One Thousand Ways to Make Money

Chapter VI
Money in the home acre

Money at Home – What a Single Acre Will Do – Gold in the Soil – How a Dike Made a Klondike – $1,000 at Your Back Door – Nickels in Pickles! Livings in Pickings! – A Fortune in a Fat Slice of Earth – A Great (Grate) Way to Make Money.

There are multitudes of people who have a single acre of ground which could be made to yield much profit if they knew how to handle it. Others have an half or a quarter of an acre; not enough, perhaps, to give them a support, but which would add very materially to their income if properly cultivated. In this chapter we tell you what to do with the “home acre,” with examples of what others have done with it.

149. Money in Pears. – Do you know that one acre of the best yielding pear trees will bring more profit than a five-hundred acre farm without a twentieth of the care or capital?

150. Greenbacks in Greenings. – It is a fact that forty apple trees of the R. H. Greening variety on a single acre have yielded a crop worth $400.

151. Plums of Gold. – A widow has in her garden twelve plum trees from which she regularly receives $60 a year.

152. The Raspberry Acre. – “There are repeated instances of $400 and even $600 being made clear from a single acre of raspberries.” See Morris’ “Ten Acres Enough.”

153. Profits in Big Peaches. – When ordinary peaches were selling at 25 cents a bushel, a grower received $2 a bushel. This is how he did it. When the fruit was as large as a hickory nut, he employed a large force of laborers and picked off more than one-half the fruit. The rest ripened early, grew large, and were of excellent quality. His net profit that year from eleven acres was between $3,000 and $4,000.

154. Easy Tomatoes. – An easy crop, requiring little care. Says a grower in New Jersey: “My single acre of tomatoes netted a clear profit of $120. I am aware that others have realized more than double this sum, but they were experienced hands, while I was new to the business.” Four hundred dollars per acre has frequently been realized from this crop. One person had four acres from which he received from $1,500 to $2,000 annually.

155. Assorted Strawberries. – Here is the experience of a novice: “I ran a ditch through my wet and almost worthless meadow land, and set it out with strawberry plants. The second year I had an enormous crop. The larger berries were separated from the smaller, and the show thus made by the assorted fruit was magnificent. For 600 quarts I received $300, it being a little early for strawberries in the New York market.” It pays to grow early and large fruit.

156. Livings in Lettuce. – Fifteen thousand heads can be set upon an acre. These at the average price of $1.50 per hundred means $225 per acre. Five acres of this crop should give a fair-sized family a good living. It is an auxiliary crop and may be sowed between heads of cabbage.

157. Sovereigns in Spinach. – There are few more important crops in market. It requires little labor, can be cultivated evenings and mornings by a busy man, and pays about $75 an acre.

158. Thousand-Dollar Celery. – Celery may be grown as a second crop after beets, onions, or peas are cleared up. A little reckoning in the number of heads per acre shows that if the grower could get the consumer’s price of eight or ten cents a head, it would yield a clear profit of $1,000.

159. Fortunes in Water-cress. – “I have no doubt,” says a large grower, “that in situations where irrigation could be used at pleasure, or regular plantations made as for cranberries, judging from the enormous price water-cress sells at, picked as it is in the present haphazard way, an acre would sell for $4,000 or $5,000.”

160. The Dollar Blackberry. – When the Lawton first came out, so great was the praise of it and the rush to obtain it that many roots were sent through the mail at $1 apiece, and the lucky discoverer netted a small fortune. But any grower has the same chances to discover a new variety, or to improve on his present stock.

161. Nickels in Pickles. – Do you know that the enormous number of 150,000 cucumbers may be easily grown on an acre of land, and that at the low price of $1.50 per thousand this means $225 per acre? The crop also is very easily raised.

162. The Beet Lot. – You can grow 80,000 roots per acre even when sown a foot apart, yet at $1 per hundred, deducting one-half for expenses, there still results a net value of $400.

163. The Roasting Ear. – You can plant an acre of sweet corn, realize $100 for it, clear it off in August, sow the cleared ground with turnip seed, and from the second crop reap another $100.

