Books:

Discovered! 505
Odd Enterprises

Hidden Dollars

How to Make
Money at Home

Small Business
of Your Own

You Can Own
a Business

Donald loans his clippings out, doesn't sell them as the America clipping bureaus do. He'll rent them for a charge of from 3d to 6d each for a fortnight. You return them after use.

This results in the bureau being able to undersell the clipping bureau that sells clippings outright, and in the long run, many of the customers only want the clippings for a short time. It works to an advantage for the bureau too because they can rent the same clippings to other clients at a later date. Might work here in this country and probably would be the first rental clipping bureau in the United States and Canada. #28

NIGERIA
A mail-order dealer in Lagos, Nigeria, claims to have the largest mail-order house in Nigeria. Might be the only mail-order house there too! But joking aside, the fact that a mail-order business is operating in this faraway colony in Africa is most interesting to me. Perhaps the line of merchandise being handled by this man will interest my readers.

Here are some of the items being sold by mail, on a world wide basis: raffia handbags 2 shilling, 6d…Cigars 3 shilling, 9d per box of 50 (78¢, believe it or not!)…coconuts, perfumed soap, crocodile, snake or lizard skin handbags, ivory and ebony works, tanned snakeskins, ivory necklaces, ivory bracelets, ivory rings, ebony birds, ebony elephants, ebony animals, ebony book ends, slippers, etc. He'll ship the goods direct to your friends or relatives if you wish to send a birthday present or a gift for a special occasion. Also ships out wholesale quantities if you'd like to be his representative.

His retail prices are way below our wholesale prices, and you can deduct 15% for wholesale orders. Orders for $60 or more shipped shipping charges paid. Can't beat his prices. Where could you buy a crocodile handbag, for instance, for only 40 shillings? This amounts to less than $8 in our money. You'll pay as much as $40 for a special tooled leather handbag or an unborn calfskin handbag. Crocodile handbags run even higher.

Where could you get a snakeskin handbag with a zipper for 25 shillings (or less than $5)? And the same applies to all of his merchandise!

If you order a sample of two or three items, there is a 10% discount too! Address your letter to A. I. W. Service, P. O. Box 666, Lagos, Nigeria, Africa. Would suggest that you use a letterhead and typewriter if you are requesting information and price list for wholesale lots, or if you can't do this, enclose a dollar or more for samples and list. Always enclose international postage coupons and a self-addressed envelope for reply. #29

U.S.A. . . . . CHINESE DATE
I bet you never knew that there is a certain date that can be grown ANYWHERE in the United States. It is quite hardy, the United States Dept of Agriculture bulletins report, withstanding temperatures of 22 degrees below zero without injury.

Fairly new to this country, coming from the high interior of China, this novelty fruit should make a few growers in the United States wealthy if they can produce a few years' crop before too many start growing them.

The Chinese date tree is a heavy and constant bearer and commences to bear fruit at an early age, four-year-old trees having produced up to 150 lbs. of fruit. The fruit is one to two inches long, brown or chocolate color with a similar appearance in shape and coloring to the regular date. It is said to be delicious when eaten fresh or cured like dates. One well known seed house predicts that it will eventually rival the regular date as a commercial product.

Up until now most of our dates have come from the Coachella Valley desert in Southern California or from Arabia. Even when the Chinese date is well known on the markets of the country, the ordinary date will still have the same sale, I'm sure. But at the same time, this Chinese date may equal in annual amount produced and sold that of the Coachella date.

The new taste, new texture and slightly different appearance together with the unusual name "Chinese date" should put it over in a big way! Farmers, outdoor hobbiests, amateur growers, rural folks, take notice!

You might also consider the Michigan Banana tree which can be grown in any section of the country. This odd tree produces an attractive purple flower and a large yellow fruit which has the flavor of a banana. Also resembles the banana somewhat, although shorter and thicker in shape. Handsome tree for decoration purposes or commercial possibilities.

