Seven Ways to Get a Place–The Way a Boy Should Advertise–Openings Everywhere for the Right Kind of Boys–Beating the Booksellers–Stories About Smart Boys–Twenty-five Hints to Hang Your ProsperityOn–How a Towheaded Country Boy Became a Great Editor–A Barrel Full of Postage Stamps–How a Poor Boy Became the Richest Man within the Country–The Journey from Nothing to Forty Millions–The Best School within the World–The Beginnings of Great Fortunes.
Boys, you are able to do it! What! get wealthy? attain to fame? Yes, each. “But I have no chance.” Neither had Humphry Davy, nor Jay Gould, nor Henry Wilson. But the primary turned one of many best of scientists; the second, the richest man within the nation; and the third, vice-president of the United States.
“The best school is the school of adversity,” stated Rousseau, who, from a waiter in a restaurant, turned essentially the most famous man of his age. The boy, Horace Greeley, wandered up and down the streets of New York, asking of printers in the event that they “wanted a hand,” and was all over the place laughed at and turned away; and the boy, George W. Childs, labored for $2 per week as a clerk in a guide retailer, saved cash, purchased the Philadelphia _Ledger_, and have become a millionaire.
“I have no capital,” you say. But you will have ten servants (fingers) to give you the results you want. Daniel Manning, ex-President Cleveland’s Secretary of Treasury, began as a newsboy. John Wanamaker, the nice service provider, commenced in a guide retailer at $1.25 per week. Fred Douglass, the coloured orator, started life as a slave and not using a cent. And P. T. Barnum, the world-famed showman, rode a horse for ten cents a day. No probabilities! You have _five_ on every hand. No capital! It is the _blood_ that fights and wins. If you don’t have any alternative, make it. Do not await one thing to show up; _turn_ one thing up. Be a match for occasions. The world’s nice and rich men have forced their way to success on the bayonet factors of their fingers, and with the iron pry of an unconquerable will. Boys, listed below are a couple of hints for you:
266. FREE SERVICEMake buddies with a clerk. Offer to go along with him on the supply wagon. He might be solely too glad of your help. The subsequent step might be to assist in odd jobs concerning the retailer. After a bit familiarity with the enterprise, you’ll discover a gap. Your pleasant clerk may have a sick day, or a go away of absence, or a trip. The employer is aware of you will have assisted the clerk, and can gladly provide you with his place for a day or per week, and from short-term employment it’s however a step to a everlasting place.
267. SPECIAL DEPARTMENTMake your self accustomed to a specific division of the work of shop or store. Suppose you’re taking a pound of tea. It will shock you to learn the way many issues you possibly can study so insignificant a factor as a pound of tea. Ascertain the totally different manufacturers; what markets they arrive from; the place they’re raised; how they’re manufactured; in what portions they’re shipped; what are the fluctuations in worth; who’re the biggest sellers; in what part of the nation the commerce is mainly carried on. A examine of these items will counsel different branches. A 12 months given to a examine of this type, and you’ll know extra about tea than essentially the most trusted worker, whose data is often of a superficial type. Then, if in case you have a possibility, you possibly can shock the service provider with a data of his enterprise, and he’ll remember to provide you with a spot as quickly as he has a gap. One service provider says: “I always have a place for a person who can tell me anything about my business I don’t know myself.”
268. SHOW SUPERIORITY OF GOODSA man occupied his spare moments in measuring the linear toes of ads contained within the totally different Sunday papers, and despatched the outcome to the one which had printed essentially the most. Go round amongst prospects and discover what model of products they like the most effective. Then report back to the makers of those manufacturers, and chances are you’ll ensure they’ll take an curiosity in you in the event that they see that you simply take an curiosity in them.
269. ADVERTISINGHere is an commercial for the correct of boy: “A brisk-footed, up-to-date boy, not afraid to work, will take a place at low wages for the sake of learning the business.” Here you will have 4 qualities in two lines–quickness, intelligence, trade, and low wages–the 4 issues males are searching for, and such an commercial won’t wait lengthy for a reply.
270. INFLUENCEGreat names are mighty. Introduce your self to the best man in your city, and inform him your {qualifications} and ambitions. Do not be afraid of him. A very nice man is extra keen to do an actual kindness to a meritorious boy than you assume. Robert Lennox, an old-time New York service provider, one Sunday at church noticed a timid younger particular person wanting anxiously round as if for a seat. “Come with me,” stated Mr. L., “and I will give you a seat.” The subsequent day the younger man took a letter of advice to the shop of a service provider. “Can I get a small bill of goods to begin business with?” he inquired. “I will trust anybody that Robert Lennox invites into his pew,” was the reply. “I owe all my success in life,” stated Jonathan Sturges, “to the invitation of Robert Lennox to sit in his pew.” With the great-and-good-man’s indorsement you’ll discover locations ready for you.
271. A TRIAL WEEKAll many boys need is an opportunity. When you apply in useless for a spot, inform the proprietor you’re positive that he wants you, and that you’ll come per week for nothing (higher a month in the event you can afford it). If you actually have the benefit you assume you will have, it is going to be unusual in the event you can not displace some indolent or detached worker.
272. COMMISSIONOffer to promote the supplier’s items on fee. You should go away a deposit to cowl the value of the products. Take the articles to your folks and inform them you are attempting to get a spot. In most circumstances, if the products are low cost, they’ll strive that will help you, and it is possible for you to to make a wonderful report back to your employer. When he sees that your service means cash in his pocket, he might be desperate to make use of you at a wage.
273. THE BOY MAGICIANFor fifty cents you should buy a guide entitled “The Parlor Magician,” containing 100 tips for the drawing room. Just a few weeks’ observe ought to make you grasp of those arts, after which together with your outfit you’re prepared for a fortune-making tour. It is greatest to take alongside a buddy, as in among the most intelligent tips you’ll need an assistant.
