STRANGE WAYS OF MAKING MONEY.
A Thousand Ways to Make a Living--The Humbug of Great Names--The
Mania for Old and Rare Things--The “Relic” Manufacture--The
“Imitation Enterprise”--The “Box Office” Clique--The “Cure”
Fad--The “Fake” News Agency--The Museum “Freak”--The “Treasure”
Excitements--The “Literary” Bureau--The “Watered” Stock.
There are ways of making money that lie so far out of the ordinary
channels as to warrant this chapter. Some of them are only strange
because they are new, as the telephone and the wood pulp were strange a
generation ago. Others, being decidedly odd in themselves, will
doubtless always be pursued only by a few, and considered by the many to
be curious ways of making a living.
Success is easy when once you succeed. This is the case with goods which
have achieved a name. Frequently the founder of the name is bankrupt,
retired or dead; but the goods continue to be manufactured and sold
under the original trade-mark. Countless thousands of dollars are paid
every year for shoes, hats, hardware, groceries, and innumerable other
articles, at rates above the average price when the goods are not a
farthing better. The deluded buyers are simply paying for a name.
Others have a mania for the collection of all kinds of bric-à-brac--old
coins and rare books are seized and hoarded as eagerly as if made of
gold. This mania is harmless in itself, and gives its possessors no
doubt much pleasure, but they are made the prey of Shylocks who carry on
a regular trade of manufacturing “old” articles.
So also with the “relic” craze. There are actually manufactories where
relics are made. Conscienceless persons take advantage of the curiosity
and piety of travelers to palm off all sorts of “relics” upon them at
preposterous prices.
Then there are the limitless imitations that are on the market. Some of
them, such as patent medicines, brands of groceries, oleomargarine,
etc., are imitations pure and simple; others are adulterations with more
or less of the genuine. So vast and profitable are these methods of
deception that the government has been compelled to interfere to protect
its citizens from fraud.
The box-office clique is only a less pernicious, but equally barefaced,
means of getting money. When a Bernhardt or an Irving is to perform, an
announcement is made that the box-office will be open at 9 o’clock on a
certain morning, as early as 10, or even 6, on the previous evening you
will see a solitary man wend his way to the theater and silently square
his back against the door. In time he is followed by another, and yet
another, so that by midnight perhaps a dozen or twenty of these
grim-faced men are lined against the wall. Not one of them has the
slightest idea of seeing the play. It is simply their way of earning a
living. For the next morning they will sell their places in line to the
highest bidders.
Of the “cure” faddists there number is legion. We do not mean the makers
of patent medicines, of which we have treated elsewhere, but the men who
profess to believe they have some unique and original way of ridding
mankind of evil. Thus we have the gold cure, the barefoot cure, the
mind cure, the faith cure, the cold water cure, and the hot water
cure--in fact the whole great family of ’pathies. Many of these curists
no doubt are sincere, but whether so or not, they have reaped large sums
of money.
Equally industrious is the “fake” news agency. There are agencies that
manufacture news to order. Papers, they reason, must have news. If there
is any subject concerning which the public is eager to read, and for any
reason the reporters cannot give the facts, the “fake” news agency is a
welcome resort. These bogus news agents are paid a certain amount a
“stick” for their false news.
Museum “freaks” too, are manufactured to order, and sometimes are made
beforehand in anticipation of a market.
“Treasure” enthusiasts are not quite as common now as formerly, and yet
the hot Klondike fever is but a “Kid’s Buried Treasure” under another
name, and on a mammoth scale. Of the 100 who attempt to get to Dawson
City, seventy-five will reach the place, fifty will earn a bare living
under all manner of hardships; twenty-five will make about the same as
if they had stayed at home; ten will bring back a $100 worth of dust;
three will do tolerably well, and one will get rich.
The “literary bureau” is a more ingenious means to make a living. A set
of bright young men advertise that for a “consideration” they will send
a sermon, lecture, address, or after-dinner speech, to any person who
may suddenly find himself called upon when unprepared.
Of the “watered” stock and other incorporated swindles, almost every
investor has purchased his experience at a dear rate. This is a method
of increasing one’s capital stock in a company without the contribution
of any new funds, and it is one of the most common of frauds.
These are but a few of the many curious and ingenious ways by which
people attempt to make a living. In many cases, especially the
last-named, there is no doubt that the promoters of these enterprises
often do get rich at the expense of the public.
Other strange ways of making a living are the catching of butterflies or
canary birds at a penny apiece, and the sifting of ashes and collecting
of cinders. In London sand is sold on the street for scouring and as
gravel for birds. Then there is “the curiosity shop.” In Genoa, there
are marriage brokers who have a list of names of marriageable girls,
divided into different classes, with an account of the fortunes,
personal attraction, etc., of each. They charge two to three per cent.
commission on a contract. In Munich there are female bill posters, and
in Paris there are women who make a living by letting out chairs on the
street. Also, in the same city, men are hired to cry the rate of
exchange. Then there are the men who gather old clothes, and the street
sweepers. There are 6,000 rag gatherers in Paris. Then there are the
refuse cleaners, and the glass-eye makers, the latter furnishing you
with a crystal eyeball at rates from $10 to $20 when the physicians and
oculists charge $60 or $70 for similar services. Then there are postage
stamp gatherers and chair menders. In fact the ways of making a living
are legion. We formulate a few of the best of this class:
981. EXPERTS.--There are many kinds--accountant, color, handwriting,
etc. Any one who confines his life-work to a very small and special
field can command a large price for his services. Experts often receive
$10 a day.