Both fruits are probably known to most large seed houses, despite the fact that they are quite new to this part of the world. #30-31

SINGAPORE, MALAYA
On a hilltop five miles out of Singapore there is located probably one of the strangest enterprises in all of Asia. So unusual is the enterprise that resident Chinese families consider a visit there a real treat!

Called "Haw-Par Villa", it is a result of the fortune made by two brothers, selling an item called "Tiger Balm", or the aspirin of Southeast Asia, a dark brown powder that has proved almost as popular as our aspirin.

The fantastic grounds surrounding the Villa are open to the poorest Chinese, and many take advantage of the opportunity when they feel the need of an afternoon in paradise.

The gateway to the estate is painted with all of the colors in the rainbow. Two huge stone elephants stand near the entrance. Beautiful pagodas with hundreds of different sounding bells, immense dragons on all sides, numerous "summer-houses" with marble tables and seats, artificial trees with artificial monkeys, impressive Buddhas at every corner, giant water-lilies ten feet high, rock grottos with niches displaying miniature tableaux of scenes from the life of Buddha, little comic figures, tigers, leopards by the score, and many other fantastic sights. Everything is artificial, but the craftsmanship is so perfect that at a distance it is almost impossible to believe that everything isn't alive or growing.

A beautiful palm lined swimming pool helps to complete the picture and showers and dressing rooms for all visitors go with the pool.

Although these two fortunate brothers may have the nearby community's interest at heart, it stands to reason that they are also clever enough to realize that this "Villa" and grounds is a wonderful bit of showmanship and advertising. Folks hundreds of miles away hear about this "Palace of Unreality" and the advertising value more than pays for the upkeep of the place. Make no mistake, the hundreds of artificial tigers and leopards placed around the grounds remind the visitor of the famous product "Tiger Balm". And to still further see to it that they don't forget, their big car is always on view and is well known in the nearby city of Singapore for it has an enormous head of a growling tiger, and the horn emits a fearsome roar! More showmanship!

Thousands of miles away we find a famous roadside farm and cafe carrying out the same idea only in a different manner. While the folks are waiting to get into the huge farm dining room for the famous chicken dinner, they are free to make a tour of the farm grounds. Here we find a full size old-time western "Ghost Town" with all the trimmings. A real treat to visit. We look upon collections of stage coaches, covered wagons, old-time saloons, listen to pioneer-day music boxes and mechanical pianos, view motion pictures and listen to lectures about the old west, walk around an artificial lake with a little western church on the shore, etc. Folks spend hours, sometimes, going through many of these old buildings.

I've covered this enterprise more fully in my other book. It goes to show how much everyone loves an outdoor exhibit or buildings, gardens, miniatures, etc. They'll draw visitors like flies and many will become customers or will leave as "walking advertisements" for your name or your product! #32-33

U.S.A. . . . . WINE VINEGAR
A woman in Kansas has a little home enterprise that sounds interesting so I'll give a few details here.

Seems that she has the ability to concoct rare and delicious vinegars, using grapes, herbs, anise, dill and garlic. She has a wine-vinegar that is said to be unforgettable!

Raises most of the ingredients in her own backyard. Puts the unique vinegars up in pint and quart jars. Also has a smaller half-pint size for new customers. The most she has ever sold in a day is about one gallon, so you can see that it just brings in some nice spare time money.

Most popular vinegars with her friends and neighbors are the wine vinegar, dill vinegar, tarragon vinegar and garlic vinegar.

I should guess that other unusual kinds of vinegars could be created by other housewives and put on the market, in many retail stores, by the hubby. #34

U.S.A. . . . . SEASHELL SHAKERS
Harry had to move to Florida for his health, and after arriving looked around for something he could do that wasn't too hard. While walking on the beach with his wife he noticed the abundance of sea shells and got the brilliant idea of collecting them and using them to trim salt shakers!

