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.
215. TURKISH BATH.--One lady opened a place for Turkish and Russian
baths. She went around among her lady friends and acquaintances and
secured the promise of a paying patronage. Five promised their patronage
every week, eight every two weeks, and twenty-four at least once a
month. Thus the sum of $60 per month was assured at the start, and this
paid for rent and assistants, with a good margin of profit.
216. TRAINED NURSES.--Trained nurses in our large cities command $25 a
week. The duties are exacting, but not difficult. Assistant nurses
receive $15. The latter have less responsibilities, and are not required
to spend so long a time in training. This is an inviting field for
ladies who have gifts and tastes for this work.
217. TRAVELING COMPANION.--If you have a good education and can make
yourself agreeable, your services ought not to go long begging for an
engagement in this delightful occupation. Watch the advertisements in
the daily papers; better yet, insert an advertisement of your own,
modestly stating your qualifications. The remuneration depends upon the
wealth and liberality of your employer.
218. PAPER FLOWERS.--This has become a distinct trade. You can learn in
a few months. There is a paper flower store in Broadway, New York, which
does an immense business. There are great possibilities in this line in
every city.
219. FRENCH PERFUMER AND COMPLEXION EXPERT.--How does this
sound?--Madame Racier, French Perfumer. Equip yourself with perfumes,
essences, tinctures, extracts, spirit waters, cosmetics, infusions,
pastiles, tooth powders, washes, cachous, hair dyes, sachets, essential
oils, etc. All ladies like perfumes. Once let it be known that you are
an authority on the subject, and you will lack neither patronage nor
profits.
220. A WOMAN’S HOTEL.--A hotel exclusively for women would no doubt be a
paying investment. More than fifty thousand ladies without male escorts
stop every year in the hotels of New York City. A very large proportion
of this number would patronize a cheap, clean, well-kept place, fitted
up and conducted solely for the comfort of ladies.
221. GUIDE FOR SHOPPERS.--A department store in New York recently made a
census of its customers, and from the count kept for a single week it
was estimated that 3,125,000 persons passed through its doors every
year. This for a single store. But there are thousands of stores. Vast
numbers of these people are from the country, and do not know where they
can trade to the best advantage. What a field is here for a shoppers’
guide! Ascertain what stores make a specialty of certain goods, what
ones sell the cheapest in certain lines, and what days they make
bargains in certain wares. Show by what routes the places are best
reached, where to dine, etc. Fill a little book with just the
information a shopper wants to know; call it “The Ladies’ Shopping
Guide,” put it on the market at ten cents, and you can sell millions of
them.
222. BICYCLE INSTRUCTION.--Why, may not a woman teach “the wheel” as
well as a man? Many women are restrained from learning through the
dislike of falling from the wheel into the arms of a strange man,
commonly a negro. A woman’s bicycle academy would pay in any large city.
223. COOKING SCHOOL.--Madam Parloa and Madam Rorer have set the example,
and they will be sure to have many imitators. A course of instruction in
cooking, costing $10, is a vastly better investment to any young woman
than a course on a piano costing $100, or many times that sum. First,
learn the art thoroughly yourself and then teach it to others. There is
money in this, but it needs taste, tact and work.
224. THE BOARDING HOUSE.--One who has a taste for cooking and a little
marketing skill can do well in this somewhat overworked and not always
paying business. The gains increase from zero with one boarder, in
geometrical progression, until $1 a head is realized with twenty
boarders. Profits, $20 a week. With great skill and management this may
be doubled.
225. PEN ENGRAVING.--If you have a circle of one hundred friends, and
can secure their patronage, you can make a fair living for one person at
engraving cards. A lady with a large calling list should engrave $500
worth of cards a year. Expenses, $25. Remuneration for work, $475.
226. A LADIES’ RESTAURANT.--A restaurant where delicacies pleasing to
ladies are made a specialty would surely pay. A lady who recently
established one adjoining a large department store has been obliged to
enlarge her premises to accommodate her crowd of patrons.
