How to Make Money

Go to the advertising manager of your local newspaper and buy one column of space to be used each day. Head the column:

Next go out on a general shopping tour. When you run across something that appears to be an unusual bargain, or something very new and attractive, tell the storekeeper you will include it in your editorial to-morrow if he cares to pay you your regular rates of so much per inch. Your description 10of the article will depend upon how many inches of space he is willing to pay for. Your charge per inch should be about double the amount you pay the newspaper.

The value of this advertising is much greater than the average advertisement, since it appears to be a news item. Women will learn to watch for the bargains and new things you list, and it will be a genuine service to both women and storekeepers, as well as very profitable to you. Suppose you sell twenty-five inches of space each day at $1 per inch. The space would cost you 50 cents per inch, so you would make $12.50 per day.

The Leader Store has received an assortment of white voile blouses in many pretty patterns which they are offering at $2.79. I find this price about $1 lower than the regular price for this quality of blouse.

The Star Furniture Company are offering small rugs 2½ ft. × 5 ft. for $4 each. The patterns are excellent copies of Oriental designs and are a great bargain at this price.

The Duplex Department Store has just received forty models of hand-beaded crêpe de chine frocks in all the latest colors, which will undoubtedly go very quickly to the wise early shoppers.

P. S.—Telephone me at Main 246 if you desire information regarding where to buy. My services 11are free and I am always glad to become acquainted with my readers.

The tea room idea has become a permanent fixture in the average town. Women look for them and patronize them regularly. There seems to be a tendency toward tea rooms of the Colonial type. Read the monthly women’s magazines and you will find in most of them a column devoted to descriptions of tea rooms.

In a recent magazine there appeared an article written by a girl who had made a tremendous success operating rooming houses. Here was her plan:

She found ten girls who were rooming at private homes and taking their meals out the same as she. She told these girls if they were willing to pay her two weeks’ rent in advance, she would rent a home and furnish it. Each girl was to have a large bedroom completely furnished, and was to have access to a well-equipped kitchen and laundry. Cabinets were provided in the kitchen for each girl to keep her food and utensils in and a large refrigerator was also installed, which was always full of ice. Two large rooms downstairs were furnished as a parlor and reading room.

With her first two weeks’ rent, which she collected in advance, she paid one month’s rent for 12the house and made her first payment on the furniture which she bought on the installment plan. To-day she is operating six of these houses and is now serving meals to each roomer.

Read this woman’s story:

“Two years ago one of our neighbors moved away unexpectedly, so did not have time to sell their house. They told me I could have all above $5,500 that I could sell it for. I put a For Sale sign on the house, but made no sale. Next I ran a small For Sale want ad, but still no results. Then I had a picture taken of the house and had 2,000 handbills printed fully describing it. I distributed them all over town and posted many on fences and telegraph poles. Within one week I had dozens of people come to look at the house and sold it for $6,500. My total expense was $4.90; my total profit was $1,000. My advice is to go into the real estate business. Go out and find houses for sale, then make the owner a proposition to sell them. My profits this year will run over $5,000 clear.”

Here is a profitable business you can get into without capital.

Go to your druggist and buy a few packages of dye. Experiment by coloring old clothes or rags. 13When you learn how to do the work perfectly, either advertise in the want ad column, or solicit work by personal calls. Every one has clothes, curtains, carpets or something which can be made to look good as new if they were only dyed. The cost of the dyes is negligible—it is practically all profit.

Why doesn’t some clever girl start a “Kindergarten of Culture.” In addition to the regular kindergarten course, devote one-half hour each day teaching the children the correct way to eat and act upon all occasions.

The idea will undoubtedly be successful.

In almost every town and city there are homes where the children are just at the age to prevent the mother and father from going out to the theater, church, parties, etc., in the evening.

These people cannot afford to keep a maid, but could and would pay $2 an evening to a reliable girl or woman to come in and stay with the children once a week.

Why not spend two dollars in want ads telling these people about your plan. It would be easy to get six families who would pay you two dollars each per week; Monday at the Smith’s, Tuesday at the Brown’s, etc.

14This is especially good for the girl who studies, since the children will go to bed by 8 o’clock and the remainder of the evening can be spent quietly studying or reading.

There is hardly a single firm of any size which does not have a quantity of statements at the first of each month or advertising matter to be mailed which overtaxes their regular office force. Many women and girls in the city have started mailing houses. They make arrangements with these firms to address their envelopes, sign and fold the letters, insert in envelope, seal, stamp and mail them. It requires absolutely no capital to start this business, provided you will turn one room of your house into an office.

With practice the average women can address 1,200 envelopes per day with pen and ink. The charge for this work ranges between $3 and $4 per thousand. The rate for folding a one page letter is 70 cents per thousand, 35 cents per thousand for inserting it in envelope, 35 cents per thousand for sealing envelope, 35 cents per thousand for stamping and 35 cents per thousand for mailing.

Most mailing houses charge 35 cents per motion for folding, inserting, sealing, stamping and mailing. So in arriving at a rate for a piece of work you just determine the number of motions required. Each fold and each insert is counted one motion.

15As your business increases, employ girls to help you and you will soon be operating an extensive office.

The actual material cost of making a silk lamp shade that retails for $15 is about $5. Any girl who can sew will find making lamp shades an exceedingly simple matter. All department stores sell the wire frame, and transparent silk in many colors and designs can be bought at any good dry-goods store. The sales plan is this:

Make arrangements with a department store or any other store who will display them to sell them on commission. For instance, you allow them $5 profit on a $15 shade. If you show good taste in selecting designs and colors you can build up a very profitable business in a short time.

There is also a constant demand for a shade made of cardboard, hand-tinted in water colors which makes an excellent imitation of genuine parchment.

In a Middle Western town a certain woman discovered the secret of making old-fashioned doughnuts that would simply melt in your mouth. Neighbors soon learned of these delicious doughnuts, and insisted that every time she made them she would make a few dozen extra which they bought.

She decided to go into the doughnut business. She rented a small place about the size of a small 16shoe-shine parlor right on the busiest corner, and equipped the window with a kettle of lard on a gas hot-plate. Everything was painted white, and she was dressed in white. She fried doughnuts to order. Customers stood in line waiting for their doughnuts to fry. It proved a tremendous success. To-day she owns a large, fully equipped bakery where she bakes everything usually made in a bakery.

