One Thousand Ways to Make Money E-Book

Page Fox

• Herausgeber: Interactive Media
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

One Thousand Ways to Make Money

Leseprobe

Page Fox

One Thousand Ways to Make Money

THE BIG NEST

Published by The Big Nest

This Edition first published in 2021

Copyright © 2021 The Big Nest

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 9781787362536

Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHAPTER XVII.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHAPTER XIX.

CHAPTER XX.

CHAPTER XXI.

CHAPTER XXII.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CHAPTER XXV.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CHAPTER XXVII.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CHAPTER XXIX.

CHAPTER XXX.

CHAPTER XXXI.

CHAPTER XXXII.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

CHAPTER XXXV.

INTRODUCTION

The object of this work is to help people who are out of employment to secure a situation; to enable persons of small means to engage in business and become their own employers; to give men and women in various lines of enterprise ideas whereby they may succeed; and to suggest new roads to fortune by the employment of capital. The author has been moved to the undertaking by the reflection that there exists nowhere a book of similar character. There have indeed been published a multitude of books which profess to tell men how to succeed, but they all consist of merely professional counsel expressed in general terms. We are told that the secrets of success are “industry and accuracy,” “the grasping of every opportunity,” “being wide awake,” “getting up early and sitting up late,” and other cheap sayings quite as well known to the taker as to the giver. Even men who have made their mark, when they come to treat of their career in writing, seem unable to give any concrete suggestions which will prove helpful to other struggling thousands, but simply tell us they won by “hard work,” or by “close attention to business.”

The author of this book has gone to work on a totally different plan. I have patiently collected the facts in the rise of men to wealth and power, have collated the instances and instruments of fortune, and from these have sifted out the real secrets of success. When as in a few cases, the worn-out proverbs and principles are quoted, these are immediately reinforced by individual examples of persons who attributed their advancement to the following of these rules; but, in general, the suggestions are new, and in very many cases plans and lines of work are proposed by the author which are entirely original, and so far as he knows, absolutely untried. Hence, the work becomes of incomparable value to business men who are constantly seeking new means to interest the public and to dispose of their goods.

Of course, the vast field of action treated of in this work lies beyond the experience of any one man, but the author has talked with business men in every walk in life and gleaned from them the essential facts in their career; in many instances these facts are not the things they have done, but the things they would do if they could begin again, thus giving the reader the benefit both of their success and failure. As a book offering opportunities to the ambitious; presenting openings to those seeking a wider scope for their faculties; affording stimulation to persons of sluggish blood; and giving away trade and business secrets never before divulged; the author feels confident that the little work stands unrivaled, and as such he modestly offers it to the public for its approval.

CHAPTER I.

HOW TO GET A PLACE.

You Can Get It—Positions Yawning for Young Men—Any Young Man May Become Rich—Men Who Began at the Bottom and Reached the Top—How A. T. Stewart Got His Start—John Jacob Astor’s Secret of Success—How Stephen Girard’s Drayman Made a Fortune—$100,000 for Being Polite—How One Man’s Error Made Another Man’s Fortune—Secret of the Bon Marché in Paris—How Edison Succeeded—A Sure Way to Rise—How a Young Man Got His Salary Increased $2,000—A Sharp Yankee Peddler.

Young men are often discouraged because the desirable places all seem to be filled. But remember there is always room for the right man. Says a New York millionaire: “I hold that any young man, possessing a good constitution and a fair degree of intelligence, may become rich.” Says another business man: “I have made a personal canvass of a dozen of the largest business houses in five different commercial and professional lines to see to what extent there exist openings for young men.” In only two of the houses approached were the heads of the firms satisfied the positions of trust in those houses were filled by capable men. And in each of these two houses I was told that “of course, if the right sort of a young man came along who could tell us something about our business we did not already know, we should not let him slip through our fingers. Positions can always be created. In four of the houses, positions had been open for six months or more, and the sharpest kind of a lookout kept for possible occupants. These positions commanded salaries all the way from $2,000 to $5,000 a year. In the publishing business, I know of no less than six positions actually yawning for the men to come and fill them—not clerical positions, but positions of executive authority. Young men are desired in these places because of their progressive ideas and capacity to endure work.”