They started with ten dollars, called their product "SeaShell Shakers". Purchasing plain salt shakers, they would coat them with a plastic or cement, and then stud the shakers with tiny sea shells, sticking each one on by hand. It took around 85 separate shells to cover each shaker. Wasn't long before they were able to complete 18 salt and pepper sets each day. These sell in novelty shops for $2.00 a pair.

Last report says that this happy couple are up to their ears in orders. However, the work isn't hard, and as for the collecting of the shells on the beach, they regard this as their recreation time and not as working hours! A small, but most important steady income seems assured. And that was what they were looking for until the Mr. recovers.

It is just another form of specializing that paid off. They could have tried to handle a large variety of sea shell studded items, but by concentrating on one item, the idea went over better. Other similar ordinary things could be beautified in the same manner by other folks and sold to the thousands of gift shops and novelty stores. #34-B

U.S.A. . . . . PATCHWORK CHAIRS
This story deals with the type of project that could be worked ideally by a man and wife partnership.

A fellow in a small Idaho town works the idea with some success and it consists of re-upholstering old chairs with patchwork quilts. The finished product is most attractive.

Sometimes the customer furnishes the quilt pieces, on other jobs he provides all material. In some cases, the customer may be able to give him an old worn out quilt spread, from which he can salvage enough pieces to cover a chair.

His finished chairs are advertisements in themselves and bring in many requests for similar upholstered jobs!

If the old pieces of quilt are worn in some spots, he sometimes reinforces the back side with burlap.

Such chairs would be novel pieces of furniture fit for any room, but they are naturally particularly adaptable to the bedroom.

Here is a field that is practically untouched as yet, because this originator of the idea is just working it as a spare time proposition.

One of my readers may pick this as the idea that will make a small fortune in a few years! #35

AFRICA
Two apparently unconnected things, connected together, may result in a valuable idea.

A businessman in Ireland who was dissatisfied with his sales sat next to a woman and child on a train. The child dropped the comic paper he had been reading. The dealer picked it up and handed it back to him. The child's paper stuck in his mind. It became linked up with his goods. He started a children's comic booklet, gave it away with his products and doubled his profits in a few months.

The way youngsters crowd around the comic book section of the magazine stands indicates the unusual interest in comic strips and comic books. It seems to me that some "little fellow" could use this Irish plan over here and bring a small business with small profits right up into the "big time".

On the west coast of Africa there is a firm that buys tons of colored comic sheets from New York City. These are sold to many trading posts in the jungle. It is the practice to wrap all purchases in a page of "funnies" as a sort of inducement because the natives just won't buy if plain wrapping is substituted. The more color in the comic strips, the more merchandise they'll buy, believe it or not!

Why not a special "comic strip" wrapping paper…to be sold to stores for their youngster trade? #36

ENGLAND
Another idea from England.

This is the age of hurry and bustle, an age of taut and ragged nerves, of hard working minds, and lack of tranquility. The result is sleeplessness, the curse of the Twentieth Century.

There are a hundred and one so called cures, drugs and potions for this condition, but we are told that there is a wide market in England for what our grandmothers used to call a "soothing pillow". They used it to cure their headaches and nerve pains. The principal constituent was hops. This they picked fine and made up into a slip of muslin and then inserted it into a more decorative covering.

Nowadays the hops are mixed with a sweet smelling herb like lavender, lime flowers, etc. Additional information and alternatives that can be used can be procured from any herb specialist.

Properly presented and offered on approval without any payment whatsoever in advance, this idea should prove a real money maker by mail and through local retailers throughout the United States and Canada. #37

ENGLAND
An ex-serviceman in England has started a Lunch Service for housewives, working out of his "Lunch Bar". The idea went over so well that he now has a thriving lunchroom where he employs several girl attendants besides his delivery lunch service to the town's housewives.