Are you a stenographer, typist, bookkeeper, or an office clerk of some kind who goes to work at a certain time every morning, rain or shine? Do you take a few sandwiches along and eat lunch at your desk or in a rest room, or do you go to a cheap restaurant? You have a certain time to stop working each day. Do you dread the long afternoon—how lonesome and monotonous!—checking figures, typing letters, filing papers, or doing some other routine work which you have done so often? How you long for five o’clock to come! Not because you are lazy, but because you are human. Because it is not human for anyone to go on and on doing the same monotonous work day after day without becoming weary and discouraged. And then Saturday comes. How much is in your pay envelope? After you pay your living expenses, how much is 17left for you to buy the things which make life so bright for a young girl? When you go out on Sunday and see so many girls wearing fine clothes and associating with cultured people, what do you think? Do you think of the past weeks of discouraging work? Do you think of your clothes, your kind of friends, your home life and your meager earnings? At times you must look ahead, away off into the gloomy future. Monday morning you awake feeling blue, tired and discouraged with the dreadful thought of the office, the irritable employer who scolds, the same faces looking at you, the same monotonous routine.

Perhaps you are being led to believe that you are going to be promoted. Stop and think. Suppose you are promoted. What will it amount to? True, you might then be able to wear a little better clothes and not be quite so pinched for money; but after all, nothing else will change. Of all the girls you know, how many of them doing your kind of work ever advanced beyond a living wage? Surely your aspirations are for more than something to live upon! What are you going to do about it?

You have two avenues open to you. One is to continue your present daily grind and deprive yourself of the luxuries, the romance and the brilliant future of a happy home.

18The other is to learn the things you should know in order to become successful, and get your full share of the sweet things in this world while you are still a young girl, and can enjoy them. This avenue will lead you to happiness, romance, and to all the niceties of life which are so dear to a young girl.

Can you afford to miss this alluring future? What are you going to do about it? Read every one of the plans which we outline on the following pages. You will find one that will make the world seem brighter to you.

Are you employed in a factory or at some other kind of work which you hesitate to acknowledge when you meet a new acquaintance, or are you employed in some one’s home doing domestic work. If we could only make you understand the great things in life which you are missing. If you would only go to your mirror and look yourself right in the face and say “I can’t do anything that will make matters worse. Here is a chance for me to better my position. Here is something I can do that will give me an experience which will pay up for my lack of education. It will teach me how to meet and associate with people of a higher rank. It will afford me an opportunity to enjoy all the luxuries of life which I have been deprived of. Instead of rough hands and soiled clothes, I will cultivate a clear, soft complexion. I will develop my natural beauty. I will wear the clothes becoming to a lady. I will do it! To-day, right now, I will take the first step necessary to prepare myself for this new life.” 19The first step is to read every single word in this book and then decide which plan you will select. Don’t just read. Think while you read! Forget every single thing in the world but your future.

Are you shut up behind a counter in some store, displaying a forced smile to shoppers who say and do things which belittle you beyond endurance? Sometimes you are so irritated you feel like insulting them.

How many days you have stood there when you were so tired you felt your legs would give way under you. How unpleasant to be greeted each morning with that close, depressing odor from the stock, a snappy command from your employer, and then finally to have an irritable woman customer who makes you show her everything in the store, after which she passes a few sarcastic remarks without buying, says “Thank you, dear,” and walks out.

Do you remember those hot, sultry days when you stood behind the counter and thought what a miserable life you were living? Do you remember when you would look at yourself in the mirror, your face all shiny, your clothes soiled and the perspiration fairly trickling down your back? How disappointed you were! You alone could see the hidden beauty behind that form in the mirror. You alone could realize that your unfortunate position was responsible for these defects.

How often a beautifully gowned woman with a charming daughter has visited your counter. How 20often you have envied them. You simply could not control that lump in your throat. How shy you felt in their presence. You would eye them from head to foot.

Are you going on and on endlessly in this dull, monotonous strain, or are you going to muster up your nerve and take the steps to-day that lead to prosperity and happiness? You can no longer offer the excuse “I can’t afford to prepare myself for a better position.” We will prepare you absolutely free.

Are you “too proud to work?”

Are you one of those girls who come from a family who have tried to maintain their local social identity by imitating the practices of people with means? Have you led yourself to believe that you will be classed as one of the common herd if you engage in a commercial endeavor? Are you blindly applying 18th-century customs to a period when commercial aggressiveness is a mark of distinction? Are you wasting your life away trying to make yourself and others believe that you possess an artistic temperament, when in reality you are nothing but an ordinary person with a twisted viewpoint, trying to be someone or something which you are not.

You, too, have two roads open to you.

The first one is to continue staying at home depriving yourself of the luxuries and happiness in life, and be regarded as an aristocrat by two or three dozen people who don’t know the difference 21between an aristocrat and a hippopotamus; and even if they did, it wouldn’t make any difference. Of course, if you continue on this road, you have this advantage: You can get all your relations together once or twice each year and go back over your family tree and praise each ancestor, relating in detail his super-qualities, etc., which should make all of those assembled very happy and proud. You will also have the advantage of being able to entertain new acquaintances (very much to their disgust) with the story of how your ancestors maneuvered from the time they were gallant knights of King Arthur’s Round Table to the day they stepped off the Mayflower at Plymouth. (If you happen to have any sense of humor, of course you will confine these stories solely to your relations when they congregate for the purpose of rehearsing these folklore epics.)

You will also have the advantage of retaining that state of mind which keeps you believing that your mentality is away above par and that people will somehow, sometime, understand and appreciate your worth to the world.

There are many other advantages (?) which the whole world is willing you claim if you follow your present road.

The other road open to you is to stop trying to keep up an outward appearance at the cost of depriving yourself of happiness. Stop trying to be a big frog in a little puddle. Open your eyes and look about you. Try to realize what an insignificant speck on the horizon you really are. Try to realize 22that there are millions of people in the world who have every quality, plus, which you think is exclusive with your family, and remember that the only ones of these millions that the world respects are the aggressive ones who “give” constructive effort to their respective communities. Remember the world does not respect a person who only “takes” what nature furnishes. There is no place in America for these idlers. The day of inheriting a position that commands respect is past. You will have to prove your worth or you will be eliminated by one of the “common herd” who really “delivers the goods.” That familiar law “the survival of the fittest” always has and always will be the regulator.

