 to 1911:

The sale of his stock amounted to more than $5,000. He earned in the mines more than $1,800 a year. His farm sold for $3,000, which did not cost him over $200. He raised enough to feed himself, which means the money he earned was clear profit.

Figure out for yourself what he made, and anyway you figure it he made a big success.

PLAN No. 375. AN INK THAT STANDS ALL TESTS

An eastern state recently adopted the following formula for its official black ink, after learning through the severest tests that it stands exposure to the sun for three months; exposure to all sorts of out door weather for six months; exposure to water, and soaking in water and alcohol.

A man who knew what the formula was, desiring to make a business of selling an ink so reliable, made it up in large quantities, and found it to be just as good as claimed.

This is the formula:

Tannic acid, ¹⁄₂ ounce; crystal gallic acid, 77 grains; sulphate of iron, 5 drams; gum arabic, 100 grains; dilute muriatic acid, ¹⁄₂ ounce; carbolic acid, 10 grains; clear rain water enough to make 1¹⁄₄ pints. Mix the muriatic acid and water, and dissolve all the other ingredients in the mixture.

He sold large quantities of this ink to professional and business men, city, county and state officials, etc., and inside of a year was in receipt of a steady income.

PLAN No. 376. BAKER--INDIAN SERVICE U. S. SEE PLAN No. 217

PLAN No. 377. A CEMENT STICK THAT STICKS

A Virginia man found that by investing 85 cents in the materials required for making cement sticks he could get back $25, when sold at retail. This is the way he makes it.

Common glue, and from ¹⁄₄ to ¹⁄₂ as much cheap sugar; melt them together in a glue pot, then pour in pans ¹⁄₄ an inch deep. As it cools cut in strips 1 inch wide and 4 inches long, pointing one end in the shape of a chisel. Have a label printed to cover about one-half the stick, giving the name and uses of the stick, with directions as follows: “To use as a mucilage, wet slightly and apply. To use as cement, dip in boiling water, coat the parts heavily and press firmly together.”

Making up a good supply of these sticks, he placed them on sale with dealers, delivering as sales were made. He then employed agents to canvass from house to house, and sold a great many in that way. Later he made it a mail-order proposition, and through a series of ads. in local papers published within a radius of 500 miles, he built up a good sale.

PLAN No. 378. ICELESS REFRIGERATOR

Especially during the hot summer months does the refrigerator become an imperative necessity, yet there are thousands of homes to which the prices of the ordinary kinds are beyond their means, and thousands more, especially in the country, where ice is unobtainable.

A man living in a western city, who had learned the secret as well as the value of the water bag, while traveling across the desert, applied his knowledge of evaporation to the construction of an iceless refrigerator in his own home, with such good results that he began manufacturing them and found a ready sale for all he could make. And the making was a very simple and inexpensive matter.

Procuring some mill ends, or short pieces of boards, 1 inch thick and 3 inches wide, he made a frame 3 feet high, 18 inches deep and 15 inches wide, letting the long, upright pieces extend about 3 inches below the lower part, to form legs for it to stand upon.

Next he covered the frame with a strip of wire screen, and upon the wire he placed a piece of outing flannel to fit well over it, tacking it at the corners to hold it in place, but letting the cloth extend several inches above the top of the frame, and cutting it at the upper corners so that it would fold over on the top and lie in a pan or jar which was to be placed there and kept constantly supplied with water.

Inside the frame he nailed cleats to hold shelves made of strips or lath, strong enough to bear the weight of milk bottles, butter dishes, meats, etc. The door he made of a frame covered with the wire screen, using light hinges and a catch to hold it in place, and letting part of the outing flannel form the covering for the door.

The refrigerator was then complete, except the placing of a large pan or jar on top of it filled with water. The top parts of the outing-flannel cover which had been laid in the pan, quickly absorbed the water which was carried down all sides, and it was the evaporation which then took place that kept the contents of the refrigerator as cool and fresh as though they were in one of the high-priced ice refrigerators.

The entire cost of the material for making one of these refrigerators at the beginning did not exceed 75 cents, but later, when he bought in regular quantities, the cost was very materially lessened, and they sold as fast as he could make them for $3 each. He could easily make seven or eight a day, and at a profit of $2.25 each he did very well.

A few ads. in the papers circulating through the country, as well as the smaller towns, were all he needed to create a demand, for when farmers found they could buy a refrigerator at that price, which would do the work without a pound of ice, they sent in their orders by the scores. Besides, hundreds of city people bought them as well, because they saved ice bills, and kept foods in good condition.