164. Paying Peas. – They are the early kind, marketed before the price falls. If grown under glass so as to be crowded on the market in early June, they will bring $4 a bushel, and at that rate an acre will mean $400. If delayed a month, they will not bring a quarter of that sum.

165. Grated Horseradish. – The root is very easily raised, requires little cultivation, but is quite profitable. Grate finely and put in attractive white bottles with red labels. Give it some fancy name, as “Red Orchard,” or “Spring Valley.” “Little Neck” clams got their reputation largely in this way. Sell for ten cents a bottle.

Chapter VII
Money for women

One Hundred Ways a Woman Can Earn a Living – A New Way to Remember Your Friends – The Woman with a Pet Dog – Solving the Servant-girl Question – Shopping for Pleasure and Profit – Profits of a Lady Barber – The Business of “Samples” – The Rise of the Trained Nurse – Dollars in Scents – How to Go to Paris Without Cost – Something that will Sell to Millions of Shoppers – How Clara Louise Kellog Got a Start – A Woman Who Sold her Jewels for Newspapers – Women in the Civil Service.

The field of woman’s work has been vastly augmented during the last half-century. From school teaching and dressmaking, which were about the only occupations open to our grandmothers, the number of ways a woman can make a living have increased to over two hundred. To be exact, there are two hundred and twenty-one occupations open to women, out of a total of two hundred and fifty. It is the design of the author to give only those methods which are unique, unusual, and presumably unknown to most lady readers. In a few cases these money-making methods must be considered as only tributary to a larger source of revenue, as when a salaried position or business enterprise is not sufficient for a support, or when a woman wishes to help the family “eke out a living,” but in most cases it is expected that the suggestions if followed will be an adequate source of income. Several of these ways may often be united where one is insufficient. There is no need for any woman to marry for the sake of a home. The examples given will enable any lady of the least tact, skill, or enterprise, to secure an independent living.

166. The School Store. – If you live near a public school, a small store containing candies, school supplies and knickknacks for the children will be found to bring much profit. The store need not be large or conspicuous. A room in a private house will do. Children, like bees, are all fond of sweets. The store need be open only for an hour in the morning, or noon, and at the close of school, so that other work may be carried on at the same time. A dressmaker, with hours arranged so as not to conflict, could combine very well these two ways of earning a living.

167. The Hand Album. – Have an album made in usual style, except that the places for pictures are omitted. Smear each page with soft wax to the depth of one-sixth of an inch. When a friend calls, slightly heat a page and request him to lay his hands, palms down, upon it. In that way you can preserve the digits of your friends, and you will be surprised to find there is as much difference in hands as in faces. When your album is full, if you choose you can consult a patent lawyer, and arrange to protect your invention. A novelty of this kind would doubtless be immensely popular, and enable the author to reap a financial harvest.

168. The Novelty Bakery. – A woman who knows how to make tempting creations in flour can make a good living. Begin by taking your goods to the Woman’s Exchange, of which almost every large city has at least one. If your baking is novel, from the Exchange will come demands from private customers, and even orders from hotels. A New England woman, beginning in a small way, in a few months had an income of $33 per week.

169. The Front Yard Snap. – With a photographer’s outfit, go through the better class residential sections of a city or town and take the pictures of the children which you will see in every street, and in almost every front yard. Get a child in a most striking position, on a wheel, or in a swing or hammock, or at play. Secure parent’s consent to take the picture. No matter if they declare that they will not purchase, they will yield when they see a pretty picture of their child. Much money can be made at this.

170. The Pet Dog. – Do you know that pet dogs often bring enormous prices? You want the Yorkshire terriers, or the King Charles spaniels, or some of the rare Japanese breeds. A lady in New York counts on $500 yearly as the income from the families raised from one dog, a King Charles spaniel.

171. The Box Lunch. – There is a large field for some one to cultivate in our great office buildings and factories. Thousands would pay for a light lunch which costs five cents, and is sold for ten cents. Rent a small room near a business center. Make known your occupation. Go through the places of business if possible, or if not take a stand near the door, and if your lunch is tastefully arranged, it will find many buyers. After a time you will get regular customers. Profits 100 per cent.