274. THE GLASS-BLOWERFor twenty-five cents you will get a guide with full directions within the curious artwork of glass-blowing. The wondrous kinds it is possible for you to to provide, the pleasure of the work, and above all of the fortune derived from the sale of your merchandise, will delight the guts of any boy. There is fortune in glass-blowing after you have mastered the art, however in the event you would make a enterprise of it you will need to apprentice your self for a time to a grasp of the commerce.
275. THE DIME LUNCHThere are thousands of business men and clerks in our large stores and workplaces who would like to pay ten or fifteen cents relatively than exit to a restaurant. Especially is that this the case in wet climate. Pretty bins with tasteful lunches could possibly be ready at a small price, and brought via the locations of enterprise. The necessary merchandise is attractiveness.
276. CANCELLED STAMPSIn each giant metropolis there are sellers who pays you for canceled stamps. Ordinary stamps result in ten cents per thousand, however uncommon ones convey very excessive costs. Ask all your folks for his or her canceled stamps. In a retailer in New York there are a number of barrels stuffed with postage stamps collected by boys. Each barrel accommodates 1,000,000.
277. THE BOYS’ PRESSDo you will get a printing press with full outfit, a full font of kind, and 100 playing cards for $3? You could make fortune simply by printing playing cards and doing different small press jobs. Charge fifty cents, seventy-five cents or $1 for playing cards, in response to the standard of paper and quantity of printing.
278. SAW AND SCROLLMost fascinating articles, each of use and decoration, might be made by the scroll-saw. Some have earned boys’ fortunes in making these curious articles, and there may be as a lot pleasure in making them as in getting the cash for them.
279. THE MAGIC LANTERNThe best possible lantern and slides might be obtained for $6. From that determine the worth runs downward to fifty cents. Purchase a very good one and provides parlor exhibitions at a cost of 5 cents admission. As you change into extra professional, you possibly can enhance your worth. If you’re a success at the business, your providers might be in demand for extra pretentious entertainments, the place you may make $5 or extra in a single night.
280. CANDY MAKINGWhat can please a boy higher than sweet making. Offer your services free for a short while to a confectioner. When you will have discovered the commerce, which you are able to do in a short while, start the business on your own account in a small way. Beginning with these sweets that are simply made, you possibly can prolong your artwork as your corporation will increase till you will have a very good commerce.
281. ODD JOBS“I push baby carriages through the park at five cents apiece,” says a Chicago boy. “I clean and oil bicycles,” says a New York lad. “I stand on the Boulevard and pump up tires,” declares a 3rd. “I buy a dozen lemons and a pound of sugar and sell lemonade on all holidays and at times of parade,” says an enterprising schoolboy. “I carry bundles and valises from the train, and make often fifty cents a day,” says a Boston youth. “I hang up a slate on the front gate and take store orders for neighbors,” says a brilliant village lad.
282. GENERAL EMPLOYMENT AGENCYInkind 100 or extra households in a specific district that at a sure hour of the day you’ll be there to hold messages, roll out barrels of ashes, go on errands, mail letters, black boots, and do no matter work they could require. If the work is enough to warrant it, a enterprise partnership of boys could also be shaped, in order that whereas one is engaged one other can go on his typical rounds, and thus insure punctuality.
283. COLLECT MAGAZINESAlmost each one takes a literary journal, and a few take two or three. After a time they change into refuse on their arms. Many individuals would gladly provide you with a truck-load. But these are value fortune, and second-hand sellers who promote them at 5 cents apiece offers you three cents for them.
284. VACANT LOTIf you reside within the metropolis, get the proprietor of a vacant lot to provide the privilege of elevating greens. With a bit expertise you possibly can simply increase from $50 to $100 value of greens on quite a bit 20 × 100 toes. This will go far to eke out the help of a big household.
285. BICYCLE TEACHINGHere is a area for a stout lad of fifteen years. There are hundreds of modest younger males and females, particularly aged gents, who wish to be taught to trip a wheel, however don’t just like the publicity of a driving academy. Issue some neat playing cards and flow into them from home to accommodate with the data that for the sum of $1 you’ll educate anybody to trip. Most folks have a again yard the place such instruction could possibly be given. Having no hire to pay, you may simply afford to take them for that worth, as you will have the benefit over the skilled teacher, each of cheapness and privateness. There is a number of fortune on this for the correct of a boy.
286. FIRST-COST SALESWhen public consideration is aroused upon any topic, think about how one can flip it to account. Here is what a boy 13 years previous says: “When ‘Coin’s Financial School’ came out and the people were talking about it, I wrote to Mr. Harvey, the author, and got a lot of the books and sold them all before they got into the book stores here. I have made in this and like enterprises $500.” Like alternatives have been introduced in our late struggle, with the Dewey buttons, battleship photos, and so forth. Keep your eyes open. Opportunities to make fortune are all about you. The alert boy makes the profitable man.
Boys, there may be gold in all of the mountains, pearls in all of the seas, and fortune in each road. Elijah Morse at fifteen years of age purchased a recipe for range polish, paying $5 for the supplies. He peddled it in a carpetbag, and from this small starting grew the celebrated “Rising Sun Stove Polish,” whose large manufacturing unit covers 4 acres at West Canton, Mass., and whose proprietor is immensely wealthy. Cornelius Vanderbilt was a poor boy and not using a cent. When he died his property was valued at $40,000,000.
Boys, there may be prosperityfor you. It is to not be discovered, however made by laborious work. Write in your banner, “Luck is a fool. Pluck is a hero.”
