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Copyright,
1907, by David C.
Cook Publishing Company.
Ly > ro OF J PUBLISHED
Vor. VI. No. 37, ) WEEKLY.
DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING CO., ELGrIn,
ILLINOIS, AND 86 WASHINGTON Srt.,
CuicaGo.
dollars.
The doctor smiled, then looked
serious, for there were always three places
for every dollar.
“T just want it for sixty days,” Mildred
‘coaxed, slipping her arm through his as
they “walked down the hall.
“What do you want with bay Sissy?”
“To go to the uniyersi
Tle laughed,ymuch relieved. “of course,
it was one of her whimsical jokes.
“No, I am in dreadful earnest, papa. I
haye an idea—a big, roomy idea, a bright
idea, bright as a new tin pans ‘I am go-
ing to the university, pay my own way, and
have some money left over when I gradu-
ate—that is, if you will let. me have the
twenty to begin on. You know, papa, the
very best ideas won’t work unless they are
‘given a little start.”
“What is this wonderful idea?’ The
doctor had learned t6 distrust the commer-
cial value of ideas.
“That is a secret. I will not tell. Not
unless your faith very strong—twenty
dollars’ strong, anyway.”
° ‘ate looked. down ‘at “his daughter,
and smiled. She was certainly a bright, re-
‘ sourceful girl and capable. There were few
girls so likely to carry out a project.
“Well,” "he id, pausing at the door of
- his office, “ we will see about it.”
Ilis face was troubled. The only shadow
on the happiness of the Tate family was
cast by a lean pocketbook.
“Tl pay it back, truly I will!’ urged
~ Mildred. “T will give you my note of hand
“with compound inttrest.
We tried to smile gayly, but hurriedly
entered and shut the door.. She had been
so patient—they had all been so patient—
- with his financial shortcomings. Ile swal-
_lowed two or three fimes to assure him-
self there was no lump in his throat. The
twenty dollars he could manage some way,
of course. It was not that. But he had
little faith in chances for girls to make
- their way,.and he knew how bitterly dis-
- appointed she would be if the plan failed,
“In the twilight the father came down
and sat in the. hammock beside his daugh-
ter. The stars came’ out, the _ fireflies
twinkled, and the soft, deep sounds of the
_ summer night filled the air as they talked
Jong of Mildred’s plan f#r the university
and the dreams that lay befond.
“Of course it may fail,” she admitted,
-as they went in, “but I have never heard
of its being tried. I am quite sure it has
“not at Summetyille.”
Panis I swant to borrow twenty
A. month before the opening of school
doors for the fall term, Mildred arrived in
the university town, and by noon was ‘all
- settled and ready for work.
_First, she ordered a thousand cards with
a few words and blank lines printed on
them.
> «From a real estate office she’ borrowed a
“plat of the city and made a rough copy,
showing the names of all streets and the
location of public buildings.
Then she went home and counted her
Fourteen dollars and twenty
. Iler courage failed. Never before
ihad she: been left. to her own: resources.
‘The very sight of the buildings. of the
_great university, which “had been the lure
of her dreams, awed here
Surely, if her idea was practical, some
of the hundreds of bright people who are
always trying to make money, would have}
thought of it. She
inexperienced,
Iler eyes were still undried when the
supper bell rang.
Next morning Mildred found she could
shut her lips so tight they ,would not
tremble. ‘I will sueceed—I will, I will!”
she kept saying over and over,
It is one thing to fail in courage and
another to lose it. Courage that is bor-
rowed from others or from circumstances
may be lost. That way lies failure. The
really brave often fail in courage for a little
while, but the spring is still within them,
and, after the shower of disappointment,
it bubbles up clear and strong.
Mildred’s was that kind, She was not
so confident, but more determined.
Beginning with the first house on Collins
street, she rang the bell.
Mrs. Jones?” she asked, smiling.
and, after eyeing her carefully
igns of a book or picture,
aid, “Won't you cone .in?”
“Mildred went in.
“Will yous have any vuéms
Was so young and
for rent this fall, Mrs,
Jones?”
“We thought we might
rent the two upstairs rooms,”
she replied. .
“Well, you see, Mrs. Jones,
Iam making a list of all the
rooms for rent in the city. I
number each room, and give
its description, location and
price on one of these cards. I
am to have an office uptown,
and those who want rooms
will come to me. I can then
send them straight to the kind
of room they want.”
Mrs. Jones thought it was
a “splendid” idea.
Mildred continued, “T
charge fifty cents for listing
the first, and twenty-five cents
for each additional room.’
Then it looked different to
Mrs. Jones. She had always
rented her own rooms.
“You have just the same
chance to rent them yourself.