He started his "service" by using a bicycle with a built-in box at the front. He offered the busy housewife, with a full morning's work ahead of her, the chance to enjoy his specially prepared lunch, delivered right to her door. Most of these women hated to have to stop in the middle of their work in order to prepare themselves a hasty lunch, so they welcomed his service and evidently enjoyed his cold snacks. Most of the lunch boxes contained something that also could be "warmed up". Quite a convenience all right for the busy housewife. Everything already prepared without any fuss or thought on her part!

Might go over well in this country. One way to raise capital for the establishment of a restaurant. Everything could be worked out of the home at the start. Motorcycle, cyclebike, delivery car, etc. could be used, and a regular route built up with the aid of the telephone. #38

U.S.A. . . . . IMAGINATIVE RESTAURANTS
Now I'll touch on my favorite subject. Restaurants. Forgive me, friend reader. I'm afraid I filled "Discovered—505 Odd Enterprises" with more than its share of restaurant enterprises, unusual eating places, though! But, the temptation was great, and just as great now that I am writing a second book. Still, don't be too impatient with this kind of an idea simply because you have no intention of ever going into the restaurant business. Remember, please, that I am really trying to point out to all of my readers how an unusual idea, twist, service, plan, method, call it what you will, can sometimes make all the difference in the world, the difference, perhaps, of a failure or a success, or of ordinary profits or astounding success!

I want my readers to realize too that these same ideas can be applied to any other enterprise. It doesn't necessarily have to be the restaurant game. Take the underlying idea or plan that lies behind all of these restaurant "surface" ideas. Change them around a bit, adapt them to a different business, the business in which you are interested. Throw in a few ideas of your own. Surely your imagination will be "perking" after you get through reading through the following bunch of clever restaurant projects!

We'll start out with the restaurant in a small California town. Here we find the dining room with a mountain stream winding and splashing through it. Then jump to a city in Arkansas where a cafe specializes in Dutch oven roasted chicken cooked over hickory coals and served in individual Dutch ovens. Brought right to your table with a side helping of French fries and a spring salad, served in an attractive wooden bowl.

Out west in Arizona a roadside cafe features a "Cinderella doll house" for the children and a "toy town teahouse" for the adults. Pleasant surprise for the customer and worth the time it takes to drive there.

In the same state there is another unique place with booths made to resemble miniature covered wagons. Other western forms of decorations fill the attractive dining room. Moving across the southwest to the south we find an unusual restaurant in Alabama where you may dine in the garden if you wish. More places should have attractive gardens in the rear with tables for the outdoor trade.

Back east in Massachusetts a cafe has one of these outside dining rooms and it is most popular with the customers. It's a treat, you know, dining amid flower gardens, shrubs and trees. This place also features an odd "boneless" fried chicken. Sounds O.K.

Taking advantage of natural scenery in your community pays off too. Another Massachusetts restaurant has built their dining room so that it overlooks the town's waterfalls. In the same state there is a place that plays up the fact that the dwelling is 200 years old and full of surprises. Many towns and cities have such interesting places that could be fixed up and used for various types of business. This restaurant has an odd fruit salad that they top off with homemade sherbet. A little thing, you might think, but it is probably just one more "touch" than the place up the street gives! Just one slight change in the dull menu might bring the business to your end of the block instead of to the other competitor.

In Maryland a cafe has a slogan displayed that reads "Cut your steak with a fork else tear up the check and walk out". They also invite the customer to visit their kitchen. Two fine bits of showmanship!

If you want to give your customer his money's worth, try the plan used by an Indiana eating house. They advertise "Jumbo Plate Family-Style Dinners". Served on a special 18 inch colored plate, it really knocks your eye out!

Neighboring Illinois has a shop that has been serving sausages for 15 years. In fact they've been specializing in 70 kinds of Milwaukee sausages, luncheon meats and 70 kinds of cheese, They have 70 ways of serving all of this too! The Cafe has a distinct "personality" and is located in a cellar.

A Chicago place advertises that it has its own fishing boat and catches its own fish each day. Mighty good advertising.

