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Chapter II

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Chapter IV

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CHAPTER III

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE REMEDY

The sales of my Remedy were fast becoming a tangible reality, but still I was restless. It was not what it should be. The field was too limited. I wanted to fly but had no wings. The want grew until it controlled me, and I astonished the household one day by telling them I was going to Charlotte in the interest of my Remedy.

Had I said I was going to the moon on business, they would not have been more surprised. Since my Raleigh contretemps, I had subsided so completely and had so entirely stopped talking about "hopes" and "aims", that I do not think it ever entered into their heads to suppose I would ever have another one.

But in the fall of '82 I boarded the train at Franklinton, with a ticket to Charlotte and $17.50 in my pocket, all the available funds I had in the world but all the same, I drove up as big as life to the Central, and registered as if I had had many thousands.

I asked Mr. Eccles his terms, which he gave me. I told him I only took two meals a day, breakfast and supper, and he, little dreaming of my expedient to stretch my money, gave me corresponding reduction of rates.

The next morning I started out "in the interest of my Remedy", and Mr. William M. Wilson, of Charlotte is the first man I ever approached to sell a bill of goods to. With my most winning smile I told him I had come in to sell him a dozen bottles of my Remedy. He said "What remedy, Madam?" I told him "Mrs. Joe Person's Remedy, of course". "Why Madam", he said, "I never heard of it!" I told him that was the reason I wanted to sell him a dozen, so that he would hear of it, and see what it would do.

I think Mr. Wilson appreciated my position and its pathos, for then and there, after finding this was my first effort, he so kindly explained to me the law of supply and demand, that it robbed the bitterness of my disappointment of its sting.

He said, "I believe you have a good thing, and I hope you will succeed with it, but if you had a medicine that would raise the dead, and people knew nothing of it, and did not call for it, I couldn't afford to put my money in it, because I couldn't sell it. You create the demand and I'll buy! Put out your circulars in the houses here and if people call for it, I will certainly send you an order. That

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is all I can do". I knew he was right and I wouldn't have had him to do more, but the disappointment was bitter and hard to bear.

I called on Dr. T. C. Smith and Dr. McAden, with the same result, of course. Not a bottle did I sell as the result of my first day's work in Charlotte. I returned to the Hotel, disheartened, and lay awake that night chewing the cud of sweet and bitter phantasies.

It was at that time that I met with the dearest friend of my after-life, Mrs. Eccles. She came around to my room, and to her sympathetic and willing ear, I told "my tale of woe'', and I felt better, a stranger in a strange land, for knowing her. May God bless her always! When the days were dark with me, then and afterward, she it was who strengthened me and ever reminded me of the sunshine which always follows the clouds.

I had but few circulars, as I was only able to have five hundred at a time, so the next morning I went to the Observer office and had some gummed slips printed, reading "Please read this circular and preserve it. I will call for it tomorrow." I pasted one on each circular and carried them myself to each house on one of the principal residence streets. The next day, I went the rounds again to gather them in, and many of the ladies invited me in, and showed me kind attention and gave me encouraging words. I can never forget. They wanted me to tell them of this wonderful Remedy of mine, which I was only too glad of the chance to do.

I worked two days with my circulars in Charlotte, but did not sell a bottle. I then returned to my home, sad and thoughtful, I must confess. In less than two weeks I received an order from. Mr. W. M. Wilson for two dozen Remedy, and in a few days this was followed by an order from Dr. T. C. Smith, for two dozen, and in that way my trade was established which has sold me thousands of bottles in Charlotte. I continued this plan in the various towns and cities of the State, thus introducing my Remedy with most gratifying results.

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