After my wardrobe was purchased and my trunks moved over from the hotel, I was not long in learning just what Carrie expected of me. She began inserting advertisements in all the leading newspapers offering "widows and other women of means" investments which were guaranteed to net them from 15 to 20 per cent. on their money.
When women called in answer to the advertisement at the bank on Twenty-third street many of them would want more evidence than Carrie could supply before they would part with their money. These doubting ones were referred to me—Mrs. Celia Rigsby, if you please, who had made a fortune by investing her late husband's $1,500 insurance money in the securities offered by the Women's Banking and Investment Company.
The advertisements were kept going in the newspapers, and more and more women kept coming to the bank on Twenty-third street. Mrs. Morse received them all, talked many of them into leaving their money with her right then and there, and to those who had misgivings she said sweetly:
"But I would rather you would not be influenced by anything I have said. It is your duty to yourself to investigate and assure yourself as to just what profits we are really paying on investments. Perhaps you would like to see and talk with one of our customers who has done so well with our investments that she has taken an interest in our bank. I'm sure you'd be interested in talking with Mrs. Rigsby."
The style in which I lived on Fifth avenue left no doubt of my wealth, and, with Carrie's help, I soon had a glib and convincing story to tell of my previous poverty and the steps I had taken to reach my present prosperity.
Of course, I explained, I took no active part in the bank's affairs. I allowed the use of my name as president and permitted Mrs. Morse to refer prospective investors to me merely because I was so well satisfied with the way my own investments had turned out and felt a philanthropic desire to share my good fortune with other women.
Business increased rapidly and greater crowds of women came in reply to my partner's glowing advertisements. Many of them would hand over their money right away in exchange for a handful of the crinkly stock certificates which filled a whole room in the rear of the bank. These certificates were printed in all the colors of the rainbow, for, as Carrie naïvely explained, "some of the ladies prefer green, some blue, some black, and so on."
Carrie was jubilant. She kept me liberally supplied with money for clothes and the heavy expenses of my apartment, but when I asked her about a further share of the profits she said:
"Sophie, you're as ignorant as a new born babe of business methods. It's always customary to leave all the money in a new business until the end of six months. Then we'll divide what we've made, turn the bank over to someone else and go to Europe for a long rest."
I had my doubts about the truth of this, but, as I was making a good living with little effort and had nothing better in sight just then, I determined to continue under Carrie's leadership. She continually reassured me by insisting that what we were doing was just as legitimate as any business and that there was nothing in it for which the police could take us to task.