Down south in Georgia we can visit a place called "Aunt Fanny's Cabin". Built on a farm you are surprised when you pass through the gate and find yourself being greeted by a black Mammy in colorful garb. The cabin is most interesting to the visitor and lends just the right southern atmosphere to the meal.

In Washington there is a restaurant that caters to the children, realizing that this is one sure way to make friends with the adult customers. There is an attractive Children's dining room, with a special menu for the kiddies.

Coffee is made at individual tables placed next to your table if you eat at a place in San Francisco. Glass Silex makers are handily located next to each guest where he can watch the coffee being made, smell the aroma, and get it hot and straight from the "pot". At one end of the dining room is a glass enclosed kitchen, so that the guests can also watch the food being prepared.

North of San Francisco in a small town is another cafe that features a similar idea. Here you'll notice that there is an automatic toaster on each table where chicken, ham and steak sandwiches can be toasted to your own taste.

In Western Wyoming a restaurant has turned its dining room into something more in keeping with the west. All furnishings and decorations are strictly western. There is an Indian tepee in one corner of the dining room and a collection of Indian curiosities displayed on the walls.

A small place in a Wisconsin town believes in offering unusual foods instead of unusual services, so they serve salt stick rye bread and rum-flavored dinner rolls with all meals. The guests like them and probably remember the place not because of the meal but simply because these two items were different and will stand out in their memories for months to come.

An Oregon cafe also uses the same system, serving wild plum preserve with all meals. A small town spot in Ohio makes you remember their place and come back for more by changing the manner of serving, not the food. They serve all food "country style", the platters being passed as often as you wish.

Going back to the coffee idea where coffee was brewed at each table, an Ohio cafe places an electric percolator on each table. A small town restaurant in New York state doesn't bother with a menu. The waitresses simply pass huge platters of foods from which you try to make a choice. Every kind of food is being cooked up and placed on these platters constantly. Quite an idea.

New Hampshire boasts of a place that has 100-year-old wallpaper on its dining room walls. Another example of using historic buildings for places of business. Another spot in New Hampshire uses an old-time covered bridge over a river for a restaurant. They've remodeled it some, but the ten trees still grow right through the top of the bridge's roof! Atmosphere and showmanship result in person to person advertising for such odd places.

Just serving good food is odd nowadays, at least I'm beginning to think so after being disappointed all the time in restaurants. A Minnesota eating house serves such attractive things as chicken pot pie, ham pot pie, orange rolls, cheese rolls, apple dumplings, ice box pies, homemade ice cream, etc. Their dressing is so good you may take home a sample bottle. Later you'll buy the larger size.

Minnesota has another good eating place. They really go all out for providing the guests with that "extra" touch. There is a big pool and a fountain in the middle of the dining room. The guests are allowed to catch the brook trout that have been placed there. Their catches are then fried to order. You can imagine the delight of everyone and the fun involved, if you like the sport of fishing.

Wisconsin has an Italian Village Restaurant, and the place really lives up to its name, having a real street and vine-thatched cottages inside the dining room. In fact the whole interior is made up to represent an Italian village.

Cooking the food before the guest's eyes is good business too. In a small Michigan town a cafe cooks many of the meat and fish dishes right in front of you, broiling steaks, chops, etc., over a fire in the dining room fireplace. Makes a hit with the diners, you can bet! And brings them back again and again.

Talking about fireplaces, there are seven fireplaces in a Massachusetts restaurant. Not satisfied with one, they really went all out. The fireplaces aren't just for decorative purposes, either, all seven having a small or large fire in them, depending on the type of weather. Very cheerful on rainy days or cold wintery days! Another Massachusetts eating house has built a place that looks like an ocean liner, on a small scale of course. Waitresses dressed in attractive sailor suits help to carry out the illusion of being in a nautical setting. A similar setup in the same state is the old-time schooner, a relic of the whaling days, that has been turned into a quaint restaurant. Lying conveniently beside the town's wharf, the tourist can go on board and enjoy a meal either outside on deck or inside the cabin. The boat is 100 years old and of great interest to many tourists.