Another prominent man who interviewed the heads of several large firms writes in a recent periodical as follows: “It is not with these firms a question of salary; it is a question of securing the highest skill with the most perfect reliability. This being secured, almost any salary to be named will be cheerfully paid. A characteristic of the business world to-day is that its institutions, empires in themselves, have grown to be too large for the handling of ordinary men. These institutions are multiplying in excess of the number of men whose business skill is broad and large enough to direct and command them. Hence, the really commanding business brain is at an immense premium in the market. A salary of $50,000 a year as president of a railroad or manufacturing company at first sight seems exorbitant; but the payment of such a salary usually means pure business. The right or the wrong man at the head of a great business interest means the making or the unmaking of fortunes for the stockholders. Only a single glance at the industrial world is needed to show that here is room for the advent of genius of the first order. This world, seething like a caldron, is boiling to the brim with questions of the most vexing and menacing kind.”

Look at the men who reached the top of fortune’s ladder, and see under what discouraging circumstances they began. James Fisk, called the Prince of the Erie, rose to that position from a ragged newsboy. Stephen Girard began on nothing, and became the greatest millionaire of his time. Young men, would you scorn to row a boat for a living? Cornelius Vanderbilt plied a boat between Staten Island and New York. Would you tramp the country as a surveyor for a map? Jay Gould began in that way, and forty years later satisfied certain doubters of his financial standing by showing them certificates of stocks worth $80,000,000. Do you fear to have your hands calloused with ax or saw? John W. Mackay, who acquired a fortune of $20,000,000, started in life as a shipwright. Is it beneath your social station to handle butter and eggs? “Lucky” Baldwin, the multi-millionaire, kept a country store and made his first venture by taking his goods overland in a cart to Salt Lake City. Are your fingers too delicate for the broom handle? A. T. Stewart began his business career by sweeping out the store. Do you abhor vile odors? Peter Cooper made $6,000,000 in the glue business.

Tens of thousands are looking for a place. Most of them have had places, but could not keep them. If you follow all the rules below, having obtained a place, you will never need to seek one again. The place will seek you. Employers are in search of the qualities herein to be considered, and they are willing to pay liberally for them. They are qualities that come high everywhere. If you possess them, you can in a short time command your own price. But do not scorn to take the humblest place. Merit, like murder, will out. Be sure you have the winning cards and wait.

1. The Secret of Work.—Men will employ you if you mean business. When you find men working, work with them. Lend a hand. Every employer would rather employ a busy man than an idle man. When he sees you working, he will watch you. If he likes you, he will make you an offer. A glazier, being refused work at a place where a church was being erected, put down his kit of tools, picked up the broken pieces of glass which the workmen had thrown away, and, laboring just as if he had been hired to work, fashioned the finest church window in the world, and became rich and famous.

2. Nature’s Furrow.—Plow in nature’s furrow. In general, a man is fitted for the thing he likes. Do that which you can do best. What you want to do you are called to do, and what you are called to do you can do. Darwin says that the fittest survive because they have a slight advantage over those which do not survive. Your liking for an occupation is the advantage you have over those who do not like it. Follow the hint, whether it be to publish a paper or peg shoes. A leading merchant in New York found his calling through having loaned money to a friend. He had to take his friend’s store to secure his money, and thus learned his gift for merchandise. The man was A. T. Stewart.

3. General Details.—The best general is General Details. In business life, no matter is small enough to be despised. To master an infinite number of small things is to prepare yourself to master great things. When your employers see that you have everything at your fingers’ ends, they will intrust you with larger interests, and greater responsibility means greater pay. John Jacob Astor knew the minutest point about every part of his great business. That was the secret of his success.

4. The Prismatic Brain.—Be many-sided, but transparent. Tell your employer where you have failed. Do not try to cover up a fault. Be absolutely honest. You may get along for a time on “shady” lines, but such success is only gained at the expense of ultimate loss. It is absolutely essential that your employer should have the utmost confidence in your integrity. Try by every means to gain that confidence. Court examination. Invite inspection. Remember that his profound belief in you—belief in you when out of business hours as well as in—is your surest stepping-stone to promotion. Character is power. Your success depends as much upon what you are as upon what you know or do. Stephen Girard once trusted his drayman to buy a shipload of tea worth $200,000. He trusted him because he knew his man, and he gave the young man the profits of the transaction, which amounted to $50,000.