There must be times in your life when you have flashes of realization, when you must see the fallacy of your ideas. You must realize the wonderful experience and pleasure which you are missing. You are going through life blindly. You will pass out of this world without knowing the real world you have lived in, for the world of your life is a myth and like all myths the truth will be revealed to you.

Our plan will not only bring you prosperity and plenty, but will actually pave the way for you to accomplish the higher ideals which you are dreaming about. Bury your pride. Stop living for the benefit of your friends or to keep up a family tradition which is rendering every generation of your family weaker and poorer. Pretty soon the people who now respect you will charge your whole family as being lazy and worthless to the community.

Are you a young wife whose dreams have not come true?

Do you sit and think of all your old friends, many of whom married young men who are progressive? Do you think of their beautiful homes, their pretty clothes, and their circle of cultured friends? You are glad they are situated so comfortably and happily, but you can not help envying them at times. How your thoughts must wander back over your courtship days. You recall that your husband was the most promising young man of that set. You recall how all the other girls envied you when you were married. You recall how easy it would have been for you to have had almost any of the other young men.

How the picture has changed!

Somehow that promising youth of a few years ago has not been the success you were sure he would be. Somehow, he has fallen into a rut and is satisfied with a small salary. He has lost his nerve. He has lost faith in himself. He does not count the “up and doing” young men of your community among his friends. He does not keep up his personal appearance. Every single thing about him has changed so. He has no ambition to climb up the ladder of success.

You alone realize and worry about this sudden change. You know what your friends are saying about both of you. How often you have heard them refer to someone in your circumstances “the 24poor thing. I feel so sorry for her. She doesn’t know anything but poverty and worry.”

Like all the rest there are two courses you can follow. One will lead you to poverty and hardships, and the other to prosperity and happiness.

You alone can be the stimulant for your husband. You must lead the way if you expect to revive his energy and ambition. You know very well he is capable if only he would muster up and try.

Are you content to go along hoping for the best? Each year you are both getting a little deeper in the rut—the rut that will finally submerge you so deep that your old friends who are now starting on the right road will forget about you.

Think how different life would be if you lived in a pretty home. If you felt satisfied you were going up the ladder instead of down, down, down, year after year.

Would you prove yourself capable of doing things if you had the opportunity? Don’t credit the success of your friends to luck. When they saw an opportunity they took advantage of it. We are laying right before your eyes a number of plans which will start you and your discouraged husband on the road to success. Will you pass it by?

Get up in the morning when you have your sleep out. Arrange your working hours to suit your convenience. Engage in some kind of employment that 25you could do at home. Earn enough money to buy beautiful clothes, live in a comfortable home and command all the other comforts and luxuries incidental to a happy life.

On the following pages we will outline a plan which offers an opportunity for you to live the life so much wished for by hundreds of girls. You can sit right in your home and earn two or three times what your present position pays you without one-half the effort. You will be your own boss. You can start to work in the morning when you feel like it and stop when you feel like it. You can sit in your bedroom in your negligee or dress any other way you please. If you want to accomplish big things and operate a large office you can do so. What could be a more ideal situation than this? No labor to mar your hands or otherwise mar your physical appearance. The cleanest, most enjoyable and most profitable work any girl can engage in. The only qualification necessary is to be able to read and write.

Here is the plan:

We will send you a quantity of folders which tell all about the Book of Good Manners and the Woman’s Library. We will also send you a quantity of envelopes. You address these envelopes to all the girls and women in your vicinity. You can get their names from the telephone directory. Next you insert these advertising folders in the envelopes which you have addressed and mail them with a one cent stamp. We also send you a quantity of small envelopes which you address to yourself and inclose 26with the folder together with an order blank which reads as follows:

Now let us see what happens:

You make $1.50 on each set of books. Suppose that you only sell twenty people out of each hundred to whom you send the folder. Your profit would be $30 on each hundred folders you send out. One person can address about 1,000 envelopes each 8–hour day, so if you sent out 1,000 folders each day you would make $300 per day if you sold twenty people out of each hundred you sent them to. If you only sold ten people out of each hundred, you would make $150 per day, and if you even only sold five out of each hundred you would make $75 per day, provided you sent out 1,000 folders each day.

27When you finish mailing to everyone in your vicinity, start mailing to the near-by towns. You can employ other girls to do your addressing after you get started.

What could be more pleasant than having the postman bring you an armful of mail each morning with each letter containing $3 of which $1.50 is profit to you?

If you wish, you can use your own name and address. Some girls work their plans under the name of The Woman’s Library and either use their home address or just rent a lock box at the Post Office. If for any reason you do not want people to know who is running this plan, the latter suggestion is better.

When you get started with this plan, we will furnish you with other things to sell by mail. The first thing you know you will be proprietor of a large mail-order establishment.

Later on in this book we will tell you how to get started on this plan.

When you hear of some one making a fortune you will find that nine times out of ten it was made by selling something.

It does not matter what you are doing, you cannot go very far unless you have learned the art of salesmanship, for after all we are all selling something. The doctor sells his skill to heal, the professor sells his knowledge, the bookkeeper his ability to keep 28books, the carpenter his ability to build houses, and the daily laborer his services. You see, we need salesmanship even though we do not happen to be selling shoes, flour, books, etc. Your advance in life is measured by your sales ability, and this is the reason that you should understand the art of salesmanship if you would climb up the ladder of success.

You have probably read about the schools of salesmanship—many of them correspondence schools—and you have undoubtedly heard of hundreds of men and women who have increased their earnings from a scant living to salaries ranging from ten to twenty-five thousand dollars per year. Many girls who clerked in stores, or did clerical work at $15 or $20 per week, increased their earnings to an unbelievable figure. Men who earned only a living wage by hard labor or tiresome routine work without a future, rose to positions where they became citizens of influence and wealth—all through applying salesmanship to their daily lives.

Do you know that the average salesman earns three times as much as the average position pays?

Do you know that salesmen are made, not born?

Do you know that the demand for salesmen always has and always will be three times greater than the supply? To convince yourself of the unlimited demand for salesmen just look over the “want ad” section of a city Sunday paper. You never see an “ad” for a salesman read “small salary at start.” A salesman’s earning power is regulated by his ability. He gets paid what he earns. He 29does not place himself at the mercy of an employer to regulate his income.

