The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-24
How Little Things Mean Much
 Properly Applied
HOW AN EDITOR GOT RICH
Young Man Aroused Praise for Pan- anna Hats-5lII ReInhart's Veg etable Garden In Alaska.
 First Darning Club.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsklN.

BY FREDERIC J. HASklN.
 Opportunity must be seen before 1t is grasped, and 1t is the ability to see the opening that makes for the success of the American in business. Frequently this sense must be whetted by diversity; but once the opportunity comes, 1t must be met with bold front. young man of good presence, plenty of nerve, and a Tine of talk" found himself in q. north western city with s16 and some good looking clothes. He had no other re- sources and he realized that it was up to him. He saw that roller-skating was popular street sport with children, and by inquiring found that there was no rink in town
 He went to see a hardware merchant and found he could get a supply of skates from the factory if he would guarantee to pay for them in weekly in- stallments. He took the risk He found big empty warehouse which had been an elephant on the hands of the real estate agent. He rented it, and the agent was so impressed by the Tine of talk that he did not dare ask for a deposit because he was afraid of offending his new tenant. The $16 he spent in popular izng himself with the boys about town, and in getting acquainted with the dif- ferent newspaper men from whom he had to procure needful publicity. The skates were paid for in the course of time, and before his lease expired the young man had $SOOO to the good and his nerve was still unimpaired.
 A coal mine which had been paying proposition began to fall behind. The owner couldn't imagine what was the matter A man in the office who had exhibited some degree of ability to fer ret out trouble was sent to investigate. The mine had paid profit not exceeding per cent, and the inspector knew that very small leak might eat up that margin. What do you suppose the dff- ficulty proved to be? He found the mules which drew the little cars that carried the coal to the shafts were all suffering from sore necks. The pads under their collars, were not fitted properly and they worked so much slower on account of the pain that the output of the mine each day was reduced per cent while the expenses were as high as before. The mules necks were cared for. proper pads were put on them, and the mine soon recovered it's status as paying prop osition. Are there any little leaks in your business, MT. Reader? You had better overhaul things and find out A dollar saved jingles just as loudly in the money drawer as one earned
 In the days when country editors could command an unlimited numbers of rail- road passes, but when money was as scarce as hens teeth about rural news paper shops, a young Missouri journalist was smitten with the curse of the wan dering foot. He had to travel. He got passes to a southern city on one railroad and return tickets on another. He man. aged to scrape together the munihcent sum of $S, and fortified by that amount started out to look the world over He slept in chair cars and ate at 5-cent lunch counters, but even with the prac- tice ot such rigid economy his capital rapidly dwindled. It soon became neces- sary for him to raise the wind
 He stopped at a small town and went into grocery store The grocer was weighing out sugar In twenty-pound bags Of manila paper. The tourist hustler had an Idea. He proposed to the grocer to
 
 merchants In other lines of business to be printed on the sides of those twenty pound paper bags, with a large free ad for the grocer at the top. It wouldn't cost the grocer anything. Most people cant resist the idea of getting something Tor nothing, and the 'llne of talk" was winner. Other grocers were approach ed in the same way, and then the drue- gist and clothier and milliner were per- suaded to buy ads on the attractive. dummy" which the Missourfan had pen- ciEed on one of the bags
 He sold SIS worth of space the first day. and made a contract with the local edi- tor to do the printing on the grocer's sacks for S3-proflt $15. The country edi- tor worked this scheme daily in various southern towns for several weeks and soon found that he would make more money en tour than he could by staying at home. When he got back to his native town he was sporting diamond ring as big as a hazelnut and it was not necessary for him to write an edi- tori Il on hard times for several weeks.
 Among the Americans who went to Porto Rico shortly after the occupation by our troops was a young man by the name of Allen, who had been a subscrip- ton solicitor for a New York paper One of the first things he did after his ar rival was to get sick and use up all hds money. He sent home for funds to get a ticket for the return trip, but he never used it. For s he bought trunk full of old yellow-backed novels from a frenchman. He started out to peddle these among the soldiers and the first day cleared s10. Then he rented a hall way and went into business for himself. Every night, and as many tmies during the day as there was a shower, he hastily packed his stock in the old trunk and moved out That was the beginning His business grew rapidly and cleared him thousands of dollars. He was one of the frst 10 import Panama hats into the United States, and was in a measure re- sponsible for the recent craze for that kind of headgear which swept the coun- try. He now has a $5OOO stock of goods In his store, owns his own home and