227. A WOMAN’S NEWSPAPER.--One has just been started in a Western city.
The editors, reporters, printers, and press-feeders, are all women. Of
course it advocates woman’s reform. An enterprise of this kind requires
considerable capital, and is not without risk, but a woman of ability
and experience can make it pay as well as a man, besides the advantage
of an appeal directly to her sex in support of a paper conducted in this
manner.
228. ADVERTISING AGENT.--A lady by her courtesy, tact, and gentle
address, is especially fitted for this work. All our great newspapers
and magazines pay large salaries to successful agents, for, as a rule,
the advertising department is the one that pays the dividends of the
business. The shopkeepers and others who, by reason of repeated
solicitations give the cold shoulder to the male agent, would listen at
least respectfully to a lady. On the whole, this field presents to
ladies who have the right qualities better opportunities than to men.
229. THE CIVIL SERVICE.--This is now open to women. There are more then
ten thousand of these places to be filled every year. Clerkships range
from $600 to $3,000. Very few fall below $1,000. These places, according
to the Civil Service Law, are filled by competitive examinations. There
are thousands of bright young women who secured these places, not
through any governmental pull, but by sheer merit in examinations. Get a
book entitled “Civil Service,” by John M. Comstock, Chairman of the
United States Board of Examiners, for the Customs Service in New York
City, and published by Henry Holt & Co. This book will give you a
complete table of the positions open, the salaries attached to each, and
a list of questions required to be answered.
230. POST-PRANDIAL CLASSES.--Few, even among educated women, are masters
of themselves to the extent of being able to rise before an audience,
and without previous preparation express themselves clearly and
creditably on whatever subject may be under discussion. A woman in New
York, a member of Sorosis, made a reputation for bright, witty,
after-dinner speeches. As she earned her living by newspaper work, a
friend said to her, “Why don’t you add to your income by teaching other
women how to say a few graceful words in public?” She caught at the
idea, and organized classes in the hitherto untaught art of
post-prandial speech-making, and had capital success, earning $500 by it
in one season.
231. WOMEN DRUGGISTS.--The neatness of women, their delicacy and
attention to details, qualify them admirably for the drug business. At
the Woman’s Infirmary, New York, the apothecary department is entirely
in the hands of ladies. Drug clerks receive on the average of $9 per
week. There are few lady proprietors, but there is no reason why there
should not be more, as the business is very profitable.
232. ALMANAC MAKERS.--Of late years many of the great dailies issue
yearly almanacs. The mass of matter which goes to make up these
publications can be collected as well by women, who have gifts for
details, as by those of the other sex. In one publication house a woman
is paid $30 a week to manage one of these almanacs, and in another $20
for the compiling of an index for the daily paper.
233. WOMEN LECTURERS.--Women of talent have earned a competence and
almost a fortune on the platform. Lucy Stone was sometimes paid as high
as $260 for a lecture, and Anna Dickinson also received large sums. The
lady who hopes to succeed in this field must have fluency, the gift of
oratory, self-poise, and a certain dramatic or magnetic power.
234. MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTORS.--In this work women are paid as much as men,
and their facile pens are often able to turn out equal and even
superior work. The Harpers pay $10 a page; the Atlantic Monthly, $6 to
$10; the North American Review, $1.50.
235. WOMEN PHYSICIANS.--Says a recent publication: “There is a real
necessity for women physicians; there are many ladies who prefer them,
and in some cases will consult no other. There are now over one thousand
lady physicians in the United States, but the number will soon be
doubled, and even trebled. Several of these lady physicians are making
over $2,000 a year.” One of them says: “I have several well-to-do
families whom I charge by the year. I charge $200, if they are people
who are considered well off; less, if they are poor.”