5. The Bridled Tongue.—Do not cross your employer in any way. Never dispute with him. You may be sure that you are right, but do not say so. You need not be a Democrat or an Episcopalian because your employer is, but if you are wise you will avoid discussing with him questions of politics or religion. Courtesy pays. Ross Winans, of Philadelphia, secured a business that netted him $100,000 a year simply through his politeness to two Russian agents, to whom others in the same trade had accorded scant courtesy.

6. Studying the Stair Above.—Study, not stars, but stairs. Learn all about the position next above you. When you can point out new methods to your employer, advance new ideas, or suggest new channels of trade or lines of work, you are surely on the way to promotion. Only, be sure that your new ideas are practical. There is no more direct road to the confidence of your employer than for him to see that you understand any part of his affairs better than he does himself. Employ your spare moments in studying the business. While the other clerks are joking, do you be learning. While the students at the boarding-house in Andover were chaffing each other during the wait for breakfast, Joseph Cook would turn to a big dictionary in one corner of the room and look out a word. He climbed many stairs above them.

7. The Missing Factor.—Your employers are wrestling with a question. They are uncertain whether to invest or not. They are doubtful about the character or standing of some man with whom they are or may become heavily involved. It will be worth thousands to you if you can procure any scrap of information that will help to set them right. A young clerk who discovered an error in Bradstreet’s was soon admitted to partnership in his employer’s firm.

8. The Magnifying Glass.—Make the most of your present position. Wear magnifying glasses. Exalt the importance of every item. Let not the smallest thing be done in a slipshod way. If you are answering letters for the firm, answer them briefly but completely. Remember that brevity is not brusqueness. If you are waiting on customers, treat the small customer just as courteously as the large one. You may be sure that your employer knows the market value of politeness. In the Bon Marché in Paris, the employers determined that something must be done more than was done in other stores so that every visitor would remember the place with pleasure and come again. The result was the most exquisite politeness ever seen in a mercantile establishment, and it has developed the largest business of its kind in the world.

9. The Microscopic Eye.—The microscope shows a hundred things the naked eye cannot see. Endeavor to see what others fail to see—new possibilities of sales, new means of profit, new methods of doing things. It was by steadily looking at a thing until he saw what was not apparent to the superficial view that Thomas Edison became the greatest electrician of the world.

10. Scoring a Point When Off Duty.—Do something for your employer when you are out of the shop or store. You may be sure that he will appreciate it. It is a fallacy that he has no claim on you when off duty. Do not give him the idea that you have no interest in the business except to get your salary, and no time to spare him except what you are paid for. Do not watch the clock; do not filch a few moments at the beginning or end of the day’s work, and do not ask leave of absence except when absolutely necessary. Do overwork and unpaid-for work, and when you see a point in favor of your firm, fasten to it. Become essential to the place, and you will rise in the place. “I can’t spare you,” said the publisher of a New York magazine to his advertising agent when another publisher offered him an increase of $1,000. “Let’s see—you are getting $5,000 now; I’ll make it $7,000.”

11. The Study of Men.—This is the very key to success. The proper study of mankind is man. The greatest college on earth is the business world. The man who can sell the most goods is the one who knows the weaknesses of human nature, and how to avail himself of them. Your best diploma is a big bill of sale. Sell something to everybody—what the customer wants if you have it; if not, what he doesn’t want; but at any rate, sell him something. It is related of a Yankee book-peddler that he sold three copies of the same book to a family in one day—to the husband in the store, to the wife who was calling at a neighbor’s, and to the daughter at home. And not one of the family wanted the book.

Following the above lines, and adding thereto good health and steady habits, you cannot fail to be promoted and to rise to the highest position of responsibility, if not even to actual partnership in the firm. These are the qualities that proprietors are yearning for—nay, actually groaning for, but which are hard to find in the average man. Employers are keeping the sharpest kind of a watch for the right man. It is stated on the best of authority that there are a thousand business firms in New York and vicinity each having one or more $5,000 positions awaiting the men who can fill them. If you have the right qualities or will acquire them, at least a thousand great firms want your services, and posts of responsibility with almost unlimited salary await your hand or brain.