PLAN No. 379. RAISING BELGIAN HARES

Few people realize the profits to be derived from raising Belgian hares, when the small amount of capital and labor involved is considered.

But a 16 year-old boy in the northwestern part of the state of Washington had a very good idea as to what could be made in this small industry, and he went to work in a systematic way that his seniors might well imitate.

Starting with one male and three does, he was surprised to learn that under ordinary circumstances a doe will produce six litters in a year, with an average of six young in each litter, and that usually one-half of them are does, or eighteen does a year from one animal. It was still more surprising when he found that the three does of the first litter had three litters the first year, while two litters may be expected from the second litter. At this rate, there were sixty-three does at the end of the first year, as well as sixty-three bucks all from one hare; and multiplying this by the three does he started with, it gave him a total of 878 hares from the four he began with.

His 189 bucks averaged eight pounds of meat each, or 1,512 pounds, which he sold at 10 cents per pound, or $151.20, and he still had the 189 young does, the three old ones and the original buck.

He had selected the Golden Bay strain in purchasing his original stock, as that is generally recognized as the best of all strains, and his judgment proved correct, for, no matter how many of these hares he raised, he had calls for more than he could supply.

PLAN No. 380. LIQUID GLASS--THREE IN ONE

Of course you’ve heard of liquid glass as an egg preservative; but did you ever know it has no equal as a paste for making labels stick to tin cans, or that it is the principal ingredient in the best glue on the market for mending china, crockery, glassware, etc.?

A bright young fellow, who had a small drug store in a western town, knew all these things, and also knew where liquid glass could be bought, in quantities, as low as 20 cents per gallon. He bought five barrels of it, just as a starter, for he had large plans.

The liquid glass solution for preserving eggs is made by mixing one gallon of it with nine gallons of cold water, placing the eggs in a barrel, bucket or stone jar, and completely covering them with the solution. Place a cover over the receptacle containing the eggs, and set it in a cool place. At the end of six months or a year the eggs are as fresh as when newly-laid, and at the rate of $1 a gallon for the liquid glass the cost is about one-half cent per dozen eggs.

As eggs were plentiful in that locality, the young druggist bought 1,000 dozens, strictly fresh, direct from the neighboring ranchers, at 15 cents a dozen, and put them away in the liquid glass solution, so as to be able to supply the demand during the winter months, when they would go up to 60 cents a dozen. These he packed in barrels and set them in the basement of his store. Then in December he advertised in the city papers offering strictly fresh eggs, prepaid by parcel post, at the price named.

He received so many orders that he was obliged to employ a reliable boy to pack and ship the eggs to his city customers. Then he figured up the results. The 1,000 dozen eggs cost him $150; the liquid glass for preserving them cost him $1 for the five gallons; the wages of the boy who did the packing were $25; the parcel post charges were $10, a total of $186. He received $600 for the eggs, making his profits $414. That was a good start, and the next year he did four or five times that amount of business, increasing his profits proportionately. But by this time the farmers and poultry raisers of the community had learned of his success and began preserving large quantities of eggs themselves. In order to preserve them, however, they had to have liquid glass and gladly paid him a $1 a gallon for that which cost him but 20 cents a gallon.

There were several canneries in the city, to which the druggist shipped his eggs, and all of them were experiencing great difficulty in getting their labels to stick to the tin cans. The druggist promptly came to the rescue by offering them a paste fully guaranteed to stick, and readily sold considerable quantities of the liquid glass to them for $3 a gallon, being careful not to tell them what it was.

A little later he procured 2,000 2-ounce bottles, adorned with fancy labels proclaiming the merits of a superior glue, guaranteed to mend broken articles, and this he sold at 25 cents a bottle, or several thousand per cent profit on this remarkable three-in-one commodity.

PLAN No. 381. SHARPENING RAZOR BLADES

It isn’t every machine made for sharpening safety razor blades, or every person operating even a good machine, that can do this work as it should be done. In fact, most of the blade sharpening now being done is very poor, and only a few really know how to do it.

A Seattle woman, who had merely a little room between two buildings on a prominent street, not only knew exactly how to perform this delicate task, but also had procured one of the very best makes of machines for that purpose.

The regular charge for sharpening single-edge blades is usually 25 cents, and 35 cents for those with double edges, but she made arrangements with a number of cigar stores in different parts of the city to keep one of her showcards in the window, and take orders as they came in, on a commission of 7 cents per dozen on all blades so received. Through small ads. in the classified columns of the daily papers, asking people to mail their blades to her, she found, inside of three months, that she must remove to larger quarters and employ an assistant, in addition to the boy who made daily collections of dull blades, and deliveries of sharpened ones, at the various cigar stores.