Massachusetts enterprises capitalize on these old-time settings. In another small Massachusetts town one man has gone to considerable expense, to say nothing of the time spent in study and research, building or recreating an early American Tavern. Starting with an old building said to be 100 years old, this chap has given the restaurant the atmosphere and appearance it might have had some 100 years ago. Antiques played a big part in furnishing the place. There are extra attractions for the guest to visit after the meal is over such as the Old Country Store which is a replica of the old-time store as it might have looked 100 years ago…and stocked with 100 year old merchandise. Then there is the Loom Room which is filled with old looms and antique spinning wheels. In the Cellar Room there is an old stone fireplace, complete with 100 year old cooking utensils. The Buttery Room contains an interesting collection of cheese presses and churns of that era. And the Wagon Shed is stocked with a display of farming implements that were used then such as early tools, slings for shoeing oxen and an old oxcart. Is the place doing any business? They're operating six separate dining rooms! Does that sound successful?

If you ever passed through a particular town in Illinois you would probably stop out of curiosity at another place that uses antiques as a part of its decoration scheme. A low log cabin, completely surrounded by beautiful lawns, flowers and trees and a quaint rustic rail fence is sure to make the traveler take notice. Comfortable rustic chairs scattered around the grounds make the scene even more perfect to the tired tourist. Inside you'll find an interesting collection of antiques, brass and copper. This huge cabin is really made out of logs, nothing fake about it.

In northern California there is a unique restaurant overlooking the water. It is a replica of a tropical eating house, complete with tropical setting. That would be interesting enough for the visitor, but the owner has gone a step further in giving his customers an added attraction. You'll find a real South Sea Island General Store, believe it or not! This is tucked away in one corner of the large dining room.

A small Illinois town has an unusual country farmhouse that has been turned into a popular restaurant. Extra attractions that bring in the customers are shuffleboard and horseshoes. Customers play at these games while their meals are being cooked to order. Attractive lawns surround the farm. In the barn you can watch a group of professional actors put on a summer stock play if you visit this farm restaurant between June 1st and Labor Day. Quite a place, all right!

For showmanship or atmosphere a small town Massachusetts cafe has piled up a tremendous heap of clam shells out in front. Naturally they specialize in fish dinners. A tank of live lobsters is also on display in front of the restaurant.

An adjoining greenhouse provides entertainment for the guests of one eating spot in a Massachusetts town. Here you can view tropical trees and flowers right in the middle of winter time. There is a collection of orchids and other unusual flowers and plants displayed in the greenhouse and also throughout the dining room.

One more and I'll bring this to a close. Specializing in the serving of Baked Alaska, or flaming ice cream, has brought business to another Massachusetts eating place. In fact, they serve this odd dessert with all dinners! The whole meal may be the same as a thousand other restaurants, but the guest will remember the odd dessert, talk about it, and this one thing may be the deciding point later on when he is trying to decide whether to patronize this restaurant or the one down the street. Most restaurants have the same foods, same menu, same kind of service, same exterior and interior appearance, no matter where you go. Therefore, a tiny "change" in anything connected with the enterprise might wake the bored customer up. He'll be surprised and pleased enough to tell his friends about this place where the "fellow used a bit of imagination".

I took my wife to a nearby restaurant for the first time last month. On the table there was a receptacle packed with cigarettes, for the taking. The waiter brought the Mrs. a nice little corsage with a pin to attach it to her coat. No charge. She's told all of her friends about the place, which, incidentally, is new, and she is still mentioning it in her conversations with new friends and neighbors. As far as I could see, this new place offered much the same type of food and service as any other good restaurant, with the exception of these two unusual twists.