CHAPTER II.

STARTING IN BUSINESS.

Why Men Fail—Luck on the side of Pluck—Marking the Day’s Profits Before they Begin—No Diamond Like the Eye—The Man Who Takes His Bank to Bed With Him—The Two Hands of Fortune.

Many men fail because they undertake a business without considering whether there is room for it; others because they do not thoroughly establish themselves in the place, making no effort to get a constituency; and yet others because they do not keep the goods that are in demand, or do not renew the stock sufficiently quick, or do not present their goods in an attractive way. Such causes of success or failure as are in the line of this work will now be considered. Here are the rules of an old merchant which he would take for his guidance were he to start anew in business:

12. The Minimum Basis.—Enumerate the entire number of heads of families in the town, village, ward, or neighborhood where you purpose to begin business. Figure out the number of such persons you will require as a minimum basis in order to get on—that is, how many persons or families, spending each on an average a certain amount per day or week at your place of business, you will require in order to make a living. Do not go blindly into your work, trusting to luck. Luck is always on the side of pluck and tact. Determine what per cent. of the people’s patronage is absolutely essential to your success. The first step is to ascertain if such per cent. is likely to come to you.

13. The House to House Canvass.—Make a personal canvass from house to house. Do not trust the work to your friend, relative, or clerk. Nobody can help you so much as you can help yourself. Nobody has your interests so much at heart as you have. Tell people pleasantly that you are a new bidder for their patronage. Inform them what you propose to do. Make them to understand that no man shall undersell you, or give them in any way a better bargain. If possible, take a few samples of your choicest goods with you.

14. The Choice Location.—If you become popular, the people will come to you; but at first you must go to them. Your place need not be central or on a corner, but it must be where many people pass. Step out largely and conspicuously. You could make no greater mistake than to rent a shabby place on a back street. Have out all manner of signs, curious, newsy, and alluring. Do not think to sustain yourself by people’s sympathies. Men will trade most where they can do best.

15. The Maximum Basis.—The maximum basis is the high-water mark. It is the number of persons or families that under the most favorable state of things can be your patrons. All you cannot expect. Kindred, religion, politics, friendships, and secret fraternities, will hold a portion of the community to the old traders. The sharpest rivalry will meet you. Also, you must consider what incursions are likely to be made by out-of-town dealers, and what prospect there is of others setting up business in the place. But you should have an ideal trade toward which you steadily work. Declare daily to yourself, “my gross earnings shall be $—per day,” or “—— (so many) persons shall be my patrons.” When you fall below the mark, bestir yourself in many ways.

16. The Personal Equation.—Remember that you yourself in contact with your customers count for more than anything else. The weather of the face, the temperature of the hand, the color of the voice, will win customers where other means fail. Make your patrons feel that you are their friend. Inquire about members of their family. Be exceedingly polite. Recommend your goods. Mention anything of an especially attractive or meritorious nature you may have. Join the church, the regiment, the fire company, and the secret society. Become “all things to all men, if by any means you can sell to some.” Be everywhere in your place of business. Oversee the smallest details. Trust as little as possible to your clerks. The diamond of success is the master’s eye. Remember there is no fate. There are opportunity, purpose, grit, push, pluck, but no fate. If you fail, do not lay the blame upon circumstances, but upon yourself. Enthusiasm moves stones. You must carry your business in your brain. “A bank never gets to be very successful,” says a noted financier, “until it gets a president who takes it to bed with him.” There was an angel in Michael Angelo’s muddy stone, and there is a fortune in your humdrum store. Hard work and close thought are the hands that carve it out.

CHAPTER III.

MONEY IN TRADE.

What Kind of Advertisements Pay—“Don’t Fail to See the Blizzard Saturday Night”—The Keynote of a $20,000,000 Sale—Selling Goods by the Mile—Watches for Bait—How to Get Five-Year Customers—“Trade With Me and Get a House and Lot”—Why Trade at Push and Pluck’s?—Bargains in Buttons Often Means High Prices in Broadcloth.

