Page 339 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

University (Evanston, Illinois), would be unable to return for their fourth year
unless some unknown source of revenue could be tapped—and, as they
agreed, “the sooner the better.” It was Ralph who got the bright idea for
making money one evening when calling on his latest “big moment.” Two
people in a car stopped in front of the house where he was calling and
inquired whether it was such and such a number. After he had directed them,
he realized that you simply could not see the house number from the curb.
That night when he got back to the room he shared with George, they put
their heads together and after some plain and fancy figuring found they could
make a tidy sum of money by painting house numbers on the curbstones in
front of the houses of Evanstonians, with a set of marking stencils.

Each boy took one side of the street. In front of a house one of the boys
would brush a square of white paint on the curb and then ring the doorbell.
When the householder appeared the white space was pointed out, and he was
asked if he wouldn’t like to see his house number painted in black on the
white space. It is surprising how many were actually eager to have the job
done. In fact, about three-quarters of the householders of Evanston had house
numbers painted on their curbstones before the boys had finished.

The white spaces were painted first along the street and then the boys came
back and stenciled the black numbers thus allowing time for the white paint
to dry. A charge of twenty-five cents was made for any combination of
numbers and the first morning in four hours they completed twenty-two
orders each, making a total of $5.50 for the morning’s work a piece.

Every Saturday and as many hours before and after classes as they could
manage these two enterprising “business men” worked at their jobs. Before
long they found that they had about exhausted the market in Evanston. They
then moved on to the section just south of Evanston which is Chicago proper
and worked that territory. When that was worked out they moved on to other
suburbs north and “numbered” the residents as Ralph termed it. During the
spring vacation they finished the sections north and west of Evanston and
when the summer vacation came around they decided to take their paint and
brushes and “number the natives” along the route to Ralph’s home where
George was spending the summer. In the farm sections along the way they