This business, small as it may seem, brought in a net profit of $50 to $60 a week. It is often the case that the good profit is in the small articles.

PLAN No. 382. FUMIGATING HEN-HOUSE STRIPS

A chicken fancier in a small western town, who had used fumigating nest eggs to good purpose, was aware that the roost was fully as favorable to the propagation of chicken-lice as is the nest, and concluded that a fumigating strip along the top of each roost would destroy or rout the vermin from there also.

The composition of which these fumigating strips are made is much more lasting and effective than either liquid or powder preparations, and therefore less expensive. The formula is as follows:

Naphthalin or tar camphor, 1 pound; standard oil of tar, ¹⁄₂ pint; fine pine sawdust, 3 pounds; plaster of paris, 14 pounds. Mix the first three well together, then put in the plaster. Take about 2 pounds of the mixture at a time, add enough water to make it a stiff paste, and, working rapidly before it sets, roll or mold it into egg-size balls or pour into a mold several feet long to make the strips. Drive nails into the bottom of the mold about one foot apart, so as to leave nail holes in the strip and prevent it from breaking when nailed on. When well hardened nail the strips to the tops of the roosts and they can also be used in lining the nest boxes, the sides of the chicken house, etc.

Through a little advertising in country weeklies and farm and poultry journals he received many orders for both fumigating eggs and strips, the eggs selling for 10 cents each singly, or $1 per dozen, and the strips at 10 cents per foot, or ten feet for 80 cents. They did the work of ridding the hen-houses of vermin. He found it paid him to make it a regular business during the spring months, for it was nearly all profit, and he averaged $100 a month net from this very simple but very effective plan.

PLAN No. 383. SELLING LIMES BY MAIL

Fully as delicious and healthful as lemons, if not more so, limes are not nearly so well known or in such general use as they should be. Dispensers of fancy drinks, however, know their value, and will pay good prices for them.

A Seattle man who knew considerably about the prices charged by wholesale and commission houses for limes, and the dilatory manner in which they filled small orders, wrote to a New York importer of limes asking their lowest quotation on limes in barrel lots, and was surprised to learn that they could be bought for 80 cents per hundred, prepaid, whereas the wholesale houses charged $1.25 per 100, and the buyer paid transportation charges.

He bought fifteen barrels of the limes at that price, and then wrote to several soft-drink dispensers whose names he had obtained, offering them fresh limes at $1.25 per hundred, prepaid, and agreed to fill the order the day it was received. A large number of orders came as a result of this letter, as the saving of transportation costs was quite an item, and he filled the orders so promptly and satisfactorily that he soon had 200 regular customers. His net profits amounted to 25 cents per hundred, after buying his limes, packing, and prepaying parcel-post charges to his patrons.

Although he still retains his position with a railroad company, and draws a good salary, this little side plan of selling limes by parcel post is netting him a good weekly income.

PLAN No. 384. TRAINING SCHOOL FOR OFFICE BOYS

Not that office boys are scarce, by any means. It is only the good ones who are scarce, and it was for the purpose of making all office boys good ones, that a former professor in a prominent Chicago business college took up the idea of an office boys’ training school.

A year or two ago he interviewed a number of leading business men in Chicago on the subject, and found them enthusiastic in their support of the plan, as they had suffered many inconveniences through the tendency of office boys in general to quit just about the time they were broken in to their special duties. The Y. M. C. A. also appreciated the seriousness of the situation, and hailed the proposition as the only remedy.

He asked the business men to outline the requirements of the position, the special qualifications necessary, the routine of their work, and the means through which the interest of the boy could best be obtained.

Through newspaper advertising, the distribution of circulars and the employment of canvassers to call upon and interest the parents of the boys, he soon had a sufficient number of enrollments to open the school, where each was trained in the special line of work to which he was best adapted. Boys were selected for real estate offices, law offices, brokers’ offices, and all other lines where their services were required, and shorthand, typewriting and book-keeping courses were given to those who desired them in order to win promotion to better positions.

The average tuition required in each case was from $10 to $25, with more for special cases, and this was paid partly by the boys themselves and partly by the business men who were either sending their own office boys to the school, or making selections from the graduates.

Where a boy was already employed in an office, his employer would allow him to spend two or three hours each day in taking the training given at the school, and the progress most of the boys made under this course more than made up in efficiency for the loss of time and whatever expense it involved.