Thousands fail in business every year when an idea put into practical operation would have tided them over the trouble and opened the road to a competence. This chapter will tell you how to succeed. No man with common ability and industry who puts the half or even the quarter of these ideas into practice can possibly fail. The great thing is to make people buy your goods. But to induce them to purchase you must first of all call attention to what you have to sell. Here are a few of the ways in which this is to be done. The following methods will fairly compel the people to trade with you, but you must bear in mind that as soon as the influence of one device begins to flag it must be immediately succeeded by another.

17. The Interlined Advertisement.—Advertisements are not read unless persons are looking for something in that line. This is because they are all placed by themselves. Your bid for patronage must be put in the midst of the reading matter if it is to attract general attention. Many publishers will not do this, but your chief and only point in appearing in the paper is to have your advertisement read, and it pays better to insert it in a journal with 5,000 readers who will all see it than in one having 100,000 subscribers, hardly 100 of whom will glance at the advertisement. You can afford to pay handsomely if the publisher will give you a line of black-faced type to eight or ten lines of news.

18. The Picturesque Name.—Have a name for your store such as will easily fit everybody’s mouth. “The Beehive,” “The Blizzard,” “The Buttercup,” or “The Bonanza,” are suggestive titles. Many customers are attracted by the talk of their acquaintances, and it is much easier to tell a friend that you bought an article at “The Hub,” or “The Sun,” than to attempt the unpronounceable name of a proprietor, or to give a forgotten number. Successful men in several lines of business assert that they owe much of their good fortune to the happy hit of a popular name.

19. The Pictorial Wreck.—A writer with the gift of a lively imagination can write something interesting in the way of a fanciful battle between customers and goods. Head lines, “Great Slaughter in —— (the taking name of your store),” “Wreck of Old Conservatism,” “Smash of High Prices,” “Ruined by the Rush.” Then would follow a graphic description of the charge of customers upon wares in which the store was almost wrecked by the enormous number of people who took advantage of the under-cost prices. People enjoy this kind of pleasantry, and the impulse to follow the crowd is almost irresistible. A certain New York house grew from a small to a great one by this method of advertising.

20. Red Letter Day.—Have a day in which you offer special bargains to the people of a certain town, village or hamlet. Put up flaming posters, announcing “Squashville day,” “Jonesboro Day,” “Bloomington day.”

21. Class Discount.—You may draw numbers of men to your place by this means. Secret fraternities, workingmen’s orders, church societies, wheelmen’s leagues, will be attracted to you if they know you specially favor them. Fortunes have been made by close attention to these great organizations.

22. The Honest Flaw.—Strictly instruct your clerks to tell your customers the precise nature of every article; if the quality is inferior, make them to understand exactly what they are getting for their money; and if there be a flaw, let them be careful to point it out. By such means thousands of people who cannot trust their own judgment in these matters, will be attracted to a place where they are certain to be treated fairly. A. T. Stewart, who began business in a modest store, and who, in the latter part of his life sold $20,000,000 worth of goods every year, declared that this plan was the keynote of his success.

23. The Premium Clerk.—You need clerks who can induce acquaintances to visit your store, cajole visitors into customers, and coax customers to become larger buyers. If you have a number of clerks and your business will admit of it, offer a monthly premium to the one who brings into the store the largest number of new buyers or into the cash-drawer the heaviest receipts. There are certain kinds of business where this plan will work, and will be provocative of such competition as greatly to increase trade.

24. The Railroad Mileage.—Arrange, if possible, with some railroad company to issue mileage tickets as premiums to those who will trade with you. At two cents a mile you could afford to give two miles of travel for every one dollar’s worth of goods. At that rate $500 worth of goods would buy a $20 mileage ticket.

25. The Dial Dollars.—How many figures on the dial of your watch? Twenty-eight, counting the number VI, which is generally either omitted or only partly indicated. Fix a big dial two feet or more in diameter in some prominent part of your store, and announce that when a customer has traded an amount equal to the total figures on the dial you will present him with a watch. Of course, the timepiece would be a very cheap one, but many a parent will trade with you for the sake of getting a watch for his child.

