The Art of Money Getting by P. T. Barnum (sight word books .txt) 📕

“How can I help you so much with so small a sum?” asked the gentleman in

surprise. “I started out this morning (hiccuped the fellow) with the

full determination to get drunk, and I have spent my only dollar to

accomplish the object, and it has not quite done it. Ten cents worth

more of whiskey would just do it, and in this manner I should save the

dollar already expended.”

So a man who advertises at all must keep it up until the public know who

and what he is, and what his business is, or else the money invested in

advertising is lost.

Some men have a peculiar genius for writing a striking advertisement,

one that will arrest the attention of the reader at first sight. This

fact, of course, gives the advertiser a great advantage. Sometimes a man

makes himself popular by an unique sign or a curious display in his

window, recently I observed a swing sign extending over the sidewalk in

front of a store, on which was the inscription in plain letters,

“DON’T READ THE OTHER SIDE”

Of course I did, and so did everybody else, and I learned that the man

had made all independence by first attracting the public to his business

in that way and then using his customers well afterwards.

Genin, the hatter, bought the first Jenny Lind ticket at auction for two

hundred and twenty-five dollars, because he knew it would be a good

advertisement for him. “Who is the bidder?” said the auctioneer, as he

knocked down that ticket at Castle Garden. “Genin, the hatter,” was the

response. Here were thousands of people from the Fifth avenue, and from

distant cities in the highest stations in life. “Who is ‘Genin,’ the

hatter?” they exclaimed. They had never heard of him before. The next

morning the newspapers and telegraph had circulated the facts from Maine

to Texas, and from five to ten millions off people had read that the

tickets sold at auction For Jenny Lind’s first concert amounted to about

twenty thousand dollars, and that a single ticket was sold at two

hundred and twenty-five dollars, to “Genin, the hatter.” Men throughout

the country involuntarily took off their hats to see if they had a

“Genin” hat on their heads. At a town in Iowa it was found that in the

crowd around the post office, there was one man who had a “Genin” hat,

and he showed it in triumph, although it was worn out and not worth two

cents. “Why,” one man exclaimed, “you have a real ‘Genin’ hat; what a

lucky fellow you are.” Another man said, “Hang on to that hat, it will

be a valuable heir-loom in your family.” Still another man in the crowd

who seemed to envy the possessor of this good fortune, said, “Come, give

us all a chance; put it up at auction!” He did so, and it was sold as a

keepsake for nine dollars and fifty cents! What was the consequence to

Mr. Genin? He sold ten thousand extra hats per annum, the first six

years. Nine-tenths of the purchasers bought of him, probably, out of

curiosity, and many of them, finding that he gave them an equivalent for

their money, became his regular customers. This novel advertisement

first struck their attention, and then, as he made a good article, they

came again.

Now I don’t say that everybody should advertise as Mr. Genin did. But I

say if a man has got goods for sale, and he don’t advertise them in

some way, the chances are that some day the sheriff will do it for him.

Nor do I say that everybody must advertise in a newspaper, or indeed use

“printers’ ink” at all. On the contrary, although that article is

indispensable in the majority of cases, yet doctors and clergymen, and

sometimes lawyers and some others, can more effectually reach the public

in some other manner. But it is obvious, they must be known in some way,

else how could they be supported?

BE POLITE AND KIND TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.

Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove

unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly. The

truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be

the patronage bestowed upon him. “Like begets like.” The man who gives

the greatest amount of goods of a corresponding quality for the least

sum (still reserving for himself a profit) will generally succeed best

in the long run. This brings us to the golden rule, “As ye would that

men should do to you, do ye also to them” and they will do better by you

than if you always treated them as if you wanted to get the most you

could out of them for the least return. Men who drive sharp bargains

with their customers, acting as if they never expected to see them

again, will not be mistaken. They will never see them again as

customers. People don’t like to pay and get kicked also.

One of the ushers in my Museum once told me he intended to whip a man

who was in the lecture-room as soon as he came out.

“What for?” I inquired.

“Because he said I was no gentleman,” replied the usher.

“Never mind,” I replied, “he pays for that, and you will not convince

him you are a gentleman by whipping him. I cannot afford to lose a

customer. If you whip him, he will never visit the Museum again, and he

will induce friends to go with him to other places of amusement instead

of this, and thus you see, I should be a serious loser.”

“But he insulted me,” muttered the usher.