While one man looked after the classes, another was busy on the outside, interesting both business men and boys in the enterprise, and approximately 500 boys were thus taken care of by the school each month.

The school netted a good profit, besides giving a great number of boys a good start on the road to success.

PLAN No. 385. GAVE TALKING MACHINES AWAY

It isn’t every one who believes he could make a very large sum on an investment of $100, but here is the story of a man in Los Angeles who thought he knew of a way in which it could be done.

From a New York firm, he purchased twenty small but good talking-machines, including disc records, for $2.50 each. He prepared a very fine silver polish, put up in one-ounce envelopes, to be sold at 10 cents each. He next had printed a number of attractive showcards for windows, and several thousand merchandise coupons, good for 5 cents each in trade. He was then ready for business.

He called upon one of the most enterprising merchants in each school district in the city, and made the following offer:

To place one of the talking-machines in his window, with a showcard beside it announcing that the machine would be given free to the boy or girl selling the largest number of packages of the silver polish, 500 of the 10-cent packages to be left with the merchant for that purpose, together with 25 cents’ worth of the coupons, and the contest to close when the last of the 500 packages were sold. To every boy or girl selling two of the packages, one of the 5-cent coupons would be given, and the merchant agreed to redeem these by taking them in trade at their face value.

The merchant was to collect the $50 from the boys and girls who sold the 500 packages of polish, award the talking-machine to the one selling the highest number, pay the promoter of the plan $25, and keep the balance which would be $17.50 net, after redeeming the 250 coupons, $7.50, upon which he also realized a profit equal to the difference between the wholesale cost and the retail price, and had received the benefit of a lot of free advertising, which brought him many new customers as a result.

PLAN No. 386. CIRCULATING MUSIC LIBRARY

We will call him John Smith--partly because that was not his name, but mainly because it is short and easy to remember. John’s father had been a piano tuner, and also sold phonographs, records and small musical accessories, but he didn’t advertise, and his business fell off so that at his death there was nothing left except his little music store and the humble home--both of which, however, were paid for.

The son tried to revive the business through the mail-order route, but failed, and was trying to sell out, when an idea came to him through the remark of a casual acquaintance. The idea was: A circulating music library!

As practically every family in his town and the surrounding country owned a phonograph, and most of them were growing tired of the records they had used so long, they were all anxious to get hold of new ones, but most of them felt they could not stand the extra expense.

To these people John’s plan to organize a circulating music library, with a membership fee of $1 a month, and supply the members with new records for their phonographs, as well as new sheet music for those who had pianos, came as an agreeable surprise, and it was almost no time until 500 members were secured. The twelve records or six music rolls, which each member received every month, aroused a new interest in that music-loving community, and John was entrusted with many extra commissions, which added considerably to his income. He paid the postage when sending out the new records or rolls, while the members prepaid the return charges, and as most of the members had old records of which they were tired, he took these in and sent them to other members to whom they were new, thus keeping them in constant use.

The monthly receipts from 500 members were $500. The expenses, including the purchase of new records and rolls, were usually about $250, so that his net profits from the plan were $250 a month.

PLAN No. 387. “KNOCK-DOWN” PICTURE FRAMES

In every home in the land are many valuable pictures that are lying around loose, with excellent prospects of being soiled, torn or lost, simply because the owners of them to do not feel able to pay the high prices asked for frames already made, or made to order.

A Kansas City man, who thoroughly understood this condition, decided upon a plan by which thousands of these pictures could be enclosed in handsome and appropriate frames at comparatively little cost.

Being handy with tools, and having but little available capital, he bought a modest stock of picture-frame mouldings of various styles, sizes and grades, a mitre-box, a saw, a small mortiser, some tacks, etc. He also provided himself with stationery and an illustrated circular concerning picture frames, showing the difference in prices between frames already made and those ready to put together, besides cuts showing the different styles and prices of “knock-down” frames, and the manner of putting them together, particularly emphasizing the saving in cost by using those he advertised.

Through a local agency he placed ads. in a large number of newspapers circulating mainly in the country, and from these he received several hundred inquiries. In answer to these he sent his illustrated circular--which must have been a good one for it brought orders by the score--and these he filled with such satisfaction that he was soon busy enough to hire a boy to make the frames, while he put up the orders. The complete outfit, packed neatly in a box, contained the four sides of the frame, the corners grooved so as to be put together with glue, four small tacks for the corners, two screw eyelets and three or four feet of picture wire; in fact, everything except the glass, which could be obtained at any crossroads store.