236. PAPER BOX MAKING.--Hundreds of women are making paper boxes, but as
employees, not as proprietors. A woman made the first orange box in
California. Seeing that it was a good thing, and that there would soon
be a demand for others, she built a factory, and is now turning out
fifty thousand boxes a year.
237. HORTICULTURE.--Here is an example of what a California woman can
do. A widow having four boys purchased thirty-six acres of land in San
Jose, and under her personal care, aided by her boys, planted the tract
with apricot, cherry and prune trees. For four years she did all the
pruning, a difficult task for a refined and delicate woman, accustomed
as she had been to luxuriant ease. Her prune trees alone netted $2,700
in one year.
238. VOCALISTS.--A lady with a good voice is certain of making a
living, some have made fortunes with it. The demand is wide and various.
If your taste does not incline to the stage, there is still a large
field in the church. All large churches, and many small ones now, have
paid choirs. The leading vocalists are commonly well paid. There are a
great number of altos and sopranos in New York and Brooklyn, and in the
fashionable suburbs, who receive $1,000 a year, or an excess of that
sum. And this is an excellent compensation when it is remembered that
the singer has nearly all her time in which to pursue some other
vocation.
239. PACKING TRUNKS.--This is a Paris occupation carried on exclusively
by women. You leave your order at the office of the transportation
company, and say when you want a professional packer. She comes, and is
paid fifty cents, and sometimes $1 an hour for her services. She has
genius for folding dresses so that they can be carried all over the
world without a wrinkle. She wraps bonnets in tissue paper. She tucks
away bric-à-brac in a way that makes breakage impossible. This industry
might be introduced profitably into this country.
240. WOMEN COSTUMERS.--Costumes for the stage are now gotten up mostly
by men. A woman of taste and ability could make a success of this
business. Many rich ladies would consult them in matters of personal
wardrobe.
241. EXPRESS OFFICE.--A woman can sit in an office as well as a man. One
woman in Boston tried it four years ago, beginning in a modest way. Now
she has three offices and five teams in constant use.
242. A FANCY BAKERY.--An elegant and educated young woman in San
Francisco took a dingy, dying little bakeshop, with sickening sights and
smells. She put it in order. In two months she had cleared $700, and in
four months $1,800. Another woman in Brooklyn has just opened a bakery
under very flattering prospects. She works on the plan of exquisite
neatness, trimming her windows like those of a fancy goods’ dealer, and
wrapping her bread in tissue paper.
243. WOMEN GROCERS.--There are not many women in the grocer business,
but there is no reason why there should not be. A woman grocer in a
Western State who has been established since 1860, has a business worth
$80,000 a year.
244. FOOD AND MEDICINE SAMPLES.--Proprietors of patent medicines and
foods will give you a large commission to introduce their inventions
into homes, and if successful, you will soon be employed at a good
salary. These proprietors often pay ladies to introduce samples at
country stores. The storekeeper will give you room rent free for a few
days, with the understanding that he alone has the sale of the article
in the place.
245. SAMPLES IN STORES.--Ladies of tact and good address are receiving
fair salaries in the introduction of new articles. Every inventor is
anxious to introduce his goods, and every storekeeper is equally
desirous to sell. Call upon the proprietor of some new article of
household use, secure territory, and then solicit space in a country
store. After three or four days in one store you should go to another,
or perhaps to the next town. You may have to begin on a commission, but
if successful you can soon command a salary.
246. SAMPLES FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE.--Others find ample remuneration in
introducing new articles from house to house. We know a little lady in
Brooklyn who is paid well for giving away samples of a new baby food.
This is much more pleasant work than that of importuning people to
purchase.
247. THE WOMAN BEAUTIFIER.--Whatever is of the nature of beauty appeals
to the heart of woman. A lady who has the secret of making other women
beautiful cannot fail of success. After making a study of your business,
advertise that you understand the art of removing moles, wrinkles,
warts, wens, birthmarks, tan, freckles, and superfluous hair. If
successful in pleasing one or two leaders of fashion, you will have
plenty of custom.