You do not have to pay until
1 send someone who~ rents
your*room.” Then her heart
beat uneasily as -Mrs. Jones
hesitated. This was the first,
and she did so want to start
well. “If only one. room
should be vacant a week,” she
urged, “you would lose more
than it would cost to list all
oft!
That. ‘argument appealed to
Mrs. Jones, for she remem-
bered ‘not only weeks but
months that her rooms had
been vacant. While there were usually
were also hundreds of families who kept
She 1
ups: The next one did not, and her spirits
ted, and . Mildred’s . spirits. went
went down. - But the idea struck most of
them very favorably.
“ For. one thing,"
said a landlady,” “it
will save a dollar's worth of time answer-
ing fruitless inquiries.”
In two weeks Mildred had listed eight
hundred rooms and seventy-four board-
ing places. The latter were to pay fifty
cents for each boarder sent.
There was no difficulty in securing free
desk in the most centrally located
book store. The proprietor saw at once
that the advertising would pay him well
for the slight inconvenience.
She rented an advertising space ‘at the
depot and tacked upon it this card:
DO YOU WANT A ROOM?
800 to select from.
DO YOU WANT BOARD ?
74 places from which to choose.
For location, description and terms, see
Miss Tate, at Holcomb’s Book Store.
One of these cards she hung in the win-
dow by her desk. Others were posted in
conspicuous places about town. -
The same thing she ordered printed on
a thousand business cards, and employed a
trusty young fellow to meet all trains on
opening week and hand a card to every one
that looked like a student.
She also inserted-a small advertisement
in the local columns of the daily papers.
“IIIs IS JUST WIAT I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR.”
In the meantime Mildred had made nearly
‘|three thousand students in town,,there|a dozen classifications -of the rooms, as to
price, location, furnishings, ete.
The careful ‘classification was a wise
forethought, for the “idea” struck the in-
coming students more favorably than it had
the landladies, and they came in squads.
“This is just what I have been looking
for,” said one of the first-arrivals. “I wish
September 14; 1907,
I had a dollar for every block I have
tramped kind of room I
hunting the
wanted !” .
Each applicant was required to register
and pay a fee of twenty-five cents, Then
he was given the address of the room which
most nearly met his requirements. Or, if he
preferred, he was permitted to look over-a
detailed list from which he selected a room,
the address being furnished from another
ook.
They were requested to report immedi-
ately upon ‘renting a room, that it might be
checked off,
There was_some little cheating, of course,
some of the unthinking students stealing
addresses for
going back to their old rooms. But for all
that, Mildred was as busy as a ticket agent
on excursion day; and, after the students
were mostly settled, she found a constant
demand from strangers, who were to be in
town a few weeks or months, and this de-
mand steadily increased. ‘“ Miss Tate’s
Bureau of Rooms” became so well known
that inquirers were nearly always directed
to it,
Mildred entered the university during the
third week, and so arranged her studies
that there was an hour each morning and
evening for the “ office.
Before the sixty days were up, she sent
her father a check for twenty dollars, and
told him joyfully there were
»~ two hundred and fifty: more
to her credit iri. the bank.
When Mildred was a senior
and getting ready for her cap
and gown, she wrote:
“Yes, papa,-it certainly has
been a good idea, and it has*
grown in usefulness with age.
No doubt I could ‘sell it, as
you suggest, for enough to
take me to Europe next sum-
mer, but it is too good an
id to. sell. ‘After Com-
mencement, I am going to
will it to Bessie Lancaster,
who has been gnawing’ her
heart out for two years be-
cause she could not come to
the university.”
a
GOOD BUSINESS POLICY,
A girl with a downcast face
group of, ladies chatting. over
their embroidery. - ** Won’t you -
please look at my fancywork?”
she asked in a whining voice,
“My father’s sick, and I’ve got
six brothers and sisters.”
@ seemed to care p.
about look
The
tleularly
fancy
vanished from the
little group. The girl produced
several articles and told their
prices in the same complaining
tone she had used at first: When
no one seemed disposed to buy,
she whined, “ Please buy some-
thing, on account of my. poor
sick father.” One of the ladies
made a little purchase at last,
and the girl went away. She
had sacrificed her self-respect as
truly as if she had asked
alms.
Ifalf an hour later another girl came up the
ep: She carried in her hand a basket filled
with little cornucopias of birchbark, aad
each cornucopia was piled with raspberries,
a green leaf laid over them to: keep them
fresh.
der.
“Would you ladies care “tor any berries
this, morning?” she asked, approaching the
. . \
others, and many of them °
But the raspberries were. no fresher ~
and pinker and prettier than the young ¥ ven- |
