“Sal is willing; Sal can make the house shine; Sal is a worker—never cross and tired; the best and cheapest hired girl in the country. Cleans silver, glass, metal, and woodwork. Give Sal a chance.
“SAL'S SISTERS
“There are three of them: Sally, the Brick, who cleans knives, forks, pots, and kettles; Sal's Sister, a wonderful laundry soap; also Salome, a clover-scented soap for the toilet. You will find them in all groceries.”
“I began little—put it in a paper of five thousand circulation. I found that every dollar that I invested brought me four dollars and thirty-four and a half cents. The second ad. brought me four dollars and thirty-seven cents; the third four dollars and forty-one, and so it grew. I tried all the leading papers, and got the rate of profit and learned the exact value of repetition for each. The return increased as my goods travelled, and people began to talk about 'em. You see, I make something that the people want, and my first problem was to let them know it. That was easy. My next problem was to manufacture within a certain limit of cost. In that Pearl has helped. My next problem was to deliver the goods, and that is the greatest problem of all. The railroads are slow and unreliable. They have no more system than a carrier-pigeon. Y our freight is transferred until the boxes are worn out; it is side-tracked and lost and forgotten. You see, there are eleven railroads between here and Buffalo. They have been consolidated, but not harmonized. They are like eleven horses in the hands of a poor teamster; they don't pull together. They waste their strength. I complained to Mr. Dean Richmond.
“He said to me, 'We're doing our best, and if you want a better service you'll have to show us how to give it.'
“I gave him a few ideas, and he liked 'em, and what do you suppose happened?”
Mr. McCarthy paused, but I could only shake my head and await his revelation.
“Well, one day the manager called and said the Chairman of the Executive Committee would like to see me,” Mr. McCarthy went on. “I pulled up my check-rein a little and went to Albany. It surprised him to see how young I was.
“'Why,' said he, 'you're nothing but a boy!'
“'I'm twenty-three,' I said, 'but they count double. I've done two years' work in every one that I've lived.'