Though I may seem to have been successful in my schemes—and I was—yet they were small ones, parts of the country I was in were poor, and when I had worked around to a broader field I was still short of capital, and undecided about settling down on any particular line. I believe I was at my lowest ebb for about a year, in which I worked all sorts of things. I traveled as a renovator, cleaning clothing, hats and garments when I had to, but preferring to sell the liquid which did the work. I gave away little packages of medicine, and sold with them a book for twenty-five cents, which was supposed to be a treatise on the anatomy of man. At one time I was a professional carpet cleaner, who guaranteed to clean a carpet without pain and remove grease while the customer waited. I used to clean a spot by way of sample, and then sell the stuff to do the rest. I had a furniture polish which was handled on the same plan. I sold rugs by installments, and was the originator of the scheme of selling watches on the street, the price payable by installments. I worked about three months at that, going backward and forward to make my collections, and finding it paid fairly well. Then there was the cologne and perfumery fake. The articles were done up in fancy packages, in which was enclosed a circular. These were distributed from door to door, and so well was the circular worded that on calling the next day for the money or package it was generally the money. The price was seventy-five cents a package, or one dollar and a quarter for two. There was the advertising directory scheme, which could be handled without much danger of failure if you could find a field which had not been occupied. Every one wants a directory of the city and county if it can be had at a reasonable price, and advertisers will take space enough to make good profit. There were plenty of things for a bustling man to turn his attention to, and as my health became re-established more firmly, my head began to rise above water. One day I figured up my cash and found I had more than one hundred dollars, and decided to send for a stock of goods. I always was successful at street selling, and though I made the bulk of my money in other lines, at this particular time my preference lay in that direction. There was something fascinating in gathering a crowd; to change its cold, marble stare into one of eager expectancy; to warm it up to the highest pitch, and bring the coin rolling in through the power of my own magnetic eloquence. You can make up your mind that, though some men may be proof against your most seductive wiles, the mass of them are not. Pack men closely together, start up the battery of your personal magnetism, and you will get somebody under control. Then the fire will spread from him to another, and so on, until the mass of the throng are just as much your victims as though they had resigned themselves to a hypnotic doctor on the stage.