One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money

by Harold Morse Dunphy

It was a mere boy who worked out this little plan of making money during his spare time, and found it paid exceptionally well for the small amount of time, labor and capital involved.

Possessing some artistic talent, he sent for a tinselling outfit, that was advertised, and inserted a few small ads. in the local papers, to the effect that he would tinsel post cards for 3 cents each, or ten for 25 cents, and do better work than could be obtained in the stores selling the cards.

Many orders were received, and the work he did was so satisfactory that orders were repeated in most cases, and it was not long until he had cleared $87 on the work that required but a few hours of his spare time.

He has now decided to give his entire time to this line of work, as he can easily make from $100 to $125 a month, which was good for a boy.

The best tinselling outfits can be purchased for about $1.50 each, and very quickly pay for themselves, after which the returns are practically all profit, although he tinsels up to five words on each card, all for 3 cents per card, while the stores charge 5 cents each, and then only put on the name of the town desired.

PLAN No. 472. GETTING A START WITH INK POWDERS

A young man whose ambition was to build up a permanent business from a small beginning, as he was practically without capital, concluded to start on one item at first, and gradually add others as he could afford it, so he chose inks—not one, but several kinds of inks. These inks he purposed to put up in the form of powders, leaving only the hot water to be added by the customer. But the different formulas were all so good that from anyone of them an enterprising man could work into a good-paying business, and they are therefore submitted herewith as separate plans.

Here is the formula he used for producing a powder for a writing fluid that is equal to the best inks on the market and better than most of them. And the beauty of it was that he could sell enough of the powder for 10 cents to make a full pint of the very best ink, and realize a very good profit on it over that price:

Nigrosin, 1 ounce; soluble blue or water blue anilin, 2 ounces; salicylic acid, 15 grains; dextrin, 1¹⁄₂ ounces.

This will make from one to two gallons of ink, when dissolved in hot water, according to the shade desired—the more powder the darker the ink. Fine for either ordinary or fountain pen, and sold well.