974. Seventy-five Minutes a Day will make you in the course of four or five years an engraver or painter in all the fields of the increasing application of those arts. Prices for this kind of work are so varied that no figures can be given, but they are always high, and some persons have made fortunes with pen and brush.
975. Eighty Minutes a Day placing letters in pigeon holes and in learning such other knowledge as any handler of the mails will willingly impart to you, will give you such deft fingers and such quick brains that it should not be difficult for you to secure a well-paid position in a large postoffice.
976. Ninety Minutes a Day will enable you to master the intricate and almost infinite details of the insurance business in all its branches. Knowledge of the business and ability to persuade men are the two requisites of highest success in this occupation. There are insurance agents receiving as high as $10,000 a year, and presidents of companies $25,000, and even more. There is no reason why you should not reach the top. The horses, Plod and Pluck, will draw you there.
977. One Hundred Minutes a Day will initiate you thoroughly into the banking or brokerage business. Read all books on the subject, classify your knowledge, repeat it over and over in your spare moments, ask some friend in the business about any point you do not understand. After three years of hard study, offer your spare time free to a banker or broker, informing him of what you have done. You will have to begin at the bottom, but the salaries grow fat as you rise, and are enormously rich at the top.
978. One Hundred and Ten Minutes a Day will give you for each year of your study a knowledge of a separate branch of the Civil Service. Five years will give you five branches. Appointments are now nearly all made by competitive examination. Salaries in some departments rise as high as $10,000.
979. One Hundred and Twenty Minutes a Day should enable you to master any musical instrument under the sun. You will require a teacher for a part of the time, but the most important thing is steady, persistent practice. The field for good music is constantly widening, the demands for good musicians are steadily increasing, and the remuneration is correspondingly advancing. Money is literally pouring into the lap of persons who can captivate the human ear.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
MONEY IN ODDS AND ENDS.
How a Family Saved $100 on a Salary of $700.
Economy is quite as large a factor as industry in the gaining of a fortune. With people living on small incomes, it is often the one element that determines whether they “make both ends meet,” or run in debt and ultimately fail. The following example shows how one family, whose income was only $700 a year, actually saved $100. Mr. ——, of ——, found himself getting behind in money matters, and determined to practice rigid economy. He found a great many leakages in the household. Perhaps some one who reads this will find the same or similar leaks, and learn why he is not prospering:
980. Waste.—Scraps of meat thrown away, making loss of dinners worth, $12.50; puddings thrown away, $6; waste of coal in not sifting, $5; one-half barrel of apples from not sorting, $1.50; wash tub fell to pieces because left dry, $1; one-fourth loaf of bread every day thrown away (90 loaves at 10 cents per loaf), $9; ten dozen preserves, one-fourth lost at twenty-five cents per can, $7.50; twenty barrels of ashes, five cents per barrel, $1; waste of bones which could be used for soup, $1.50; waste of heat at the damper, one-tenth in a ton of coal, ten tons per year, $5; waste of gas in not turning down lights when not needed, $12; canned salmon, one-fourth spoiled because can was left open, twenty-five cans, $1; cheese (one-half used, the rest thrown away because hard), twenty-five pounds, $2; potatoes, for want of sprouting, one barrel, $1; clothing, for lack of attention, $15; milk, 375 quarts at eight cents per quart, one-fifth allowed to spoil, $6; umbrellas which could be mended, $1; shoes thrown away when they could be used by having heels fixed, $3; kitchen slops, $1; waste of vegetables, $5; wear of carpet for lack of rugs in places most used, $3; Total waste, $100.