What could be more pleasant work than going from city to city, riding on Pullman cars, living at the best hotels, meeting high-class people from all over the world, and spending a few hours each day taking orders which pay you a handsome income?

How could you ever expect to gain the knowledge this experience would give you? How could you ever make the acquaintance of such prominent and influential people as this vocation brings you in contact with?

But you will say: “I am a woman, and what do I know about salesmanship?”

And we answer: “It is just because you are a woman that we are telling you this; if you are ambitious and willing to do your part you can become a better salesman than the average man.”

Do you know that large New York firms are replacing their traveling men with women? Why? Because they have discovered that a woman who is willing to work can sell more orders than the average man. It is a rare occurrence to hear of a woman failing to make good selling. We know of girls whose experience was limited to bench work in factories and domestic work, who after taking a course in salesmanship proved winners and are now earning five times their original wages, besides living a life of luxury as compared to their former state.

If you are a married woman and have some spare time, we will show you how to earn $25 to $50 per week during your spare hours.

If you are a single girl and will devote all your time to our proposition, we will show you how to earn $100 per week or more.

If you are a man, the same opportunities are offered you.

On the following pages we will outline some of the plans from which you can select. Each one of these plans gives you an opportunity to take our complete course in salesmanship absolutely free, right while you are getting actual selling experience. You earn while you learn!

If we were to tell you that within one month we can make it possible for you to become Circulation Manager for your local daily newspaper, you would probably doubt us. Nevertheless, we can do this very thing if you will follow our instructions and if you possess ordinary intelligence, plenty of energy and lots of ambition. If you owned a newspaper and some one came to you with a plan that would almost double your subscriptions, wouldn’t you want to employ them?

Before we tell you the details of this plan we are going to tell you some facts about the newspaper business. Do you know that the two cents which you pay for your daily paper does not pay for the cost of the paper and printing? Perhaps you wonder how a publisher can make any money. His profit comes from selling advertising space. The amount they receive for advertising space depends on how many subscribers they have. For instance, a paper which has 5,000 subscribers receives $100 from a store for a full page advertisement. Now, if they can increase the number of subscribers to 10,000 they would receive $200 for the same ad. This ad would be read by twice as many people, therefore, it would be worth twice as much to the store. Now you can see why the newspapers want to increase their number of subscribers and why they are interested in anyone who can show them how to do it.

Almost every daily paper sells a ten weeks’ subscription 34for $1. They will pay 35 cents each to a solicitor for getting new subscriptions and will also pay him 35 cents each for getting renewals from old subscribers, provided he secures cash in advance.

Here is the plan:

Go to your newspaper and make them this proposition. “We have worked out a plan to double the circulation of your paper. Our plan is to give absolutely free a ten weeks’ subscription to your paper and the Woman’s Library consisting of six volumes, which every home needs and will buy, to each person who buys ‘The Book of Good Manners’ at its regular price $3.

“The price of the Woman’s Library is $2 per volume, or $12 for the six volumes; the price of ‘The Book of Good Manners’ is $3 and the price of a ten weeks’ subscription to your paper is $1. Therefore, we will give $16 worth of books and the daily paper for $3.

“All we ask you to do is to run a full-page advertisement in your paper each day similar to this one (show him copy of ad which we furnish you). All the mail orders you receive you turn over to me, together with the $3. I will be out soliciting orders and will probably have a crew of people working for me. I will turn over the subscriptions to you together with 65 cents for each subscription. This gives you your regular price for a ten weeks’ subscription after you pay your solicitor. I will furnish each subscriber with the set of books.”

Now, of course, it will be your business to convince 35the newspaper why people will want this set of books.

Where does your profit come in?

and you will receive $3 for each subscription. Your profit will be 85 cents on each subscriber.

Suppose that you took twenty subscriptions per day yourself by personal calls; your profit would be $17 per day. Suppose that in addition to this, people would either bring or send 20 subscriptions each day direct to the newspaper from this full-page ad. This would give you $17 per day additional.

Now, suppose that you employed ten other people to solicit for you and pay each one of them 50 cents for each subscription, which would still leave you 35 cents profit on each subscription they took. If each of these ten solicitors sold ten subscriptions per day they would make $5 each per day, and each one of them would make $3.50 per day for you. Ten solicitors would make $35 a day for you.

We furnish you complete information telling how to hire and train people to work for you. We furnish a complete series of sales talks for you to use in securing subscribers. We furnish you copy to give the newspaper to use for their ads.

36We tell you how to go from town to town and manage campaigns for newspapers; how you can conduct two or three campaigns in different towns at once. Our course in salesmanship teaches you every phase of selling and our course in “sales-management” which we also give you absolutely free tells you how to organize, train and manage salespeople.

Before we go into the details of how you can get started in this highly profitable profession, we want you to read every one of these plans and thoroughly understand them.

Would you enjoy sitting on the observation platform of a modern train in company with interesting people from everywhere, seeing scenic America from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to the Gulf—mountains, prairies and cities? Who has not dreamed of this wonderful experience! Who would not enjoy living in America’s magnificent hotels where the traveler enjoys every luxury which money can buy?

You can claim this wonderful life if you are willing to say: “I will do it!”

It does not matter what your present position in life is. It does not matter how limited your education may be, provided you can read, write and talk fair English.

It does not matter about your age.

37It does not matter whether you are a man, woman, young man or young girl.

The only things that matter are these:

You must get it out of your head that you are not capable of doing big things. You must realize that the reason you are not doing big things is that you have never had an opportunity to learn. Every successful person in the world to-day thought just the same things which you are thinking at some time in their lives. They had to learn how, too. You must grit your teeth and start. Close your eyes to everything but success. The most difficult thing about being successful is making up your mind that you are going to succeed. Once you overcome that fear which haunts you, which holds you back, you will become master of yourself and the whole world can’t stop you.

Don’t let timidity, fear, self-consciousness, or what others think rule you. You know you are capable. Surely you believe in yourself, so close your eyes to these petty obstacles and work for your own future instead of to please your present associates.

Here is the plan that will give you your start on a successful career. Read it. Think while you are reading how easy it would be to explain this plan to a buyer even without practice or instructions. When we put you through our salesmanship course you will look back at the things which now appear impossible and laugh. How very easy it all is when you once understand. And how different the whole world looks to you when you are on the 38road to success. The dread of facing another day of routine, which is torture, of associating with people whom you dislike; of feeling dependent upon certain people for your existence—all these thoughts vanish like magic. How pleasant it is to be prosperous and successful! What a satisfying feeling it is for a married woman to be able to help her husband bear the burden, and how wonderful it is for her to have plenty of spare money to do and buy the things she has so much wished for!