26. First Customer Package.—In some periods of the day you will have more custom than you can well attend to, while at other times you will have nothing to do. The following plan will perhaps help to equalize trade, and also give you additional buyers: Suspend a package in some conspicuous part of your store with the announcement thereon that it will be given free to the first customer in the morning.

27. The Carpet Coupon.—By a system of large-sized coupons—we will say a foot square—you can put into practice a unique system that will appeal to the heart of every housewife. Publish that you will give a free carpet of a certain size and grade when a fixed amount has been traded. A square foot of a coupon represents a sum of money spent in the store—perhaps one dollar. Every woman by measuring her room can learn how many dollars’ worth of goods she must buy before she can have a free carpet.

28. The House Lot Coupon.—This is an extension of carpet coupon. A certain amount of purchased goods entitles one to a building lot, which, if in the country, need not be of great cost. Have the particular lots selected and advertised. Another plan is to offer the lot to the largest purchaser within a certain time—possibly five years. This is a good way to hold on to customers.

29. Price-Time Grade.—If you have the credit system, have also a gradation of prices so as to encourage people to pay at the earliest possible time. A system like this would do—forty days full price; thirty days, two per cent. off; twenty days, three per cent. off; ten days, four per cent. off; cash, five per cent. off.

30. Sales Bulletin.—People like to buy where others buy. Success brings success. If you are doing well, you may do better. Have a large bulletin board in front of your store, or near it, announcing your sales for the past week. Newspapers boom themselves in like manner by publishing their enormous circulation.

31. Best Reason Prize.—Offer a prize to the one who will give the best reason for trading at Push & Pluck’s, and then insert in the form of an advertisement in a leading paper a list of the best reasons. Six months before Christmas offer presents to all who will trade a certain amount before that holiday.

32. Birthday Calendar.—A calendar with the birthdays of your customers (age of course omitted), would attract attention, and the offer to give a present to any one trading a certain amount before his birthday would certainly add to your receipts.

33. Conspicuous Price-List.—Buyers are caught like fish. Display in your window a list of cut prices. Passers-by who cannot resist the opportunity of a bargain will come in, and often be induced to purchase the goods which are not reduced.

34. The Early Discount.—In order to equalize the trade of the day announce that you will give a slight discount to persons trading during the dull hours.

35. The Money-Space Counter.—Determine that every portion of your store shall pay. Have every lineal foot of your counters calculated at a certain rate of profit. If you find a department that does not pay, change methods or your goods, and if still unsuccessful drop it. Many large dealers fail because they keep departments where the expenses are more than the profits. But if every foot of room pays only a little, the entire store must pay handsomely.

It will be seen in the foregoing how every leading impulse in human nature is appealed to—curiosity and cupidity, honesty and economy, personal flattery and local pride. If, in addition to these powerful inducements to patronage, you combine shrewdness in buying and cautiousness in trusting, if your goods are excellent in quality and generous in quantity, if your place of business is neat and attractive, and your service marked by promptness and politeness; then it is impossible to fail; you have all the elements of prosperity, and are certain to be a great and successful merchant.

CHAPTER IV.

MONEY IN THE INTRODUCTION OF A NEW ARTICLE.

Success of the “Imitation Cigar”—The Dealer’s Seeds of Gold are Black—Barnum’s Belief in Humbugs—Tricks for Trade—Politics for the Men, Novels for the Women—How the Remington Typewriter was Boomed—A Business Man’s Experience in Advertising.

New articles in all lines of trade are constantly appearing. Inventors of mechanical appliances, authors of books, proprietors of patent medicines, introducers of something novel in groceries, and promoters of new departures in dry and fancy goods, are all anxious to have the public take their products and pay them in cash. The problem is how to introduce the article. However meritorious it may be, it is useless unless the people find it out. The following are believed to be unique methods of advertising:

36. The Puzzle.—Buy some patented puzzle which can be manufactured cheap and scattered broadcast over the land. There is no better way to advertise. If men do not solve the puzzle, they will remember what is stamped on it. The “Get-off-the-earth-Chinese puzzle” enormously advertised its purchasers.

37. The Toy Imitation.—Wooden nutmegs and shoe-peg oats have duly advertised the shrewd ways of the people of Connecticut. A man recently made a hit by the “imitation cigar,” which is only a piece of wood of the shape and color of a cigar. Every boy wants one. As an advertising medium it was an immense success. Think of something as common and cheap as a cigar, get up an imitation for the children, have your enterprise stamped upon it, and it will go from one end of the land to the other.

