REVIEW.

Oxford Observer, Volume 1, Issue XI, 26 October 1889, Page 5

REVIEW.

( Continued,

The man who begins this scheme with a Penny is, m the author's judgement, more likely to succeed than he who begins with a Pound. The man who begins with a Pound will be thirsting after Pounds ; he will be anxious to th'ive too rapidly, and will over force his plant Then, too, the great inspiration of this plan was derived from the fact that the money accumulated sprang from that which was next to nothing. If the sum upon which a beginning was made had not been ho small that our author could not possibly feel the want of it, he would have been constantly tempted to repay himself the amount he had at first invested ; and one departure from his resolution would have shaken the whole tu.ierstru t ire. For these and kindred reasons, the now full-pledged financier emphatically reminds his readers that he cannot guarantee success m the Making of a Thousand Pounds to the person who adopt i any other coin than a Penny as the basis of his efforts. And now we will let him tell his own story. We may be obliged to abbreviate sometimes through want of space, but we will not alter the authors language. Hia words have, m point of fact, a certain charm of thair own, for they exhibit the working of an old fashioned spirit, full of simplicity while parading its shrewdness, having mit a strong strain of modesty and commonsense, just a shade pettifogging, and yet full of thoughtfuluess for others, while seeming to be almost sordid m its aims. "I was a small shop-keeper m a country town within a hundred miles of London. My shop occupied a situation m a central part of the town, though I cannot pretend that it was a first-class shop. Indeed it presented a very humble appearance as contrasted with my neighbors; who rejoiced m a splendid drapery establishment, and spent a great portion of his time m driving about m a one-horse chaise. Then there was the chemist and druggist opposite, who had rerecently expended seme hundreds of pounds upon a new front with, carvings of lions heads and lizard forms. His monster globe of green water, with a powerful gas burner behind it, tinged every nook and cranny of my little establishment with its unearthly glare. People used to remark by night that my rice was not a good color, that my lump sugar was inferior m quality, and that my wife looked very iil. My shop was suddenly reduced m size by my landlord, who took nearly the whole of one window away for the purpose of widening his carriage way adjacent. I was left with forty inches of window on that side ; then came the door-way, and then the larger window. My Penny scheme is connected with this little window. One Monday morning, I took a Penny from my pocket, marked it carefully so that I should know it again if it came back to me and purchased with it, from my owu stock, at the wholesale price, an article usually purchased io Penny-worths on Monday morning. I sold this article to the first applicant. Now there are many artioles m trade which yield much more than the average profit ; and the ratio of profit upon small quantities sold is much greater-than-that upon large quantities. It is obvious, therefore, that the profit upon a quarter of a a hundred weight of a given article, sold m Pennyweights to many persons, is much larger than upon the same quantity sold to one person. When my shop closed m the evening, I found that I had produced or grown Seven Pennies. Having thus started the gejme of my system, I determined to put my Penny upon its own resources, to make it m every respect independent of my general business, and not to allow it to infringe upon the profits) of my previous trade, In the course of two or three weeks I had accumulated several shillings by the sale of Pennyworths of the article with which I began. At this time my little shop window, which since its alteration had scarcely beeu used except to exhibit a few notices of lee tures and the like, came into my mind. I determined to devote it to the service of my Penny, by introducing for sale various articles m which I had not previously traded. These artioles should be wanted by the public

imperishable m character, saleable m '^siiutll quantities, attractive m appearance, capable of yielding a good profit. I found no diliiciiity m making suuili purchases of a great variety of things answering to these requirements, and soon my little window presented a really attractive appearance. In fact, the little window soon influenced my general business ; for 1 found myself, after a few months, with a supplementary business growing so rapidly as to promise to overtake m importance my general trade. Remember that m this supplementary business all the profits were allowed to accumulate, not a Penny being substntcted for any purpose whatever. I had no rent to pay, no taxes, 110 artifioiul light, no m mths to feed, no b-isks to cloths, no risks froiu bad debts, no labour to remunerate. So far as regarded vay littie window and its business, Profit was constantly being added to Principal, and Principal constantly being applied to the augmentation of Profit."