172. The Hair-Dresser. – A refined business for women is the dressing of hair. For $25 you can learn the business. Place samples of all kinds of bangs and switches in the window. They can be sold for a great profit, and if industrious, you can build up in a good neighborhood an excellent paying business, and best of all, it can be done in your own home.

173. Typo and Steno. – In many large cities typewriting and stenography may be learned in the Y. W. C. A. Then with a machine and a rented room cheaply furnished a woman is all ready for business. Many women are making $25 per week. One enterprising young lady takes dictated matter in short hand, and then typewrites it at her leisure, thus saving much time to her busy patrons.

174. The Sewing School. – Here is a vast unworked field. If you understand needlework, and have a little business enterprise, you are certain to succeed. Advertise in the papers and get out circulars, stating that for the small sum of twenty-five cents per week you will teach all pupils plain and fancy sewing. Form your pupils into classes, and if you are gentle and patient, as well as skillful at the needle, you will in a short time have the work which mothers are glad to get rid of. And it can all be done in your own home.

175. Flat Hunting. – Rent a small office and advertise that for a trifling fee you will exactly suit persons looking for homes, and save them all the trouble. Three or four hours a day are spent in house-hunting, and two in the office. You must have a book with your customers’ demands set down in detail, and another book with a careful description of each house to let. A commission might be exacted from both owner and renter. An enterprising woman could in a short time build up a large business in this way.

176. A Tea Room. – Hire a counter in a fashionable store much frequented by ladies. Have a sign that fresh tea is sold here, made to order with good cream. Small accessories may be fresh rolls, toasted crumpets, bread and butter, and other light articles of food. Ladies weary with shopping will surely come to your counter to be refreshed. A lady in one of our large cities made a fortune by this means. The requirements are dazzling cleanliness, a smiling welcome, a cheerful place near the door, and hot, fresh tea.

177. Dress Mending. – Here is a good field. There is a vast army of women who would patronize a mending office rather than run around the city to find a sewing woman, or use their own limited time in the use of the needle. Have a tariff of prices for mending gloves, sewing on buttons, renewing the sleeves, putting braid around the bottom of dresses, etc. The right woman could earn a good living at this business.

178. Lace Handling. – The mending and washing of fine laces is a work that is given to experts, and commands high prices, yet is easily learned. In five lessons at a dollar apiece any lady of ordinary intelligence can learn, or, cheaper yet, one can sometimes give services in return for instruction. You are then in a position to earn a great deal of money. Issue a thousand circulars to the wealthier people of the city, letting them know of your enterprise. This plan combines the three advantages of fascinating employment, good pay, and work done at home.

179. Intelligence Office on the subscription plan. – Buy a copy of the “Social Register;” send circulars to all persons named therein; announce that you have opened an intelligence office on a new plan. For $10 a year you will keep them supplied with as many servants as they want, and you will guarantee satisfaction. Make a specialty of securing servants for people going out of town. Thus you will go far toward solving the perplexing question for your patrons, and make an excellent living for yourself.

180. Professional Mending. – Hotels, boarding houses and bachelor apartments have loud and long calls for mending. Mothers with little ones, professional women, and school-teachers, as well as men, have neither time nor taste for this kind of work. Have an outfit in a small satchel, which should contain a light lunch, a white apron, and various assortments of tapes, buttons, etc. In a short time one would have a regular round of customers. One lady who did this never had to go out of one large hotel for work.

181. The College Cram. – There is room for a lady with a knowledge of the classics and a faculty for teaching to take boys and young men and carry them over the hard spots in their education. These hard spots, which are known as examinations, conditions, etc., are the bane and bugbear of many a young man’s education. In one town a lady earns $100 per month by taking pupils through the intricacies of algebra and Latin.

182. Shoe and Wrap Room. – A room in some fashionable quarter where ladies could go after a journey on the cars and have the dust brushed off their wraps and their shoes polished would doubtless prove remunerative.

183. General Convenience Room. – The last idea might be combined with this. Have a room in which, for the charge of a dime, one could get a glass of ice-water, could read the morning paper, have his clothes brushed, and look over a map of the city or a directory, and have all the advantages of a toilet room.