“Exactly,” I replied, “and if he owned the Museum, and you had paid him

for the privilege of visiting it, and he had then insulted you, there

might be some reason in your resenting it, but in this instance he is

the man who pays, while we receive, and you must, therefore, put up with

his bad manners.”

My usher laughingly remarked, that this was undoubtedly the true policy;

but he added that he should not object to an increase of salary if he

was expected to be abused in order to promote my interest.

Of course men should be charitable, because it is a duty and a pleasure.

But even as a matter of policy, if you possess no higher incentive, you

will find that the liberal man will command patronage, while the sordid,

uncharitable miser will be avoided.

Solomon says: “There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is

that withholdeth more than meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” Of course

the only true charity is that which is from the heart.

The best kind of charity is to help those who are willing to help

themselves. Promiscuous almsgiving, without inquiring into the

worthiness of the applicant, is bad in every sense. But to search out

and quietly assist those who are struggling for themselves, is the kind

that “scattereth and yet increaseth.” But don’t fall into the idea that

some persons practice, of giving a prayer instead of a potato, and a

benediction instead of bread, to the hungry. It is easier to make

Christians with full stomachs than empty.

DON’T BLAB

Some men have a foolish habit of telling their business secrets. If they

make money they like to tell their neighbors how it was done. Nothing is

gained by this, and ofttimes much is lost. Say nothing about your

profits, your hopes, your expectations, your intentions. And this should

apply to letters as well as to conversation. Goethe makes Mephistophilles

say: “Never write a letter nor destroy one.” Business men must write

letters, but they should be careful what they put in them. If you are

losing money, be specially cautious and not tell of it, or you will lose

your reputation.

It is more precious than diamonds or rubies. The old miser said to his

sons: “Get money; get it honestly if you can, but get money:” This

advice was not only atrociously wicked, but it was the very essence of

stupidity: It was as much as to say, “if you find it difficult to obtain

money honestly, you can easily get it dishonestly. Get it in that way.”

Poor fool! Not to know that the most difficult thing in life is to make

money dishonestly! Not to know that our prisons are full of men who

attempted to follow this advice; not to understand that no man can be

dishonest, without soon being found out, and that when his lack of

principle is discovered, nearly every avenue to success is closed

against him forever. The public very properly shun all whose integrity

is doubted. No matter how polite and pleasant and accommodating a man

may be, none of us dare to deal with him if we suspect “false weights

and measures.” Strict honesty, not only lies at the foundation of all

success in life (financially), but in every other respect.

Uncompromising integrity of character is invaluable. It secures to its

possessor a peace and joy which cannot be attained without it—which no

amount of money, or houses and lands can purchase. A man who is known to

be strictly honest, may be ever so poor, but he has the purses of all

the community at his disposal—for all know that if he promises to

return what he borrows, he will never disappoint them. As a mere matter

of selfishness, therefore, if a man had no higher motive for being

honest, all will find that the maxim of Dr. Franklin can never fail to

be true, that “honesty is the best policy.”

To get rich, is not always equivalent to being successful. “There are

many rich poor men,” while there are many others, honest and devout men

and women, who have never possessed so much money as some rich persons

squander in a week, but who are nevertheless really richer and happier

than any man can ever be while he is a transgressor of the higher laws

of his being.

The inordinate love of money, no doubt, may be and is “the root of all

evil,” but money itself, when properly used, is not only a “handy thing

to have in the house,” but affords the gratification of blessing our

race by enabling its possessor to enlarge the scope of human happiness

and human influence. The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none

can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts its

responsibilities, and uses it as a friend to humanity.

The history of money-getting, which is commerce, is a history of

civilization, and wherever trade has flourished most, there, too, have

art and science produced the noblest fruits. In fact, as a general

thing, money-getters are the benefactors of our race. To them, in a

great measure, are we indebted for our institutions of learning and of

art, our academies, colleges and churches. It is no argument against the

desire for, or the possession of wealth, to say that there are sometimes

misers who hoard money only for the sake of hoarding and who have no

higher aspiration than to grasp everything which comes within their

reach. As we have sometimes hypocrites in religion, and demagogues in

politics, so there are occasionally misers among money-getters. These,

however, are only exceptions to the general rule. But when, in this

country, we find such a nuisance and stumbling block as a miser, we

remember with gratitude that in America we have no laws of

primogeniture, and that in the due course of