The next morning my sister left me as usual. I went out and walked through the city to Broadway, turning into Canal Street, where I had formed an acquaintance with a very friendly German woman by purchasing little articles at various times at her store. I entered without any particular design and exchanged a few commonplaces with her about the weather.
Her husband stood talking with a man about worsted goods, and their conversation caught my ear. The merchant was complaining because the manufacturer did not supply him fast enough, upon which the man answered that it was very difficult to get good hands to work and that besides he had more orders than it was possible to fill, naming several merchants whose names I had seen in Broadway who were also complaining because he did not supply them.
After he had left, I asked carelessly what kind of articles were in demand and was shown a great variety of worsted fancy goods. A thought entered my brain. I left the store and, walking down Broadway, asked at one of the stores that had been mentioned for a certain article of worsted goods in order to learn the price. Finding this enormous, I did not buy it, and I returned home, calculating on my way how much it would cost to manufacture these articles and how much profit could be made in making them on a large scale. I found that two hundred per cent profit might be made by going to work in the right way.
My sister came home as usual to dinner. I sat down with her, but could not eat. She looked at me anxiously, and said, “I hope you are not sick again. Oh, dear! What shall we do if you get sick?” I had been ill for a week and she feared a relapse. I said nothing of my plan, but consoled her in respect to my health.
As soon as she had left, I counted my money. But five dollars remained. If I had been dependent upon money for cheerfulness, I should certainly have been discouraged. I went to John Street and entering a large worsted store, inquired of a cheerful-looking girl the wholesale price of the best Berlin wool, how many colors could be had in a pound, etc. The pleasant and ready answers that I received in my native tongue induced me to tell her frankly that I wanted but a small quantity at that time, that I intended to make an experiment in manufacturing worsted articles; and if successful, I would like to open a small credit, which she said they generally would do when security was given.
I purchased four and a half dollars’ worth of worsted, so that fifty cents were left in my pocket when I quitted the store. I then went to the office of a German newspaper, where I paid twenty-five cents for advertising for girls who understood all kinds of knitting.
When my sister came home at night, the worsted was all sorted on the table in parcels for the girls who would come the next morning, while I was busily engaged in the experiment of making little worsted tassels. I had never been skillful in knitting, but in this I succeeded so well that I could have made a hundred yards of tassels in one day.
My sister turned pale on seeing all this, and hurriedly asked, “How much money have you spent?” “All, my dear Anna,” answered I, “all, except twenty-five cents, which will be sufficient to buy a pound of beefsteak and potatoes for to-morrow’s dinner. Bread, tea and sugar, we have still in the house; and to-morrow night you will bring home your twenty-two shillings.” “May you succeed, Marie! That is all I have to say,” was her reply. She learned of me that evening how to make the tassels, and we worked till midnight, finishing a large number.
The next day was Saturday, and some women really came to get work. I gave them just enough for one day, keeping one day’s work in reserve. The day was spent busily in arranging matters, so that on Monday morning, I might be able to carry a sample of the manufactured articles to those stores that I had heard mentioned as not being sufficiently supplied.
In the evening, my sister came home without her money—the dressmaker had gone into the country in the afternoon without paying the girls. She was more than sad, and I felt a little uncomfortable, for what was I to do without money to provide for the next two days or to pay those girls on Monday with whose work I might not be satisfied? What was to be done? To go down to our landlord, the grocer, and ask him to advance us a few dollars? No! He was a stranger and had no means of knowing that we would return the money. Besides, I did not wish the people in the house to know of our condition.