247. The Woman Beautifier.—Whatever is of the nature of beauty appeals to the heart of woman. A lady who has the secret of making other women beautiful cannot fail of success. After making a study of your business, advertise that you understand the art of removing moles, wrinkles, warts, wens, birthmarks, tan, freckles, and superfluous hair. If successful in pleasing one or two leaders of fashion, you will have plenty of custom.
248. The Manicure Parlor.—The manicure business is yearly increasing. For $15 you can learn the business. Implements will cost you $10 more. With the capital of $25 you can begin business, and, if ladylike in appearance and gentle in touch, you can build up a big business in the right neighborhood. Any lady would prefer in this art to patronize one of her own sex. Get out cards and circulars and scatter them freely. There is room for many women to excel in this field. One lady who entered upon this work two years ago says she is on the road to a fortune.
249. The Massage Treatment.—Another lady is having great success with the massage treatment. She has now more than seventy regular patrons. This method of cure is easily learned and readily applied. Hardly a lady among your acquaintances is in good health. It is a proverb that no woman is well. A vast proportion of these cases are nervous and will yield to the massage treatment. If you have strong muscles you could readily achieve a large practice by this system, especially in summer resorts and places where invalids flock.
250. Ice Cream Parlor.—This is not new, but possesses possibilities of a good living where the field is not overworked. There are five things necessary to success, and in the following order of importance: An attractive place in a clean, fashionable locality; good and generous plates of cream; unexcelled neatness; polite service; and popular prices. We have known a lady commencing business on these principles to oust quickly an older establishment run on slacker methods.
251. Flower Packets.—Buy quantities of flower seeds of all varieties. Put them up in very small envelopes, a few seeds in each one, advertise that you will send samples for a penny a kind, ten for six cents, twenty-five for fifteen cents, fifty for twenty-five cents, etc. A large mail envelope will hold fifty or more of the smaller ones containing seeds.
252. Lady Caterer.—A woman has a fine chance to succeed as a caterer. Her taste in arranging tables should at least make her hold her own with business rivals of the opposite sex. Mrs. A. B. Marshall, a woman caterer of London, often manages a supper for one hundred guests.
253. Delicacies for Invalids.—This is a new field which is being worked with much promise. “Mrs. Kate Teachman,” as she is known in the New York Sun, is working in this line with great success. She says: “Of course, if you want this sort of thing you must pay for it—sixty-five cents for a pint of broth, seventy-five cents for a pint of puree, sixty-five cents for a half-pint of jelly, twenty-five cents for chopped chicken sandwiches.”
254. Insect Powder.—A California woman who now owns four hundred acres of land has a history that ought to inspire other women with a belief in their ability to get on in the world. In 1861 her husband died, leaving her with a debt of $1,400, three children, and a small farm mortgaged. Within five years she had paid the mortgage by taking boarders, raising chickens, and doing whatever offered. In 1877 she began to raise pyrethrum, the plant from which insect powder is made, some years having one hundred acres planted with it. Now she has from fifty to eighty employees of both sexes, and is said to be worth half a million dollars.
255. Rice Cultivator.—A few years ago a young Iowa girl-squatter, with her sixteen-year-old brother, took up a government claim in Louisiana, and went to planting rice, the first crop of which paid her $1,000. She lives in a three-room cottage, and has a few fruit trees, plenty of good fences, and a sea of waving rice-blades. Her nearest neighbor is another girl-farmer who also settled a government claim, and is bossing an orchard that is giving her a comfortable living.
256. Yeast Cakes.—Here is what one woman did: Being thrown on her own resources, instead of following the beaten path of custom, she engaged in something novel. She made yeast cakes. Gradually her trade increased until she was obliged to hire help, and in time had to build an addition to the house to provide room for her thriving business. She now makes a good living, finding her work congenial as well as profitable. Here is her recipe: Take one dozen hops and boil two or three hours, remove from the fire and strain through a sieve, adding boiling water until there are three or four quarts of the liquid. Then thicken with canaille until quite stiff; and one-half tablespoonful of ginger and one-quarter cup of molasses; let it stand until cool, add one-half cup of salt yeast, or one cake of lard, and in the morning stir down with a little fine cornmeal. Let it rise again, then mix with cornmeal, roll, and cut with a cutter. This rule makes one hundred cakes. They sell for seventy-five cents per hundred, and retail for one cent apiece.