184. Sick-Room Delicacies. – Another unoccupied field is the preparation of delicacies for the sick. Bouillon, chocolate, jellies and many other kinds of delicacies could be prepared and placed in a show window in some fashionable part of the town. The conditions of success are exquisite neatness and daintiness. It would pay well, for people stop at no cost in providing for their sick friends.

185. Shopping Commission. – If you live at a little distance from the city, a good business may be built up by shopping for your friends and neighbors. By dint of experience you know where to buy, and when your practice is built up you can buy cheaper by reason of larger purchases, and you can give both of these advantages to your patrons. Many women might find here both a congenial and profitable field.

186. School Luncheon. – Here is another good field. Tens of thousands of schoolchildren have to eat a cold luncheon. Rent a small room near a schoolhouse, and provide bouillon, clam and chicken soups, sandwiches, baked beans, lamb pies, with white and brown bread, plain cake and fruit. You will help to preserve the digestion of myriads of children, as well as fill your own pocket with cash.

187. Hatching Birds. – Buy half a dozen songsters at $1.50 apiece, the females at half that price. Get proper cages, mate the birds, provide soft nests made chiefly of cotton; and with care you can do an excellent business. Birds in good condition mate two or three times a year. One lady, with eighteen pairs of canary birds netted $500 a year.

188. Butter and Egg Store. – Butter and eggs are two things which every housekeeper wants fresh, but which are difficult to obtain. Get some reliable farmer to supply you at stated dates, and procure a list of customers. Then with a boy to deliver and a push cart for the merchandise, you have little to do but figure your profits. An advantage of this plan is that it gives you the most of your time for other work. The business may be extended almost ad infinitum.

189. Saratoga Chips. – These are a sample of what may be done with a single good article by one who knows how. One family has a weekly income of $12.50 from this means.

190. Fancy Lamp Shades. – Made of crêpe papers they are very cheap, and look almost as well as silk. Any woman of ordinary ability can make them, and they sell readily. She can buy for sixty cents material for a shade which she can sell for $1.25, thus more than doubling her money.

191. Bee-Keeping. – This is another means of large profit. It can be carried on even in a city where there is a small plot of ground. Fill all the space not occupied by the hives with white clover and such other flowers as your study of bees will tell you they delight in. Buy a book about bees. The advantage of this industry is that the cost of supporting the bees is practically nothing. There is no risk. After the first small expenditure of capital for boxes and hives all is profit.

192. Cleansing and Bleaching. – There are many things too costly to be intrusted to an ordinary washerwoman, and many other cleansing processes that do not come within that woman’s sphere. Cleaning feathers, velvets, furs, gloves, silks, and many other articles afford a wide opportunity for one who understands the business. Who can take grease spots from carpets, fruit stains from napkins and table covers, paint from windows, thumb-marks from books, and scratches from furniture? Here is a useful field.

193. Fancy Soaps. – Fortunes have been made from fancy soaps. The process of making is easy, and the variety of method is so great, and the possible ingredients so many, that there need be no danger of infringing on anyone’s trademark. Get a recipe-book and practice on the kinds given in the formulas; then branch out into new kinds. The sale will depend upon your ability. Give your product an attractive appearance.

194. Home Architecture. – Write to the secretaries or agents of church building societies. Many of these societies publish pamphlets, in which, in addition to the designs for churches, will be found many cuts for pretty little parsonages. From these you can compile an attractive little book of home architecture, which would sell to every person contemplating building a home; and almost every one living in a rented house hopes some day to rear his own domicile. If you have a friend who is an architect, he would procure for you other books of plans.

195. Home Ornaments. – What is a home without at least a few trifling ornaments? An inventive mind can think of a hundred inexpensive ways of beautifying a room. But most people are not inventive. If, therefore, you have that gift, and can think of a few novelties in lace and embroidered goods which you can make and sell for fractions of a dollar, you will have opened your way to constant and remunerative employment.

196. Doubtful Debts. – It is well known that in efforts that require perseverance and persistence women succeed better than men. Grocers, butchers, real estate agents, and in fact almost every business man, has a large number of accounts, a considerable per cent. of which he considers worthless. To any one who could succeed in collecting them, the dealer would give a very large per cent., in some cases even amounting to half the bill. Many of these are really collectible if attempted with the persuasive arts of womanhood. Here is a large and profitable field for a woman having the right qualifications.