982. DETECTIVES.--Besides the men in the employ of the United States and
local authorities, there are many who work in private agencies. The pay
depends upon the nature of the work and the wealth of the employers. In
celebrated cases where suspected parties had to be shadowed for months,
a detective has received as much as $5,000.
983. TRAVELING POETS.--Since the days of Wesley, the traveling preacher
has been a familiar figure, but who since the time of Homer has seen a
traveling poet? yet one called on the author the other day. His patrons
are chiefly obscure people who pay from $1 to $10 to have their history,
home, achievements, or virtues lauded in verse. It is hardly necessary
to say that the poems are not published, but kept as household treasures
for coming grandchildren.
984. OLD COINS.--Some have found a profitable source of revenue in the
hunting and hoarding of old coins. One numismatist recently sold a
dollar coin of 1804 for $5,000.
985. PURVEYOR OF PERSONALS.--A Russian named Romeitre started this
enterprise in a small way. Now we have press-clipping bureaus so large
as to employ seventy persons each. In some of these places from 5,000 to
7,000 papers are read every day, and the weekly clippings amount to more
than 100,000. There are now press-clipping bureaus in nearly all of our
large cities.
986. GOLD ON SEA BOTTOM.--Another class of men make money out of other
men’s misfortunes; that is, by stripping wrecks of their valuables.
Others secure the services of divers and search the bottom of the
ocean, where vessels containing treasures are supposed to have gone
down. A few years ago a company from England went with divers to a place
near Bermuda, where a vessel had been sunk a long time before, and
secured from the wreck the sum of $1,500,000.
987. RARE BOOKS.--The art of book collecting has been pursued with
profit by some persons. It requires no capital, if one simply confines
his efforts to book-stalls, though, if pursued on a large scale, money
is required for advertising and correspondence. Mr. Charles B. Foote, of
New York City, is a veteran bibliophile, and has made a specialty of
first editions. Recently he made three auction sales of his stores, and
realized more than $20,000, and his home is full of treasures.
988. OLD ITALIAN VIOLINS.--They sell at prices ranging from $500 to
$5,000, when you can buy them at all, which is seldom, for they are
mostly in the hands of wealthy collectors. Now we will let you into a
great secret. It is not the kind of wood or the form of the instrument
alone which produces the rare quality of sound, but it lies also in the
kind of varnish used. By experimenting with varnish, you can produce a
“Stradivarius,” which will sell for almost any amount you choose to ask.
989. MAGIC SILK.--It seems like the trick of the magician to speak of
turning cotton into silk, but it can actually be done, or at least
cotton can be made to resemble silk, so that discrimination between the
two fabrics is impossible. About fifty years ago, one Mercer, a French
chemist, showed that cotton when subjected to the action of concentrated
acid or alkalies, contracts and has a greater affinity for dyes, but it
has only just been discovered that “mercerization” gives also a
brilliant luster to the cotton. The cotton is stretched violently during
the operation, and when an energetic rubbing is added to the tension the
tissue receives a permanent luster. It thus replaces silk at a fraction
of its cost, and offers a splendid chance for financial enterprise.
990. THE GOLD CURE.--If the gold cure for which so much is claimed can
really take away the appetite for liquor, there is an immense field for
its exercise and room for the making of many fortunes in the cure of
America’s drunkards. In the United States alone an exceedingly moderate
estimate makes the number of this unfortunate class 1,600,000. At the
very modest calculation that only one-tenth of these can be induced to
try the cure, and if each case nets the proprietor of the institution
only $25--and the estimate should probably be doubled and even
trebled--there are $15,000,000 in it for the public benefactors who can
thus curb the evil of dram-drinking.
991. THE TELEPHONE NEWSPAPER.--Here is an idea for newspaper men: In
Budapest, Hungary, there is a telephone newspaper, the first and only
one in the world. The main office is in telephone communication with the
Reichstadt (corresponding to our Congress), and it often happens that
important speeches are known to the public while the speaker is still
addressing the house; the latest reports from stock exchanges as well as
political news are heard before any paper has printed them, a short
summary of all important items is given at noon and again in the
evening; subscribers are entertained with music and literary articles in
the evenings, the latter being often spoken into the telephone by the
original authors. The cost is only two cents a day, and the company are
said to be making money even at that figure.
992. RACE AND STOCK TIPPERS.--In addition to the regular brokers who
supply tips to their customers, there is now a set of professional
tippers who profess to have “inside information,” and make it a business
to give tips to anybody who will pay for them. They receive in some
cases a fixed sum from their patrons, and in other cases they take a
liberal percentage of the profits.
993. PROMOTERS.--This is a new vocation. The promoter “promotes”
anything and everything that will pay. If you want to accomplish
anything from the launching of a railroad enterprise to the selling of a
penny patent, you pay the “promoter” a certain sum to do the work. He
buys influence, lobbies legislators, controls newspapers and hypnotizes
the public generally. Not all promoters come as high as Mr. Ernest
Tooley, whose own price can be imagined when he claims to have paid
$250,000 to English peers for their influence; yet we learn that the
American Tin Plate Company gave the promoters of the Trust $10,000,000
in stock for their work.