And the single girl!—the single girl who is obliged to earn her support. Few indeed are fitted to do work that pays more than enough to barely exist upon. What dreadful thoughts hover over her! She has her choice of loneliness and poverty, or marriage at the first opportunity. Stop and look about you! Look at the girls in your circumstances who married for a home. How many of these girls are living the life you have so often dreamed you want to live? Don’t stumble along blindly. Close your eyes and think—think of yourself ten years from now!

Do you see happiness—do you see yourself the dainty well-groomed lady of your dream? Are you living the luxurious life and surrounded by the cultured circle you expected? Or are you shut up in a few lonely and dingy rooms with nothing but sadness and poverty as your lot?

What a dreadful thought! All the things which are so dear to you—a dainty skin, attractive figure, youthful and radiant face—all changed in ten short years. Surely you must see yourself as you will be 39in ten years, slovenly dressed with a worn and tired face, rough skin and straggly hair; nothing but poverty and worry.

What a different picture you will see when you have had a touch of success. When you are no longer dependent upon others for your existence; when you no longer get up in the morning with the dreadful worry of another day of torture before you. When you no longer think of marriage as a means of securing a home. And what a difference it makes when you are successful and can afford to dress the way you have dreamed of, and can associate with the cultured young men and women you have so often envied. How different it would all be if you could afford to live in the sort of home you have fancied! This is the reward of success. And the difference between success and failure is expressed in these few simple words:

“I will start to-day—NOW—to learn the things which will make me successful. If servant girls, clerks, factory girls, stenographers, and every other kind of girls can succeed in learning salesmanship and rise from their humble positions to the top of the ladder, I too will succeed! I must succeed! I have firmly determined to start now!”

If you had bought a hat, a pair of shoes, an overcoat and a dress, and two weeks later discovered that you had outgrown all of them, would you be interested in seeing some one who had a plan to sell these clothes for you and get more money for them than you originally paid? Would you listen to them?

40Would a man who owned a furniture store listen to you if you would tell him you had a plan which would permit him to get all his money out of the dead stock he had in his store? We mean such things as odd chairs, tables, rugs, etc.; things which he had bought over a year ago and for some reason couldn’t sell.

Of course he would. He would be willing to spend two hours finding out how you could do it. Surely, you will not admit that you could not tell him this plan. You don’t have to tell it just the way we will tell it in this book. Tell it in your own language. Tell it just as you would relate it to a girl friend. The simpler your words the more effective they are. He isn’t interested in big, fancy words. He wants you to be yourself and tell him facts. Here is the way we would talk to Mr. Brown, who owns the furniture store:

“Good morning, Mr. Brown. I wonder if you would be good enough to let me explain a sales plan to you. The plan which I would like to tell you about is one that has been successfully worked in many furniture stores throughout the country. It is especially designed to clean up odd pieces of furniture which are dead stock with you, and does not require an investment on your part until you have tried it out and have found it successful. If it works, you want it. If it doesn’t work, you don’t want it.”

What happens next? Well, if you owned the furniture store and had a lot of odd pieces of unsalable furniture, wouldn’t you be interested in hearing 41of some plan to get your money out of this dead stock? All right, then what will Mr. Brown say?

“If you can show me a way to get half of my cost out of my dead stock you are just the person I am looking for. Go ahead and tell me your plan.”

Wouldn’t you feel the same way Mr. Brown feels if you were in his place and some one had approached you in this manner? You see there are no mysterious tricks in salesmanship. Just put yourself in the other fellow’s shoes and say the thing that would sound reasonable and interesting to you—common sense, that is the keynote.

Now we will tell Mr. Brown all about our plan:

“You know better than I do, Mr. Brown, how the average woman’s mind works. She wants something for nothing. Bargain is her watchword. She will actually buy something she doesn’t need simply because she thinks it is a bargain. I once saw a woman buy two picture frames at $1.98 each, which were marked ‘Reduced from $3.’ After she had bought them I heard her husband ask her what she intended to do with them. He told her they had no pictures to put in the frames. She answered: ‘Yes, John, but think only $1.98.’ Later I was in another store and saw the same frames selling regularly at $1.75 each. I have repeated this incident, Mr. Brown, to show you how a woman’s mind works, for my plan to sell your dead stock is a big bargain sale that has been worked successfully all over the country. Here is a set of seven books. We call them the Woman’s Library, for they cover the 42six most interesting subjects in the world to women. Before I go into the details of my plan to dispose of your dead stock, I want to tell you briefly what there is about this set of books which makes women want to own them. Remember, I am not trying to sell you books. In fact, I am not trying to sell you anything. I am simply offering a plan whereby we can both profit. I will sell the books and your dead stock. You will get your money out of the dead stock and I will make a profit on the books. Mind you, I do not ask you to invest a dollar in books. All I ask is your cooperation. Now, as I started to say, it will be necessary for me to explain the nature of these books in order to convince you that women will snap them up like hot cakes. If you were a woman, I know you would appreciate their strong appeal and salability.

“This is ‘The Book of Good Manners.’ It tells you how to do and say the right thing on all occasions. It tells you how to introduce, what form to use when you introduce an elderly man to a young girl, a distinguished man to a group of people, etc. It tells you how to acknowledge an introduction and when to shake hands. It tells when and how to make formal and informal calls; what should appear upon calling cards; how invitations should be written, sent and acknowledged; how to acquire perfect manners at the table; when and how to use the knife, fork and spoon; how to eat asparagus, olives, corn on cob and other foods so difficult for most of us; in fact, every conceivable question which women are interested in is answered. It is 43simply a dictionary of etiquette. Do you know, Mr. Brown, that almost every woman in this town feels the need of this book every time she entertains or calls on her friends? Every woman has been placed in many a humiliating position simply because she did not know the rules of etiquette. It is surprising how little most of us really know about good manners. Here is a simple little test which not more than one woman out of a dozen can answer.” (You hand Mr. Brown a folder with the questions printed on it. He will probably smile and remark that he doubts if he can answer them. While he looks at the folder you continue talking.)