You may think that they don't amount to a lot, and I'll agree with you, but customers are funny. They overlook the big things and remember the "little extras"! Remember that if you remember nothing else in this long tale, no matter what kind of business you intend to start! #39-73

U.S.A. . . . . SAMPLE PROJECT
Whittling may seem nothing more than a sport for the dreamer, the "lazy-bones". But it can also be turned into a paying business.

At least Donald thinks so. He's instituted a whittling project in a Tennessee city that is said to pay him $250 a month.

Using a soft type of wood, he carves pencil holders, paper weights, letter openers and match holders. He started by making up a few sample letter openers and mailing them to a dealer. The dealer ordered. Since then he has used the same system, sending sample letter openers to all souvenir stores that he can get the names and addresses of. With each sample goes a circular asking for a quantity order and giving the prices, etc. Says that he gets orders from 60% of all dealers mailed to. How does he get his mailing list? Well, he writes to the Chamber of Commerce of each town. Tells them what he is selling and asks them if they will be kind enough to send him the name and address of any local souvenir shop. These letters get results.

Before you pass up this idea because, perhaps, you think you haven't enough whittling experience, let me tell you that Donald had no special talent in this direction. Once he had started, he practiced by making little things for his friends. Perseverance finally turned this pleasant hobby into a paying business. He believes that almost anyone else could do as well because the things he carves are not too intricate or delicate, like the carving of human figures or animals, etc., would be. Once you have carved a wooden letter opener, you have a mental pattern to follow and it soon becomes a matter of "mass production".

The same method of promotion or securing a market used in this plan could readily be adapted to many other different kinds of enterprises. #74

U.S.A. . . . . FARM TOUR
I believe I covered the roadside enterprise pretty thoroughly in my other volume. Nevertheless, I have a few additional facts I am going to present here that may be of interest to readers who missed reading this first book.

It isn't as easy as you may think to make a success out of a roadside business. It is just too easy to start such an outdoor project. Anyone can go into this sort of thing. As a result, a great many of the stands or shops are pretty terrible. The locations are fine in most instances, but the owners are just sitting back and letting the opportunities roll by on the highway. They could add real money to their bank account, as some enterprising souls have, if they would only realize that a little applied psychology is necessary in this business.

You must devise merchandising tricks that will make the motorist STOP. If you start another "typical" hot dog stand or any sort of an unimaginative roadside stand, don't expect to make any important money.

Out in Kansas in the middle of the hot flat prairie, one operator advertises his two lone shade trees on many large signs along the road. The signs invite one to stop and sit in the shade, to cool himself and his car. Benches, swings and the like are placed under the trees for the benefit of those stopping. And of course the owner has his produce stand nearby. The fruits and vegetables receive an hourly sprinkling so that they remain cool looking and fresh at all times. It is reasonable to expect that a fair percentage of those stopping to rest in the shade will buy something.

Another farmer with a similar stand puts up large signs that invite the passer-by to stop and visit his farm, to make a tour of the whole place! Here one can meet the cows and chickens face to face, can take a peek inside the barn or silo. He'll even give his "visitors" a free sample glass of buttermilk. The "city slickers" go for this invitation in a big way and after they have had their interesting stroll around the neat farm, invariably buy something. Sometimes they'll leave the place with a stack of vegetables and fruits, maybe a jug of cider, some eggs, chickens, etc. This all totals up to some mighty important sales from this stand!

One Indian, operating a stand selling moccasins, baskets and other Indian novelties, has his squaw hang up their baby papoose fashion on a tree some distance down the road, but within sight of the stand. Astonished families driving by would pull to a halt and look back. By that time their car would be directly opposite the Indian's stand. Clever, eh what?

A dog slept at the foot of the tree, sort of standing guard for the baby. The baby was comfortable in his birch bark and leather "cocoon". Everyone was happy. It stopped the motorists, their curiosity aroused, particularly the women, at seeing a baby supposedly hanging all by himself from a tree.