197. Dressing Dolls. – A fair profit can be made by taking orders for making dolls’ dresses, as they can be bought and dressed for about one-half the cost of those already dressed. Persons giving the order should be required to bring the materials for the dress.

198. Fruit Preservers. – Vast numbers of people are in the country during the fruit season, and cannot “do up” fruits; they must depend on the grocer. Let a thrifty, economical woman who knows how equip herself with sugar, fruit, cans and preserve kettles, and she will not long wait for customers if she makes her business known. The second year, her patrons having tested her talents and tasted her fruits, and finding them so much better than “store goods,” will flood her with orders.

199. A Mushroom Cellar. – An enterprising woman hired a cellar at a rent of $10 per month, had it fitted up with shelves, placed on these shelves in order, straw, fertilizers, and soil; then put on mushroom spawn, renewing it at intervals, as also at longer intervals the soil. Average sale of mushrooms per week, $31.50. Average expenses, $8.80. Profit per week, $22.70.

200. Poultry Raising. – Following is the experience of another woman in raising poultry. She bought forty-five Minorcas, because they lay a large white egg, and are nonsitters and prolific layers. Each hen laid on an average one hundred and sixty-four eggs per annum. She purchased also forty Brahmas for sitters and for fattening. Total expenses for fowls and for keeping, $278.70. Total receipts, $1,144.11. Net profit, $865.31.

201. Home Hothouse. – Thousands of people will buy plants already started who would not go to the trouble to buy seeds, slips, and pots. There is also a large demand for cut flowers all the year round. Have a cellar for rooting, and a south room for sunning. A liberal use of cards and circulars, stating what you propose to do, will surely bring custom. The secret of the florists’ business is to provide flowers for every month in the year, and to force or retard the flowers that suit the demands of each month. This is a very pretty employment for a woman, and can be done in her own home. There are three hundred and twelve floral establishments in this country managed by women. The work is easy and tasteful to ladies. The elements of success are the habit of early rising, business ability, close superintendence of laborers, intelligent advertising, knowledge of plants, and promptness in filling orders. The best location is near a large cemetery. One florist thus located takes in from $1,500 to $2,000 per month during the busy season.

202. Art Needlework. – Here is the way a woman paid off a $600 mortgage on her home, and at the same time attended to her domestic duties. She bought linens stamped with designs, and gave her spare time to decorative embroidery. She disposed of her work at the Woman’s Exchange, and at the art stores. Six hundred dollars in spare minutes are not a bad showing. Besides, one could form a class and add the income from teaching. Mrs. Clara Louise Kellogg began by giving lessons in embroidery at the age of fourteen. Before her fifteenth birthday she was earning $30 a week with these classes.

203. News Agency. – Keep the daily papers. Almost any lady who will go into the business could count on one hundred patrons; and these by the recommendation of friends could easily be increased to five hundred. One hundred patrons would mean at least $3 per week, and five hundred patrons would mean at least $15 per week. Tact, enterprise, and good service are the qualities needed. If your place is on the main street, and you can make a show-window for periodicals, your income will be much augmented. A woman came to this country and heard of a news stand for sale for $250. She sold her jewels to purchase it. With her two brothers she made it a success, and it now supports three families. “Courtesy and application,” she says, “were my capital.”

204. Women’s Wants. – Take advantage of bargain sales-ribbons, silks, lace, and velvets. They can be had, if you watch the papers, at very trifling cost, but wondrous are the shapes into which they can be made by woman’s deft fingers. You can make boas, ruchings, berthas, lace bibs, draped collars, belts, etc. Every woman wants these things, and will buy them if they can be found in colors and style required. They can be sold at moderate cost, and at a very large profit.

205. Home Printing Press. – Pay $10 for a press, and a like sum for type and other accessories. Print visiting cards, at-home cards, business, reception, and wedding cards, tickets of admission, etc. Give a specimen of your work to every one of your friends, and request their patronage; place circulars with samples and rates in the stores, and solicit the favors of business men. Doing the work in your own home, you have no extra rent to pay as have printing establishments, and you can do the work much cheaper and still make a profit.