“Incidentally, Mr. Brown, one of our methods of making people realize the need of this book is to ask a lot of questions in our ads, similar to the questions you are reading. You see our plan is to make them realize that they are continually committing social blunders which make them appear crude and common in the eyes of their friends. When I explain about these other books I will show you how we handle the advertising and copy of ads which have proved very successful.

“This volume is called ‘Color Harmony and Design in Dress.’ It is difficult for a man to understand what a problem it is for a girl or woman to buy the clothes which are becoming to her. You see certain girls can not wear certain colors. For a girl to appear ‘at her best’ she must know what colors harmonize with her hair, eyes and complexion. If she is too stout, she must know what designs and colors will make her appear slender, 44and on the other hand, if she is too thin, she must know how to make herself appear in proportion. And then there are the tall ones whose problem is to decrease their height by the camouflage design and color combination; the short ones who have the problem of increasing their height. Perhaps this sounds silly to a man, but you know how vain most women are, Mr. Brown. They will spend their last penny for a box of powder or something that will make them beautiful. Of course, I am an exception (?) ahem!” (This remark will bring a smile and relieve the strain for a moment. Mr. Brown will pass a few complimentary remarks which you will take good-naturedly, and continue.)

“I know that you are not interested in hearing all about a woman’s troubles, Mr. Brown, but as I said before, I must tell you this in order to show you how these books answer all of their problems. I am trying to impress you with the fact that the Woman’s Library is not a collection of ordinary books. They are the only combination of their kind published, and I will wager that every woman in this town will want them if they are put before them in the right way. They are the very keys which open the door to a woman’s most perplexing problems. They are to a woman’s life what a furniture trade journal is to your business life. You read the trade paper because you want to keep in touch with what the best type of furniture dealer is doing, and try to improve your store. It is a woman’s business to be as attractive as possible, and there isn’t a woman alive who wouldn’t grab at the 45chance to find out how to become more so. You can’t appreciate what a problem the average girl or woman is up against trying to buy or make clothes that magnify instead of mar her good looks.

“Now, this volume tells ‘how to prepare and serve a meal.’ It tells just how the table should be set; where each piece of china and silver should be placed; at which side of a person you should stand when serving or removing dishes. In addition to answering hundreds of these questions it contains menus for every occasion from simple home dinners to elaborate afternoon teas. Each menu is followed with recipes telling how to prepare each dish listed.

“Do you know, Mr. Brown, that not one woman out of ten actually knows these things? Do you know that every time the average woman entertains she is self-conscious and afraid she has committed some terrible blunder which ‘gives her away’ to her friends.

“The last half of this volume is devoted to ‘Interior Decoration.’ It tells how to arrange furniture and bric-à-brac to beautify the home. It tells what color draperies harmonize with certain colors in floor coverings, upholstery and walls. In short it tells how to plan a home that will reflect good taste and a genuine homelike atmosphere.

“You know how funny women are on this subject. You see it every day right here in your store when they buy furniture. How often have women displayed their total ignorance of color harmony when buying upholstered furniture from you. How 46often have they asked: ‘Will the blue velour upholstery on this suite match well in a room papered green?’

“This volume is called ‘Physical Beauty.’ It tells how to become beautiful; how to care for the skin, develop a good figure, remove wrinkles, double chin, freckles and all other blemishes which mar a woman’s beauty. It tells how to care for the hair, hands and teeth. Also home preparations which have been used by famous beauties are given in detail.

“It goes without saying that this volume touches one of the most tender spots in women.

“‘Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain English’ is a book on sex. It outlines every single mystery of sex in plain English. I feel that the title of this volume speaks for itself. You know without me saying so what a strong appeal this subject carries.

“‘The Book of Culture’ contains a series of essays on subjects related to self-development. Here are the titles of the essays: (show him the book opened at the index page).

“This volume on ‘How to Make Money’ gives a number of practical ways for the average man, woman or girl to utilize her spare time profitably. Every aggressive woman is interested in ways and means of making money.

“Now, Mr. Brown, I think you will have to agree that this set of books is something every woman wants and will buy.

“Here is my plan for disposing of your dead stock: Suppose that you have a lot of kitchen tables 47which cost you six dollars each, a lot of chairs that cost you five dollars each, a lot of mirrors that cost you four dollars each, a lot of rugs that cost you seven dollars each, and a lot of pedestals that cost you eight dollars each. All of these are dead stock to you. Let us make up a list of the dead stock as follows:

Twenty kitchen tables—your cost each $6—your regular selling price $10 each.

OUR BARGAIN PRICE $9.98 each and the Woman’s Library given free with each table. You make the sale, collect the cash and pay me $3 on each sale for the set of books. You will get your cost out of the tables and $1 profit on each sale after you pay me for the books.

Thirty chairs—your cost $5 each—your regular selling price $9 each.

OUR BARGAIN PRICE $8.98 each and the Woman’s Library given free with each chair. After you pay me for the set of books you make $1 profit on the sale and get your cost out of dead stock.

Twenty-five mirrors—your cost $4 each—your regular selling price $8 each.

OUR BARGAIN PRICE $7.98 and the set of books free with each sale. You make $1 profit on each sale after you pay me for the books.

48Fifty small rugs—your cost $7 each—your regular selling price $12 each.

OUR BARGAIN PRICE $11.98 and a set of books free with each rug. Your profit on each sale after you pay for books.

Ten Pedestals—your cost $8 each—your regular selling price $12.50 each.

OUR BARGAIN PRICE $12.48. You make $1.50 profit after you pay for books.

“Now let us see what we have done. We have turned $800 worth of dead stock into ready cash and made you $190 profit besides. We have given your customer a set of books which is worth $5 more than they paid for books, chair and all. Will they sell? Well, Mr. Brown, as I said in the beginning, I will prove to you by actual sales that they will sell. We will sell your regular customers and we will bring you new customers who probably would never otherwise have come to your store. I have twenty sets of these books, and am willing to come to your store and help fix up your window. We can fill your window with the chairs, tables, rugs, etc., and attach a large card stating that the Woman’s Library will be given absolutely free with each chair. In the center of the window we will make a big pile of the twenty sets of books with an attractive sign on them. I have here copy for advertisement which you can run in our daily paper (we furnish you copies of ads to show Mr. Brown). 49We will sell your dead stock so quickly you will wonder how it was done. This plan, Mr. Brown, has been tried all over the country. We know it works.”

