The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-23
THIS WIDOW IS
TOWN MESSENGER
New England Woman's Way of
Earning a Living
READY TO BUY ANYTHING
From a Cambria Needle to a Draught
Horse-A Chance for Other New
England Women in Same Line
of Employment.
READY TO BUY ANYTHING

From the New York Sun.
1T is some 10 years now since l began
to earn my living as town messenger" a
New England woman, a widow in middle
/ life, replied to the reporters request to
talk about her means of supporting her
self and her children. Though l can't
| claim to have made a large fortune, 1t has
enabled me to live in comfort and send
all my children through high school,
YES l own my home. l paid for it
myself and have a few hundred dollars
in bank, which I am glad to remember
whenever member of my family is not
as well as he might be.
MY work doesn't call for any great
amount of brains or any special talent
Anybody. man or woman, could take my
place and do as well by my customers as
do by merely taking pains and being
careful to keep promises.
IT fill orders for everything from the
| finest cambria needle to the largest size
draught horse. Last spring heard of a
horse in town for sale cheap He was a
huge fellow and sound and good except
for sore on his back. 1 told the man
who supplies the town with ice and coal
about the horse and he said that If
thought the horses chances of getting
cured of the sore back good he'd give me
his check and 1 could bring him out.
ut was large responsibility even for
a town messenger, but l accepted it, just
as L had taken an order for six dozen
! hooks and eyes that same morning from
the mans wife. That night l delivered
them both, and the horse suited better
than the hooks and eyes. The man was
willing to rest the horse up and, doctor
him. but his wife was not willing to use
hooks and eyes that were not stamped
with the name of the particular manu-
facturer she wanted.
"Oh, yes | got the same commission
! for buying the horse and the hooks and
! eyes. My charges are 10 cents for each
| order, regardless of size or cost. The
only difference Is when express or freight
charges have to be paid. 1 often make
as much as 500 a day. but all the year
around | count on averaging "a day,
six days in the week. / make two trips
a day in the summer, but in the winter
except around Christmas, / seldom go in
oftener than twice a week.
II don't get commission on the goods
buy from the merchants. BY that l
mean that the reduction they allow goes
into the purchasers pocket, not into mine.
have found that 1t is not good business
| to work for two masters. l began that
| way, because the man who had been
messenger before me did business so.
After a few weeks I was convinced that
| 1t was a mistake. People were always
| suspecting me of going to the shop where
I could get the largest commission re-
CARELESS OF the price or quality.
81 now have bill made out for each
article bought and the purchaser can see
just what was paid for 1t. I am sure
this gives me many more orders than l
would otherwise get and leaves less room
for complaint and suspicion. The method
did cut down my earnings at first, but
1t was not long before my books showed
more and larger orders than the former
messenger had ever received.
There is an opening for just such
messenger In every village and small town
in New England, Many places have such
| messengers, but as rule they are men.
am the only woman so far as I know
WHO does such work
st have fitted out every variety of
house, from a portable summer cottage to
be used on the beach to blacksmith shop
with an automobile and bicycle repair
department. Oh, no, I only get 10
| cents for buying an automobile. On the
other hand / get 10 cents for each article
with which the summer cottage is fur
nished. Each article means an extra Sc
| lection and that is what / charge for.
1.-THE work has paid me much better
than keeping summer boarders has my
neighbors, and is far pleasanter and more
! profitable than taking in plain sewing
would have been"