248. THE MANICURE PARLOR.--The manicure business is yearly increasing.
For $15 you can learn the business. Implements will cost you $10 more.
With the capital of $25 you can begin business, and, if ladylike in
appearance and gentle in touch, you can build up a big business in the
right neighborhood. Any lady would prefer in this art to patronize one
of her own sex. Get out cards and circulars and scatter them freely.
There is room for many women to excel in this field. One lady who
entered upon this work two years ago says she is on the road to a
fortune.
249. THE MASSAGE TREATMENT.--Another lady is having great success with
the massage treatment. She has now more than seventy regular patrons.
This method of cure is easily learned and readily applied. Hardly a
lady among your acquaintances is in good health. It is a proverb that no
woman is well. A vast proportion of these cases are nervous and will
yield to the massage treatment. If you have strong muscles you could
readily achieve a large practice by this system, especially in summer
resorts and places where invalids flock.
250. ICE CREAM PARLOR.--This is not new, but possesses possibilities of
a good living where the field is not overworked. There are five things
necessary to success, and in the following order of importance: An
attractive place in a clean, fashionable locality; good and generous
plates of cream; unexcelled neatness; polite service; and popular
prices. We have known a lady commencing business on these principles to
oust quickly an older establishment run on slacker methods.
251. FLOWER PACKETS.--Buy quantities of flower seeds of all varieties.
Put them up in very small envelopes, a few seeds in each one, advertise
that you will send samples for a penny a kind, ten for six cents,
twenty-five for fifteen cents, fifty for twenty-five cents, etc. A large
mail envelope will hold fifty or more of the smaller ones containing
seeds.
252. LADY CATERER.--A woman has a fine chance to succeed as a caterer.
Her taste in arranging tables should at least make her hold her own with
business rivals of the opposite sex. Mrs. A. B. Marshall, a woman
caterer of London, often manages a supper for one hundred guests.
253. DELICACIES FOR INVALIDS.--This is a new field which is being
worked with much promise. “Mrs. Kate Teachman,” as she is known in the
New York _Sun_, is working in this line with great success. She says:
“Of course, if you want this sort of thing you must pay for
it--sixty-five cents for a pint of broth, seventy-five cents for a pint
of puree, sixty-five cents for a half-pint of jelly, twenty-five cents
for chopped chicken sandwiches.”
254. INSECT POWDER.--A California woman who now owns four hundred acres
of land has a history that ought to inspire other women with a belief in
their ability to get on in the world. In 1861 her husband died, leaving
her with a debt of $1,400, three children, and a small farm mortgaged.
Within five years she had paid the mortgage by taking boarders, raising
chickens, and doing whatever offered. In 1877 she began to raise
pyrethrum, the plant from which insect powder is made, some years having
one hundred acres planted with it. Now she has from fifty to eighty
employees of both sexes, and is said to be worth half a million dollars.
255. RICE CULTIVATOR.--A few years ago a young Iowa girl-squatter, with
her sixteen-year-old brother, took up a government claim in Louisiana,
and went to planting rice, the first crop of which paid her $1,000. She
lives in a three-room cottage, and has a few fruit trees, plenty of good
fences, and a sea of waving rice-blades. Her nearest neighbor is another
girl-farmer who also settled a government claim, and is bossing an
orchard that is giving her a comfortable living.
256. YEAST CAKES.--Here is what one woman did: Being thrown on her own
resources, instead of following the beaten path of custom, she engaged
in something novel. She made yeast cakes. Gradually her trade increased
until she was obliged to hire help, and in time had to build an addition
to the house to provide room for her thriving business. She now makes a
good living, finding her work congenial as well as profitable. Here is
her recipe: Take one dozen hops and boil two or three hours, remove from
the fire and strain through a sieve, adding boiling water until there
are three or four quarts of the liquid. Then thicken with canaille until
quite stiff; and one-half tablespoonful of ginger and one-quarter cup of
molasses; let it stand until cool, add one-half cup of salt yeast, or
one cake of lard, and in the morning stir down with a little fine
cornmeal. Let it rise again, then mix with cornmeal, roll, and cut with
a cutter. This rule makes one hundred cakes. They sell for seventy-five
cents per hundred, and retail for one cent apiece.