206. Short Service Bureau. – Many people want help in an emergency, and for a short time only. The housewife is suddenly taken ill, a servant without warning leaves, company unexpectedly comes, stoves are to be put up, yards are to be cleaned, gardens dug, snow shoveled, clothes washed, and a hundred other things done requiring short service only. Keep a list of men and women who go out at labor. Know accurately their whereabouts every day. Be ready instantly to supply any one’s demand. When it is known that you furnish that kind of service, your office will be in demand, and your patrons well willing to pay.

207. Delicatessen Room. – Here is a paying business that is not overcrowded, but success depends upon the quality of the goods. Make yourself a specialist in cookery. Homemade pies, plum puddings, orange marmalade, salted almonds, fancy cakes, jellies and jams can be made and sold at a good profit. Bakers and grocers will be forced to keep them when once there is a demand for your goods. This is no speculative idea. Many a woman has not only made a living, but accumulated a snug little fortune by this means.

208. Miscellaneous Exchange. – Many people have no use for some of their possessions, but desire something else; others would be glad to get what these possess. Establish a place for the exchange of typewriters, sewing machines, bicycles, baby carriages, jewelry, bric-à-brac, etc. Charge both parties to the exchange a small commission. This plan has the advantage that it requires no capital, and hence has no risk.

209. Cap and Apron Plan. – Here is a plan available near any large hotel. Have a place for the sale of aprons, waiters’ jackets, cooks’ caps, etc. Get out a great quantity of circulars, stating your plan in an attractive form, and have a boy to distribute them-one upon whom you can rely to hand one to every employee of hotel shop and store. Repeat the circulars every week until your business is thoroughly known. Arrange to keep the articles in repair, and engage the agency of some laundry establishment for their washing; then with the work of selling, repairing and laundrying these goods you will have an established business.

210. Kitchen Utensils. – As a rule you can sell five kitchen utensils where you can sell one book. The former shows for itself; the latter must be exhibited and explained. Send to a large wholesaler for the most modern samples of labor-saving tools for the kitchen. Test them for a few days yourself. Then start out among your neighbors. A housewife will purchase anything that lightens labor if it is only cheap. An enthusiastic person can make many dollars a day selling useful articles for the kitchen. A woman for three months averaged $4 a day selling an improved coffee pot.

211. Wedding Manager. – How many brides shrink from the work of a large wedding, while at the same time feeling under obligations to have one! A lady who has an artistic taste and a knowledge of the best social customs may very properly undertake the management of a wedding. She should know what is proper for the bride’s outfit, and how to dress her, how to decorate the rooms, what style of invitations to issue, and in short, all the delightfully perplexing details of a wedding. For this work she has a right to charge a fair sum, and if the wedding proves to be a very pretty one, she is entitled to the credit of it. When once the office of a lady manager is recognized, and the relief afforded to the bride’s family appreciated, the fashion will quickly spread, and others will wish to avail themselves of your taste and skill.

212. Foreign Homes. – Here is an example of the pluck and enterprise of an American girl: Miss Mary Widdicomb went to Paris in company with a lady friend, and established a home for Americans in that capital. Her rooms accommodated thirty-five, and such was the success of her venture that she is about to open another apartment. Think of it! You can go to a French city and hear the American language, associate with American people, and have American surroundings the same as if in the United States. Here is an opportunity for young women with small capital to see a foreign country and make money at the same time.

213. Lady Barber. – There is a school in New York for the instruction of barbers. Three months’ apprenticeship will give you a knowledge of the trade. One lady who graduated a year ago from the school now has two assistants, and is earning from $6 to $10 a day.

214. Mineral Collections for Schools. – Dana’s Mineralogy gives fourteen hundred places in the United States where rare minerals are found. There are 240,968 public schools, and each one needs a mineral collection. Why has no one thought of gathering these rare stones and selling them to our public schools? At $1 a school, the sale should be $240,698, but many rare collections would bring $5, and even $10 each.