And the business grew until its profits were several thousand dollars a year.

PLAN No. 388. SANITARY HANDKERCHIEFS

An observing young woman who had noticed how often many people find themselves without a clean, dry handkerchief, under certain critical conditions, and how greatly they would appreciate an opportunity to secure one, evolved a plan by which they could be conveniently and economically supplied. This is how she did it!

Visiting a wholesale house, she learned that she could purchase a soft laundered handkerchief of fairly good quality, in lots of 1,000 or more, for 3 cents each. She also arranged for several thousand sanitary, transparent envelopes, at 20 cents per hundred, to be taken in lots of 1,000, as needed, and got 200 showcards on which was printed, “Sanitary Handkerchiefs, 10 cents.”

Placing one of the handkerchiefs in each envelope, she left them on sale at drug stores, cigar stores, newsdealers, restaurants, department stores, and elsewhere, to be sold on a commission of 2 cents each, and kept a list of the places where they had been placed on sale.

All that remained for her to do was to visit the various places where she had left the handkerchiefs, make collections on sales, and replenish depleted stocks.

She derived a net profit of a little over 4 cents on each handkerchief sold, and as the sales averaged considerably over 200 a day, they brought her a good income the year round.

PLAN No. 389. A PARCEL-POST EXCHANGE

A young farmer in Illinois, who knew only too well that the city dealer always sets the price upon the farmers’ products, as well as upon his own goods, thought he saw an opportunity to help the producer get more for what he had to sell, pay less for what he had to buy, and make some money for himself besides.

He had about $1,000 in cash, and, removing to the city, he rented a small store and got in touch with a large mail-order house that agreed to sell him certain articles, especially for the use of farmers, at considerably less than catalog rates, provided he ordered a certain quantity.

He then prepared a circular letter, requesting those farmers who wanted higher prices for their butter, eggs, chickens, fruit and vegetables, to send them to him in exchange, by parcel post, for any of the articles on the list he enclosed therewith, assuring them of from 10 to 20 per cent higher prices than they could obtain from the regular commission houses, while the prices he quoted on the merchandise he would exchange for these were considerably lower than those of the mail-order houses from which he bought them, and yet left him a fair margin of profit. At the same time he addressed a circular letter to one thousand or more families in the city, offering to supply them with strictly fresh farm produce for much less than they had been paying in the city markets for articles of uncertain age and quality.

The farmers and the city people were only too glad of such an opportunity to save money on their purchases, and the young farmer with an idea soon had established a business that yielded a good living every year.

PLAN No. 390. GROUP-CIRCULARIZING

A wide-awake advertising man in a western city employed a plan for sending out circulars that not only reached every farmer in his county, and brought a large volume of trade to certain merchants in his own city and surrounding towns, but netted him a regular income of over $2,000 a year. And it cost him less than $250 to get the business started.

He traveled by automobile to each township in the county, and calling upon the various township clerks he secured the name of every farmer, with his correct post office address, paying the clerk a small amount for his assistance in preparing the list.

With these lists all properly prepared, he called upon several enterprising merchants in his home city, showed them what he had, and offered to mail out their circulars for just half of what it would cost them for postage alone, even if they had the names, and thus save them the time and trouble of mailing the circulars themselves. To mail out 500 circulars would cost each merchant $5, besides the envelopes, 75 cents, and to have them mailed to a reliable list for $2.50 was a “snap” but few would turn down, and it was no trouble at all to find ten merchants who were only too glad to supply him with the circulars, already printed and ready for mailing.

Placing these ten circulars in one envelope, he sent them to 500 farmers on his list, at a cost of one cent for the ten envelopes, and received $25 for doing so. This cost him $5, and he was $20 ahead on each batch sent out, so that the merchants were pleased and he was profited. As he managed to send out an average of two sets a week, he made $40 a week clear, and saved his patrons considerable in postage.

PLAN No. 391. MADE COMMON PICTURES LOOK LIKE OIL PAINTINGS

Here is the way a man, who knew very little about drawing or painting, made any ordinary picture look like an expensive oil painting, and made a living by doing this work. He did it according to the following instructions:

“Take common window-glass the size of your picture and clean it well; take 6 ounces balsam of fir and 3 ounces turpentine; put them in a bottle and shake well together until thoroughly mixed. Now give one side of the glass a heavy coat of the mixture, then place the picture on with face side down; press the picture firmly and evenly on the glass, then give the back of the picture a heavy coat of the balsam mixture and rub with the fingers until it adheres firmly to the glass and the face of the picture is free from spots. After you have done this, put the picture where it will be free from dust until it dries; it is then ready for the paint.