257. PHYSICAL CULTURE.--There are twelve million young women in the
United States. The great majority of them have an ailment of some kind;
in fact, it is almost impossible to find a perfectly healthy woman.
Physical culture will add years to one’s life. An eminent physician has
estimated that twenty-four million years, or an average of two years
each, can be added to the lives of our young women by simple bodily
exercise of one hour each day. Get a book, study a chart, employ a
teacher; then, after a thorough course go about among your friends and
form a class. Induce your pupils to bring other pupils. Advertise,
lecture, give class exhibitions. Charge $5 a quarter for a class of
twelve; $4 for one of fifteen; $3 for one of twenty. Mr. John D. Hoover,
of Los Angeles, Cal., says: “When I entered a college of oratory, I was
almost penniless. I took a special course in physical culture, with a
view to teaching that art. It is now eighteen months since I left the
college, and during that time I have earned in clear cash from teaching
physical culture the sum of $20,960. I have 1,507 pupils. My sister also
has been very successful in teaching since she graduated, and has made
quite a large sum of money.”
258. HOUSE CLEANING.--Enterprising men have taken up the work of house
cleaning with considerable success, but the business can be managed
better by a woman than by a man. If your patrons are not too many, you
can personally superintend the work in each house yourself to the great
satisfaction of the lady, who would commonly prefer to have it managed
by one of her own sex. If your business increases so as to require your
presence in the office, you can send a lady assistant to superintend the
work. Have a fixed price per room where there is no extra work, such as
painting, kalsomining, and paper hanging. In the latter case it is
better to take the work by the job.
259. SELLING OYSTERS.--Here is the way a woman with five little children
gets a living: She hires a boy to open the oysters, which she then puts
up in little pint pails and takes from house to house. She has many
customers whom she serves regularly on certain days. Sales per week,
fifty pints, or twenty-five quarts. Boy’s wages, $1. Net, $3.
260. PIE CART.--Hear what another woman says: “I have a little pie cart.
It is nothing but a pie-crate mounted on wheels. I bake every morning
ten pies and in the afternoon I sell them hot from door to door. I make
about seven cents on a large pie, and four cents on small one.” Average
earnings per day, fifty cents.
261. MEN’S NECK TIES.--As every man, at least every well-dressed man,
wears a tie, which must be renewed several times a year--white lawns
every day--the number in demand is enormous. First learn the business,
and then if you can sell them a little under the manufacturers’ price
you are sure to dispose of all you can make. One girl earned $12 a week
in this way.
262. DANCING TEACHER.--The natural grace of women fits them better than
men to be teachers of this art, especially to be instructors of young
girls. Dancing teachers charge on the average $15 a quarter. There are
several very successful lady teachers.
263. HABERDASHER.--The selling of small articles of the dress and toilet
is profitable if the location is good and the competition not too
severe. Where one cannot purchase the articles outright, she can sell on
commission. Dealers in small wares of this kind often take in from $12
to $20 a day, of which on the average, one-sixth is profit.
264. LADY ARCHITECT.--There is no reason why women should not succeed in
this occupation, since it is one in which taste is a chief requisite.
Several young lady graduates of college have entered it recently, and
with flattering success. Architects charge about three per cent. on
contracts.
265. LOST AND FOUND AGENCY.--In every large city numbers of articles are
lost by the owners and found by others every day. A single New York
paper contains daily from ten to twenty advertisements of lost
articles. Open a small office, advertise in the “Lost and Found” column
of the paper that you will receive any articles that may be found, and
charge the owner a small commission. The agency could be carried on in
connection with some other light business.