Now, honestly, couldn’t you sit down and tell the facts just related to most anyone after you had familiarized yourself a little more with the books, etc.? You see that after all, selling goods is more a matter of common sense. When you have something good to sell and are convinced people will buy it, you have won half the battle.

Suppose that you were going to sell Mrs. Jones our “Book of Good Manners.” The first thing to do is to write down all the good reasons why you think Mrs. Jones should buy it, and then arrange these reasons into a short interesting talk. Try to think of all the objections she will raise and have an answer ready for her. We have repeated the above conversation between a saleswoman and the buyer of a furniture store simply to show you that all there is to selling is:

First: Having something good to offer.

Second: Knowing all about your article.

Third: Explaining your proposition with simple words in the same way you think it would sound well to you if you were the buyer.

Fourth: Knowing when to stop talking and close the deal.

You could probably explain this plan to your buyer in many different ways and sell him. Each person has distinct methods of getting results.

50Now let us see where your profit will come in. Each sale made would net you $1.50 profit. Suppose 200 sales were made. You would make $300 on the one store. When you complete the sale with this store you ask them to give you a letter recommending the plan to other stores. Each store you sell you secure a letter of recommendation. After you secure these letters from five or six good stores you will have no trouble in selling the best store in each city you visit. Remember, we furnish samples of advertisements to you. Each one of your customers can copy these advertisements in their daily papers.

The girl or woman who is willing to study our free course in salesmanship can make from $150 to $300 for two or three days’ work in each city she visits.

How can you get started? What must you do to get this free course in salesmanship? We want you first to read every one of these plans. When you finish reading, we will explain how simple it is to get started.

Have you ever known a crowd of girls who went around together, to dances, parties, shows, etc., and then one day one of these girls was promoted to a position where she superintended a number of other girls?

Did you notice any marked change in her, or in the attitude of the other girls in the crowd? You know very well you did! You know very well that 51something about that girl commanded more respect and more attention than any other girl in the crowd. Of course, you said a lot of things behind her back, but just the same you were only too glad to have her invite you for a walk or to a show. You never failed to mention the fact that Margaret called you up, and you went to the show with her. You might have said some nasty things about her having a “swelled head,” etc., but you said these things just because you envied her. What a difference this promotion has made in Margaret’s life. Everyone is anxious to cater to her. When she speaks every one is silent. When there is a prominent or honorary office to be filled in your clubs, Margaret’s is the first name mentioned.

How pleasant life must be for Margaret. What a difference it makes when one is invited out to meet a young man or a set of girls, when they have all been confidently informed that “Margaret is a remarkable girl. You know, she is at the head of the Smith Company and has complete charge of the entire force.”

Surely, you must have wished to occupy a position that would command respect. You must have dreamed of filling a position where people would look up to you and feel dependent upon you. Perhaps you have even dreamed of having your own office with your name on the door, your own bank account, two or three assistants and a score of girls working under you. You have even thought of the thrill it would give you when your friends paid you a call at your office and saw how successful you 52were. Who would not be happy under these circumstances? Who would not enjoy an automobile, pretty clothes, a circle of cultured friends, and all the other luxuries which this position would offer you?

If you are a 100 per cent American girl, if you possess a drop of imagination or desire to be something more than an ordinary girl, you surely have pictured yourself managing some of the plans which we have told you about in this book. You must have seen yourself as you would appear under these new conditions. You, but an uplifted, radiant YOU. Yourself, but as different as the drab moth from the beautiful butterfly. For a few moments your thoughts took you to a new and wonderful world, and then—and then you became your ordinary self again. You thought how foolish it was for you to think for one moment about doing such a thing. How could you? You didn’t even know where or how to begin such an undertaking. You didn’t have any experience, nor the necessary education, and besides it took money to start such things, and you didn’t have any money. And then what would your friends think, and suppose you didn’t succeed? And then you thought of everything you had read, and the things that seemed so simple to you when you read them, all ran together and loomed up like a huge monster. They now appear a great, big knot, and you never could unravel it. The office, the bank account, and everything seem like a dream to you. You have allowed yourself to be carried away with a story. You were trying to live the part of the heroine.

53If your mind is not working about the way we have pictured it, you are indeed a remarkable girl, for ninety-eight girls out of one hundred think and act just as we have related, and this is why most girls are tied down to miserable routine work earning barely enough to exist upon. This is why girls who are capable of making their mark in the world become discouraged and think that their ability is not appreciated.

What happens?

Rather than continue on these meager earnings with no prospects of advancement, they marry.

And whom do they marry?

They try to marry a promising young man who is making his mark in the world, but, naturally, a young man of this type is associating with a more progressive circle of friends; therefore they decide to accept the first offer that appears like a fair prospect of a home.

What finally happens to these girls? Unless you can look ahead twenty years you can not answer this question. Ask your parents or a friend who has reached the age of fifty to make a list of twenty-five of their schoolmates. Ask them to tell you what has happened to them. How many of them are able to retire? How many are self supporting? What kind of homes are they living in? How many of life’s luxuries have they enjoyed?

And they too were once pretty girls! They too were considered clever. They too dreamed of the same kind of future you are dreaming about. But this youthful dream never came true. They patiently 54waited for the opportunity which never came. The aggressive, successful young men whom they dreamed of married the “Margarets” who had somehow dropped their old crowd and had become favorites with prominent people. Be honest with yourself! Why should you think you are so different, that through some mysterious good fortune, everything will turn out all right for you?

This test will show you all your weaknesses and strong points. Actually check with a pencil each thing you can do. This will show you what your chances are for success. Go over each question thoughtfully. Don’t check a single question unless you are sure you could do it.

Could you walk into the office of your newspaper and say: “Please insert this ad in your want ad column for three days?” You hand them a piece of paper containing the following ad:

“Wanted: Girls and women to train for traveling position. Can earn from $5 to $15 per day. Call in person at once. 457 Main Street.”

(Note: This ad will cost about $1 for three days).

The next day a girl or woman will call at your address and say that she came in answer to your ad. Could you invite her in and say:

55“What is your name, please?

“Where do you live?

“What are you now employed at?

“Are you willing to call upon homes and introduce a new library?”