“Brushes for painting the pictures should be artists’ round sable brushes with long handles, Nos. 1 and 7. Paint the dark part of the eyes first, dark or blue, as you may fancy; then color the cheeks and lips; after the dark part of the eyes is dry, paint the white part. Color the dress to suit your taste, but whatever part of the dress you want to be white you must paint first. Paint gold ornaments with yellow paint. Give the picture three coats of every color you use, letting each coat dry separately, leaving the flesh color until the last, letting the rest of the picture dry well before applying it, then give it three separate coats.

“For making lighter shade or color, add the light paint to the color drop by drop until you have the color you want. Paint on the back of the pictures. Use small pictures to practice on until you get the knack of it.”

PLAN No. 392. SOLD ANOTHER MAN’S SOAP

An agent who had been very successful as a house-to-house canvasser, but was temporarily without a line of goods to handle, decided to try a new plan with soap, and found it so profitable that he adopted it permanently.

Visiting a large factory in his city, where special brands of soap were made to order, he arranged to have made for him a first-class toilet soap of the usual size, each cake to be neatly wrapped in a fancy printed wrapper bearing the name of the soap and a company name he had adopted for his own use. Three of these cakes he had packed in a neat pasteboard box, upon which his own label also appeared.

The price to him of this soap, thus wrapped and packed, was $7.20 per gross, or 5 cents per cake, and this price also included one gross of “sample” cakes of one ounce each, but unwrapped, for free distribution.

Placing the 144 sample cakes in a handbag, with circulars detailing the merits of the soap, he started to canvass the residence districts. At each house he left a sample cake of the soap and one of the circulars, with a request for the housekeeper to use it, and he would call the next day with a supply of the full-sized cakes in boxes. When he called the next day and showed the lady the beautifully wrapped cakes, which he assured her sold regularly for 15 cents each, but upon which he had placed an introductory price of 25 cents for a box containing three cakes, he made a sale at almost every house he visited. He usually sold seventy-two boxes in a day’s canvass, and his profit of 10 cents a box netted him $7.20 for one day’s work. He often did better than this, so that his first year’s business showed a clear profit of $3,500, as he also sold through agents and to dealers.

PLAN No. 393. MAKING RAISED-LETTER SIGNS

A young man in Detroit, with an invalid mother and two small sisters to support, found it difficult to earn sufficient to meet necessary expenses, until a friend of the family told him of the opportunity afforded for good returns through the making of raised-letter signs by means of an air-pencil outfit. He even loaned the young man $2.50 with which to purchase one of the outfits, and assured him he needed no experience, as a little practice would enable him to become proficient in the work.

These raised letter signs are easy to make, can be produced in any color, in gold, silver, bronze and metallics, are more attractive than embossed work, and can be made and sold at a profit for considerably less than painted signs, as they cost only 1 to 3 cents and sell readily at 10 to 25 cents each, made on cardboard of any color. With a little practice anyone can easily make 50 to 200 of these signs in a day.

The young man took the advice of his friend, bought an air-pencil outfit, and practiced until he had acquired considerable skill in the making of signs. Then he went among the merchants of the city and soon had orders for all the work he could do, at prices that brought him a good income. He closely followed these instructions which come with the outfit:

Mix in a cup or saucer the dry powder and liquid medium which comes with each outfit, to the consistency of thick paste. Use a knife or flat tool in mixing, to crush any lumps that may be in the powder. Unscrew the tube from the bulb--holding the bulb in a vertical position--placing over the opening the funnel, compress the bulb, and while compressed fill the funnel to any desired extent with the paste, then allow the bulb gradually to expand to its natural shape until the paste is drawn in. Remove the funnel and replace the tube and the air-pencil is ready for use. To insure good work, the pencil should not be allowed to touch the article to be decorated.

After using the instrument the tube should be unscrewed and thoroughly cleaned. The bulb should be cleaned by placing it in a basin of water and allowing it to soak until the compound is dissolved. The tube can be cleaned with a small wire.