38. The Cartoon.—A caricature of some political person or situation is always taking. Hit off some social craze, or give a witty representation of some matter of passing interest. Drops of ink in this way are seeds of gold, and the harvest will be golden.

39. The Conjurer.—This is a good way to advertise when the article is a cheap affair which can be shown in the street. There are few things so attractive to the masses as the tricks of the sleight-of-hand performer. Mr. P. T. Barnum uttered at least an half-truth when he said the people liked to be humbugged. For a few dollars you can get an equipment, and in a few days’ practice you can acquire enough of the art for your purpose. You can draw a crowd wherever there are people. When you have performed a few tricks, your climax should be a shrewd advertisement which can be worked into the last performance.

40. The Striking Figure.—If your goods are on sale in some prominent store, this device is sure to draw attention. Make a figure of some animal or vegetable or other form, if your article will lend itself to such a work. The figure could be some prominent man, or represent an historic scene, or illustrate some popular movement. A dealer in confectionery had in his window a bicycle made all of candy.

41. The Advertising Story.—Offer a prize to the one who will write the best story about the merits of your article. The latter must be brought deftly into the story, and the award should be based upon the merits of the literary production and the skill in the use of the advertisement. Every competitor should be required to buy a small number of the articles, and the story should be published.

42. The Word-Builder.—Another prize might be offered to the one who could compose the greatest number of words from the name of your article or invention. The name ought to include at least a dozen letters, and there should be a set of rules for building words. Every contestant must buy your invention from whose title he is to build words.

43. The Popular Pun.—This is an expensive way of advertising, but an immensely paying one. You make a pun upon some fad of the day, a hit upon some general craze, a piercing of some passing bubble, a political quib. Something of this nature printed several times in the issue of the daily papers would make your venture known to everybody.

44. The Political Guesser.—If your enterprise admits of the coupon system, offer a prize to the one who will guess the successful candidate at the next election, and come the nearest to the figures of his plurality. The contestant must purchase one of your articles, and in this way hundreds of thousands may be sold. Every presidential election is the occasion of the floating of many things by this scheme.

45. The Geometrical Group.—Some wares, such as fancy soaps and canned goods, admit of a grouping which is very attractive to the eye. Pyramids, cones, circles, and towers, always draw attention. Some mechanical device whereby motion is produced will be sure to draw a crowd to your show window.

46. The Pictorial Comparison.—If you are sure of your ground, draw a diagram or other figure, comparing your staple with those of others in the market. In this way the Royal Baking Powder Company pushed to the front, comparing with heavy black lines its product with the outputs of other companies.

47. The Open Challenge.—And if you are still further confident that you have the best thing of its kind, you may issue a challenge to your competitors. Make it apparent that you are anxious, even clamorous, for a trial of your product against others. By this means you will establish yourself in the confidence of the public. The Remington Typewriter was boomed in this way.

48. The Book Gift.—Try the religious field. Issue leaflets or tiny books with paper covers, costing not more than two or three dollars a thousand, and offer them as gifts to Sunday-schools or other children’s organization. Most Sunday-school superintendents would be glad to give away booklets of this kind if they could be obtained free of charge. The books should contain a bright story, a few pictures, and, of course, a taking presentation of your wares.

49. Sunday-school Supplies.—In some cases, you might even be warranted in issuing the supplies of a Sunday school, at least for a portion of the year. The books in the last number might not in every case be read, but the picture papers, lesson leaves, and other helps, are all looked over, even if not studied. You could in many cases present them, reserving large advertising space for yourself so as to net a good profit. The class of customers thus obtained would be the very best. Do not hope for large returns unless you are willing to spend money. Money is the manure that creates crops, the blood that makes fatness, the wind that fans fortune, the sap that runs into golden fruit. Money is the bread on the waters that “returneth after many days.” It seems like the sheerest folly to spend so much in advertising, but you cannot reap bountifully unless you sow bountifully. “For every dollar spent in advertising,” declares a successful merchant, “I have reaped five.”