The modern car is geared to high speeds and you've got to have something extremely novel, odd, out-of-the-ordinary, call it what you may, to bring that speeding car to a halt. If you can get them to stop, a sale is almost always assured.

A farmer in the state of New York gets his prospects to stop by painting huge signs that are shaped like tomatoes, corn, pumpkins, carrots, apples, melons and the like. Each sign is painted in the natural colors of the fruit or vegetable the sign picture represents. For some reason or other, these signs stop a great many motorists. #75-76

SOUTH SEA ISLAND
One of the most unusual South Sea Island businesses today is located on Lord How Island some 600 miles east of Australia. Here a strange industry was born that serves many of the hotels throughout the world! In fact, this island enterprise has a virtual world monopoly in raising palm-tree seed. But, only a special kind of palm tree. One that is ideally suited for hotel lobby decoration because of its tabloid size. A dwarf species of palm tree. This island enterprise exports the seed only, to every part of the world.

The palm tree seed industry got its start when it was discovered that the midget palm growing there was just what hotel managers were looking for to give their lobbies that exotic tropical look and still not take up too much lobby space. The business grew until lately it has provided a comfortable income for several other similar enterprises besides the original one.

Speaking of palm tree seed, some reference is made in "Discovered" to the possibilities of selling such seed to millions of people living in the eastern states for growing house plants indoors in the winter and moving the potted trees outdoors in the summertime. #77

SCOTLAND
Most folks have heard of "envelope addressing" but few have heard of the "Address copying" plan used in Scotland. The same idea could be worked very well here in the States.

Most mail-order dealers sell their original inquiry and order letters after they're through with them, to letter brokers. Many dealers rent or sell their inquiry letters to other mail-order merchants who in turn will use these addresses for their own promotional efforts, or mail out literature about their own offers to these same names and addresses.

Many dealers will want a copy of the names and addresses to be found on all of these letters (usually thousands) or one master list taken from these original inquiry letters, before selling them. There is always the chance that he might want to use these names in the future with a different proposition. He may have a list of his customers but usually has no list of the thousands in inquiries that came in, and once these are sold to another dealer or to a mailing list broker, they are gone for good, Hence the need for such a service in our own country or an "Address Copying Service".

Many dealers hate to sell their inquiry letters, even to non-competitive firms, because they have no record of all these names in the form of a master mailing list of the unproductive inquiries. Because they did not produce on one item doesn't mean that they won't pull returns on another deal in the coming future. And besides, a master mailing list is much easier to stock than thousands of letters (sometimes as much as 10,000 or more) of all shapes and sizes.

By inserting ads in the mail order and advertising trade magazines, offering to copy down these original letter names for about $5.00 per thousand, you should have plenty of work to occupy your spare time. And by also mailing personally typed letters and literature explaining service to thousands of mail-order dealers throughout the land, you may be able to work up the service to a full time proposition. #78

OPERATE A "COLUMN" MAIL-ORDER ENTERPRISE
By this we mean to conduct a monthly column in many suitable magazines. This is to be an advertising column, although you could insert any items of interest in between the ads, covering the same subject. To give you an idea of what we mean we cite the case at a man who runs a column in mail-order publications appealing to women. He runs ads of those people who have crocheted items for sale, or who do crocheting or knitting. Also folks who work at home and have various art work, craftwork or handicraft objects that they turn out. Ads are run in order to sell these hand made products. They pay for insertion directly to the man who conducts the "column". He in turn contracts to purchase a section of the magazine each month at a special reduced rate. Then he solicits the advertising himself and fills up the space he has bought with ads, listings and newsy items about home made products.

"Column" mail-order businesses could be run in the same manner covering many other items. People doing addressing work, sewing work, mimeographing work, varityping work, folding work, assembling work, home manufacturing work, mailing list work, wood working projects, etc. could list their wares and services in similar "columns" run in magazines and papers serving a class of reader that would be likely to be interested.