Stenography is necessary only for professional stenographers. If you desire to be a newspaper woman, for instance, do not think of wasting your time over it. I do not know of a city editor in the country who would not reply "That makes no difference" if you applied to him for a position with the assertion, "I am an expert stenographer." He seldom wants a shorthand report of anything, and when such an occasion arises he sends to a stenographic agency. Do not imagine that it would be of great use to you in reporting an interview; that is a mistaken notion. Unless you are engaged in the business you will not use your shorthand twice a year. But if you have made up your mind to be a stenographer and typewriter, be a good one. Do not be satisfied to be a girl whose place can be filled in half an hour by a tap of the telephone bell. Such places are not worth much. You will find it a good profession when you make yourself so valuable that your absence is a misfortune. It is not luck, but ability, that puts girls into good positions.

BY FRANKLIN A. STOTE

NE day, some thirty-three years ago, a salesman for a New York house was calling on a customer in a Michigan town. He had an idea for increasing his sales, a little scheme that had come to him during one of the idle hours while "making a jump" from one town to the next. As the Michigan merchant was a good friend of his he thought this would be about the right place to try out the new plan. So when the local dealer had given his order from the regular line the salesman unfolded his proposition.

If the merchant would place an order for some job lots of stuff that happened to be left over in the New York house-stuff that could be retailed for five cents — the salesman would personally conduct the sale.

He was sure that much of the dead stock on the merchant's shelves, which could hardly be given away under ordinary circumstances, would be really sold if offered in attractive combinations with the job lots from the East.

The order was placed, and the salesman started out to make some nearby towns, while waiting for the shipment. When the goods arrived, the New Yorker was there to meet them. While they were being unpacked and a counter cleared for the sale, the traveling man went through the merchant's stock and selected a lot of small shelf-worn stuff. This he arranged according to his own ideas, along with the new goods.

Of course the sale was advertised for a certain date, and 1 By permission of "System." Copyright, 1907.

the success of it may be best indicated by the fact that at the close of that first day a wire was sent to the New York house to duplicate the order.

As the salesman had accomplished his purpose-increased his sale — he resumed his trip, and wherever the merchant customer would take up with the plan he organized one of the sales.

It happened that one of these Michigan storekeepers had a friend in Watertown, New York, and that he used to stop off there when making his infrequent trips East. Not many months after these sales were started he concluded that it was time to go to market, and as this year was to be no exception, a few days later he was talking to his old friend Moore, of the firm of Moore & Smith at Watertown.

In the course of their conversation he spoke of the great success of his five-cent counter. During the telling of the story the merchants were standing beside one of the counters of the Watertown store. A clerk who was on the other side could not avoid hearing the talk. The account of the sale surprised him, but he gave no particular thought to it at the time.

Not long after this visit, Mr. Moore went to New York, and while there called at the wholesale house where his Michigan friend had purchased his five-cent goods. The great difficulty was to get articles that could be sold at the price; but finally an order amounting to seventy dollars was placed.

When the goods arrived in Watertown a counter was cleared, and some of the shelves were cleared, also, for the opportunity to get rid of the dead stock was not to be overlooked. When everything was in readiness, the sale was announced. It succeeded — order after order was sent in to have new goods rushed through.

Mr. Moore made a second trip to New York and looked up firms with whom he had never before dealt, in the hope of securing a greater variety of stock. He was soon spending much of his time there, for the business was new, and wholesale houses had not pushed or encouraged the sale of what seemed like a trifling line of goods. They knew it could not last; in fact, Mr. Moore had told them it could not last, but that he was determined to make all possible out of it while the rush was on. He did not tell them that his firm had already started to wholesale their goods; but that was just the situation. They had been forced into the wholesale business. And this is how it happened.

At the end of the first week of the five-cent counter, two of the clerks informed their employers that they had made arrangements to start a five-cent store in a nearby city and wanted to buy their stock of Moore & Smith. Before the close of another week a third clerk had decided to open a store in a place not far away; here was another store to be stocked.

Other storekeepers saw the business that this innovation was creating, and they came to Moore & Smith to buy their stock. An enterprising farmer who received his mail at a little hamlet of five hundred population, close at home, came to Watertown to do his trading. He felt the excitement, and one day bought fifty dollars' worth of goods of Moore & Smith with the intention of starting a store in the place near his home. There was no store to be had, so he rented the upper story of a barn and soon sold the entire stock.

While all this excitement was going on around him, the clerk who had heard the story told by the Michigan merchant was, apparently, feeling no great interest in the changes that were taking place as a result. He had little

to say about it, and whatever he noticed regarding the sale of the goods, those with the greatest amount of profit and those which sold best, he kept to himself.

But the time had come to act; his former associates in the store, the two clerks who had first left to start up for themselves, had picked their stock and moved into the town where they were to start up; in fact they had been running for nearly two weeks, and the reports came in that they were doing an enormous business.

He approached his employers and told them that he, too, wanted to start in the new business, but that he had no money. He was told to find some one who would indorse his note; that they would then let him have the stock. After several attempts to get outside help, the young clerk reluctantly went to his father, who agreed to go on the note with him.

Three hundred dollars' worth of goods were picked out and packed, subject to his orders. With fifty dollars in his pocket he left Watertown to find a location. One place after another was rejected for various reasons, until Utica was reached. By this time most of the fifty dollars had disappeared, but there was a friend in Utica with whom he could stay, and a location was finally secured. It was hard to get the landlord to rent the place for one month, rent to be paid at the end of it, when it was the custom to lease it by the year, rent payable in advance of each month. But it was finally accomplished; and F. W. Woolworth had negotiated for his first store without enough cash in his pocket to pay for the lumber to make the rough counters; the few dollars he had must be saved to meet the freight bill. When the goods arrived, according to his order, he hired two clerks, had some handbills printed, and the store put in readiness to meet the demands of the customers.