And then could you say:

“Miss Jones, I am the local manager for The Social Mentor Publications. I am organizing a crew of girls to first canvass this town and then travel all over the country canvassing each city we visit. A girl who is willing to get out and hustle can make from $5 to $15 per day besides having the opportunity of seeing the country. Before I tell you about the plan in general I want to explain about the Woman’s Library and see what you think of it.”

After you read each volume in the Woman’s Library, could you with the aid of our course in salesmanship explain what each book was about, and why women and girls would want them?

Now that you have told her what kind of books make up the Woman’s Library, could you continue the conversation something like this:

“Miss Jones, the regular price of this library is $15. We have made arrangements to print these books in large quantities, and are selling the entire set for $3. We will pay you $1 for each set you sell. The average girl can sell ten sets per day, so you see 56you would earn $10 per day, and even if you only sold five sets, you would make $5.

“All that you need to do to get started is to buy one set of books for $2 which you will use as samples. I will tell you what street to start working on, and you bring me your orders each night. At the end of each week you deliver the orders which you have sold and collect for them, keeping $1 on each set for your profit.

“I am employing several other girls, but am giving each girl certain streets to work so that they will not interfere with each other. After you have all worked a day or two, we will all meet here and get acquainted. We can talk over our experiences and in that way help each other sell more orders.

“When we finish working this town, we will move to the next town and canvass it. You see that in addition to earning a fine salary, we will have an opportunity to see every city in the country.”

What happens next?

She pays you $2 for a sample set of books and you tell her what street to work and give her some order blanks. At the end of the week you give her enough books to fill the orders she has taken, and she delivers them to her customers and returns $2 to you for each set. She keeps $1 for her profit.

What is there about this plan you can not do?

If you employ twenty girls you will have to do just what we have told you twenty times. The oftener you do it, the easier it becomes.

Let us see if we cannot make that dream come true after all.

57You make 50 cents on each set of books an agent sells. If she can sell ten sets per day she would make $5 for you. If you have twenty girls working they will earn $100 per day for you. But even five girls will earn $25 per day if they sell ten sets per day. Just to show you how impossible it would be to fail, suppose you only had five girls and each girl only sold five sets of books per day, you would still make $12.50 per day.

When you get our course in salesmanship and sales management, you will see how easy it is to start one of these plans. It will tell you everything in clear, simple language. It will tell you how to go to new towns and organize a new crew, and how to open an office of your own.

To start any of the plans which we have outlined it is necessary for you to have twenty sets of books. Naturally, we must get acquainted with you before we can send you books on credit. On the first order of twenty sets we require you to pay in advance. When you get started and prove to us you are going to hustle we will send you the books and you can pay us when you sell them and collect for them.

Perhaps many girls who read this will not have the necessary money on hand to pay for the first twenty sets of books. If this happens to be the case with you, there is one thing you must remember. Everyone who starts in business for herself faces the same trouble you are facing. But instead of throwing up their hands and saying “it can’t be 58done” they go to some one who has the money, and borrow it. If you would go to some one and explain what you are going to do they would be only too glad to lend you enough to get started on.

Read the coupon on the next page; then sign it and return to-day together with the money to pay for your first twenty sets of books.

Please send me absolutely free your Complete Course In Salesmanship and Sales-management; also Bulletin which gives me complete instructions on how to sell your books. Also send me free of charge:

You are also to send me copies of newspaper advertisements and complete instructions telling how to advertise the Woman’s Library.

I am enclosing $30.00 as full payment of twenty complete sets of the Woman’s Library. I will sell them for $3.00 per set; each set to contain seven books as follows:

Please ship them at once to the following address:

The secret questions and thoughts of thousands answered in understandable language. This book is solemnly dedicated to set forth in clear language the conception and birth of a child; to follow the life of the male and the female from birth to maturity, explaining the causes of passion and love; to advise those whose passions and desires are stronger than their will to resist. This volume treats on every single phase of the sex question which every mother and prospective bride should know.

In a series of essays this volume treats a number of subjects in a very entertaining and instructive manner. Among the titles of these essays are: “How to Acquire Personal Charm,” “The True Aristocrat,” “The Origin of Society,” “Social Defects,” “Successful Matrons,” “Courtship Courtesies,” “Deportment of Children,” “Advice to the Young Girl,” “The Art of Congenial Conversation,” “How to Cultivate a Vocabulary That Will Mark You Wellbred,” “Etiquette for the Business Man,” “The Cash Value of Pleasing Manners,” “Plain Talk to Women,” “The Art of Letter Writing,” “Woman’s Greatest Appeal to Man.”

It does not matter whether you compare favorably with the perfect woman, you might be in perfect proportion. “PHYSICAL BEAUTY” tells you how to cultivate natural beauty at home without expense. It tells how to cure skin disease, develop your figure, care for your hair, cultivate a pleasing voice, acquire a graceful carriage and restore color to your face. How to reduce and increase your weight without injurious or troublesome treatments. How to remove wrinkles, double chin and every physical defect which mars your beauty.

Should crackers be served with soup or passed? At which side of a guest should you stand while removing his soup dish? In addition to answering hundreds of these questions this instructive volume contains menus for every occasion. Each menu is followed with recipes. Detailed instructions tell you how and when to serve each dish. Charts show where to place each dish and piece of silver, when and how to remove empty dishes. It does not matter whether you have servants or whether you serve, this volume tells the conventional way to do it. The preparation and serving of formal dinners, breakfasts, suppers, dainty afternoon teas, buffet luncheons, chafing dish suppers, tray service, banquets and all their variations are explained in detail.

The “INTERIOR DECORATION” section is devoted to artistic taste within the home. The arrangement of furniture and bric-a-brac. The color and design of draperies, floor coverings and walls. It tells you how to plan and maintain a perfect home.

This volume is a complete Dictionary of Etiquette. It tells you what to do and say upon all occasions and how to appear at perfect ease when others appear embarrassed. It also tells you how to overcome timidity, fear and self-consciousness; how to acquire poise at the dinner table, the dance, in the drawing room, and everywhere refined people assemble.

Do you know what colors harmonize with your complexion? Do you know what designs in costumes are most becoming? These are the subjects this volume explains. It does not matter whether you are tall, short, stout or slender; a blonde or a brunette—you will find the color and general design of the garment you should wear fully described. It tells how to conceal your defects and bring out natural beauty. It does not dictate style, but tells what lines and general designs you should avoid as well as the ones you should look for. It enables you to select only the clothes that will magnify your beauty.