PLAN No. 394. MONEY IN CEREAL COFFEE

Through making a cereal coffee from pure ingredients, which proved an excellent substitute for ordinary coffee, and was free from the injurious alkaloid of the coffee of commerce, a young married woman in St. Louis built up a modest yet ample business for herself, and earned the praise of thousands of customers besides. The cereal coffee she made was prepared as follows:

Rye, 12 pounds; horse beans, 1 pound. Roast in a big oven pan over a quick fire, greasing the pan with a little butter. When roasted as you would ordinary coffee, grind in a coffee mill together with ¹⁄₄ pound cassia buds. Mix 1 pound ground chicory with the ground cereals, and it is ready for use in the same manner as ordinary coffee.

She introduced this at first by asking her friends and acquaintances to try it, and they were so well pleased with both its taste and its effects that they recommended it to others, so that orders began to come in rapidly. Many dealers began to receive inquiries for it, and to supply these she went among the retail stores of the city and took orders for it in large quantities. The product soon had a large sale and she established a small factory where she could turn it out as rapidly as occasion required.

PLAN No. 395. GIRL EARNED A COLLEGE EDUCATION

How a young lady entered Oberlin College with $60, and came out at the end of three years with a good education and $50 besides.

She earned her board, tuition and incidental expenses by canvassing, working in a dining-room, clerking in a store, assisting at class receptions, doing housework, tutoring, and working in the college library.

PLAN No. 396. WOMAN OBTAINS MUSICAL EDUCATION ON $45

A young lady who wished to become a music teacher went through College nicely on $45 cash--and a lot of hard work to make up the deficit.

Registering at a well known conservatory of music in an eastern city, she secured work in the dining hall connected with the home department. This paid for her room and board, piano rent, medical attention and $15 tuition in any study she might select. She added to this by accompanying voice pupils while practicing, and by playing accompaniments at receptions, assisted in physical culture exercises in the gymnasium, also gave lessons to boys and girls. Then she addressed envelopes, sewed bindings on skirts, shampooed hair, wrote college letters to newspapers, played light classics at a mountain resort, won a scholarship by taking subscriptions for a woman’s publication. Through the above services rendered by her she defrayed all college expenses.

PLAN No. 397. A WOMAN GETS AN EDUCATION AND $500

Very few girls can expect to go to a university with $50 in their pockets and come out not only with the education they were seeking and $500 in cash besides. But there was one girl who did this.

Being a good stenographer and typist, she soon had plenty of work. She took up mimeographing, which paid well, and later was engaged to help one of the professors prepare the matter for a book he was writing. This gave her a desk of her own in the economics department, where she helped to complete the book, read the proofs, and kept well up with her studies at the same time.

When she graduated, all her expenses were paid and she had an even $500 left over.

PLAN No. 398. RAISING GOLD FISH

Two women, living together, built in their yard a shallow pond of rocks, cemented together so as to hold water, surrounding this with a second row of rocks, not cemented, and filled the space between with earth, in which were set mosses and delicate plants, thus giving the pond a broad rim of dainty growing things.

Then they bought six goldfish--the pretty, dumpy sort, with long flowing tails--and placed them in the pond which was about two feet deep in the center. This was in the spring, and in the following August they noticed dozens of tiny young fish in the water. The next spring they sold one hundred of these for 25 cents each, keeping the rest for breeding purposes.

In the five years since starting the fishpond they have realized a neat sum from their aquarium. The fish require almost no care whatever, as the little fellows live on insects in the water, while the larger ones are given regular fish food, which can be bought cheaply at any bird or drug store.

At spawning time, anywhere from May to August, the water in the pond is not changed for fear of losing the young fish, but is replenished and aerated by spraying the surface frequently with the hose until the pond is full. Growing plants or a few tree branches placed in the pond afford a place upon which the fish may deposit their spawn, and the water should be kept as near the same level as possible, so the eggs will not be exposed and dry out, thus preventing them from hatching.

PLAN No. 399. WOMAN GRADUATED WITH $400 DEBTS PAID

A girl who entered an eastern university on $400, borrowed money, made $120 the first year as an accompanist in an orchestra; $160 by giving piano lessons; $45 by reading aloud in French to two old ladies; $400 by tutoring; earning $735 in all during her sophomore year. She easily paid back the $400 she had borrowed, paid all her expenses, including tuition, and was just even with the world when she graduated at the end of the third year.

PLAN No. 400. TAUGHT DANCING IN SPARE TIME

A young man in a New York town, who had become an expert dancer, while attending college was asked to take the place of the local dancing master in his town during a temporary illness.

Not feeling quite equal to the task, he went to the city, attended a first-class dancing school, learned all the intricate details, the system, etc., and came back to his home town ready to accept the position tendered.

When he showed his pupils the superiority of his methods over those of the local teacher, they organized a large class and placed themselves under his charge. The pupils made remarkable progress, and the hall he had rented for the purpose was occupied by classes nearly every evening during the week, while he gave a number of private lessons at 75 cents each. His earnings from the few spare hours he was able to give to dancing lessons netted him about $20 a week, in addition to a good salary he was earning during business hours.

PLAN No. 401. MONEY IN TOY BALLOONS

A man who had for years been a clown in a circus, but desired to change to something more dignified and more profitable, chose toy balloons as his source of revenue, and the results proved he had made a wise choice.

Being fully aware of the passion children have for toy balloons, he decided to follow along with the same old circus, for a while, and laid in a stock of non-inflated toy balloons, which cost him $20 per thousand, or 2 cents apiece. With the air out of them, they took up but little room, and when he arrived at a place where the circus was to stop for a day, it required only half an hour to inflate a few hundred, enough for one day’s business.

Starting out early in the morning, before the parade, he traversed the streets that were already beginning to be lined on each side with people waiting for the great event, and made scores of sales in that way. After the parade was over, he made still more, and at the conclusion of the afternoon and evening performances he reaped a harvest of dimes from those coming out to see the show.

Later he attached himself to a carnival company, that stayed two or three days, or a week, in one town, and literally filled the places with his toy balloons, clearing 8 cents on every one sold. A sale of 800 balloons meant a net profit of $24 a day, which was almost as much as he had formerly earned in a week while acting as a clown.

In the fall of the year he visited county fairs all over the country, and cleared up enough money to keep him in comfort all winter.

PLAN No. 402. MOTION PICTURES IN SMALL TOWN CHURCHES

A former motion-picture operator, who had moved to a small Iowa town for the benefit of his wife’s health, believed the churches of the place would be glad to have films of religious subjects shown in their church buildings on weekday evenings and, having secured the consent of the trustees of one of the leading denominations, he put up his outfit, which he had brought with him, and gave movie shows three evenings a week, paying a small sum for the use of the church on these occasions. The other churches, seeing the crowds that attended these entertainments, also asked that the films be shown in their buildings, and in a short time there was to be found a motion-picture show in one or the other of those churches every evening of the week except Sundays.

Scenes in Palestine, the Passion Play, and similar subjects, were the main part of the entertainment, and the movie man made a nice living from the business, while providing amusement and instruction for the people of the town, who were not often able to attend the movies in the city.

PLAN No. 403. A CHAFING DISH ANNEX

A young lady who had graduated from college was compelled to find a way to support herself and sister. She was a good cook, and finally decided to open up a chafing-dish annex in her own home.

In her front room she displayed angel food, raisin tarts, fudge, cake, warm sugared crullers, and puddings. She put out posters informing the public that warm biscuits, muffins, roast chicken, meat loaf and salads would be prepared to order.

She was successful in establishing a first-class, paying bakeshop around the original idea of a chafing dish.

PLAN No. 404. CRYSTALLIZED FRUITS AND NUTS

Nothing is more delicious or more profitable to put up for sale than crystallized fruits and nuts, and a young woman in California, who went into the business on an extensive scale, had that discovery fully confirmed. Her recipe for the crystallization of dainties was as follows:

Put in an iron kettle 1 teacupful of granulated sugar, 1 tablespoonful or less of butter, 3 tablespoonfuls of water. Boil until it syrups and becomes brittle.

The fruits and nuts treated with this were put into the shells of the same, or into boxes containing the name of the delicacy and her own name as originator. Making up a quantity she placed them on sale at the woman’s exchange where they sold rapidly at a good profit. She also had many calls for them to be used on special occasions, such as St. Valentine’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, weddings, etc., and for these purposes she charged very high prices, for she knew they were well worth all she asked for them, and were all the more appreciated.

In a short time she received many orders and found it was necessary to employ a number of young ladies as skilful assistants. Her profits the first year were sufficient to pay for a neat little bungalow she had always admired, and which is now her home.

PLAN No. 405. SHELLING AND SELLING NUTS

A Texas man makes an excellent living by gathering pecans and nuts of all kinds that grow in immense quantities in his neighborhood, and shelling them with a machine invented for that purpose. A bushel of the nuts, when shelled, make fourteen or fifteen pounds of the meats or kernels, and he sells them to people in the city at prices that net him between $5 and $6 per bushel. And considering that he handles several hundred bushels of the nuts in a single season, one may judge as to the amount of his net profits.

PLAN No. 406. SPIT-FIRE BOTTLE