Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1915 — HER ADVERSITY MENU SUCCESS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HER ADVERSITY MENU SUCCESS

Mrs. Tabor Was Forced by Necessity to Learn Her *■ Capabilities. ■— ■ " HAD TO BE A BREAD-WINNER Her Knack for Making Excellent Candy Proved to Be Her Financial Salvation and Now She la Prosperous.

By RICHARD SPILLANE.

(Copyright, McClure Newepaper Syndicate.) A person rarely knows what he or she can do until a turn in the tide of life or some emergency brings out latent energy or a quality undreamed of. It was so with Mrs. Tabor. She is small and frail. Her husband is a Methodist minister. The wives of ministers have none too easy an existence. This is true particularly of the wives of Methodist ministers, for their husbands are moved from one section of the country to another more than thoße of any other denomination. Mrs. Tabor, caring for her children, looking after her household duties and attending to the multitude of matters that kdep a minister’s wife busy, had little time fbr anything else. Every hour of her -day was crowded. If any one had asked her she would have said she could do no more. Her husband had charge of a church in Texas when the turn came in the current of her life. He was stricken with rheumatism. They had very little money and this went in doctor’s bills and for medicine in an effort to cure him. The doctors and the medicine availed little. Rev. Mr. Tabor got worse. The rheumatism became chronic and he required a great deal of attention. The members of the congregation •were kind, but poor. Even if his parishioners had been able to support the invalid and his family, Doctor Tabor and his wife were not willing to be a burden upon them. Texas was far away from Mrs. Tabor’s home. In her trouble she wanted to be near her own people. Her mother lives in New Jersey. Mrs. Tabor somehow got enough money together to pay the railroad fards North and in due time the sick man and his wife and the two children arrived in Montclair, where Mrs. Tabor’s mother dwelt. Had to Make Money. The pleasure of getting home was great, but Mrs. Tabor soon had to think of things that were of immediate concern. Her mother was a widow, with just enough income to live on and no more. The Tabors had a roof over their heads so long as they wished to make their home in the widow’s house, but not enough money to meet the bills of the butcher, the baker and the grocer. Then there were the items of clothes for the children and themselves and the medicino for the sufferer. By no method of economy could Mrs. Tabor make both ends meet. Somehow she had to make money. She had to become the breadwinner. ' Thousands upon thousands of women have faced the same problem. A few succeed In solving It. Many fail. If Mrs. Tabor had been able to go out and work she might have been able to earn a pittance, but she could not leave home for hours at a stretch as her husband was helpless and needed her care. She could sew, but not well enough to support the family. She tried various other things without success. Then, through an act of extravagance in which she indulged through love-of her children, a way was opened to her. Down in Texas and in various parts of the West, where her husband had congregations, Mrs. Tabor had been in the habit at times of church fairs or church socials of making candy which was sold for the benefit of the church. Those who bought the candy never complained. Most of them praised it She had been in Montclair a month or two doing the best she could to earn money by working at home When one day the children begged her to make some candy. Three or four of their little friends had come to see them and they, without knowing their mother’s straitened circumstances, wanted to gladden the visitors’ hearts with the sweets that children love. Mrs. Tabor, like all Indulgent mothers, did not want to make her youngsters grieve. With a sigh, she gathered her butter and sugar and things, lit the gas in the burner and went to work making candy. Boys and girls have wonderful appetites for sweet things but, luckily for Mrs. Tabor, she made more candy that day than the youngsters could eat. Some of the visitors took the surplus home. Their fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers ate the candy and liked it so well that they asked where it came from and a few days later a woman called on Mrs. Tabor. “I’m going to give a party,” she said. “Could I get you to make some candy for me?” Her Bm><l Beginning. Mrs. Tabor never worked harder in her life than she did on that order. One batch of candy that she cooked was overdone- and had to be thrown away, but she made a little money and was very happy. L. That party was a'great success. The guests ate the candy and praised it highly. Some of them asked the boe-

teas where she bought It and the hostess told how Mrs. iSibor had it. to order. One or two of them called on the minister’s wife and asked her to make candy for .them- She made It and after awhile she was getting one or two orders a week for candy. There wasn’t much profit for the little woman. When everything went well she had a few dollars above expenses as the result of many hours of work, but when she made the slightest mistake in the cooking most of the profit was lost. She liked to make oandy. It was the one thing Bhe liked to do better than anything else. Why, she asked herself, couldn’t she turn the talent she had in this direction to making a living for herself and family? Nothing was more suited to her needs. She could remain' at home, near her stricken husband, and watch over her little household. If it were not for the fact that occasionally a batch of candy spoiled in the making, she could make a profit, however small it might be, on every order. If she. only could guard against these mistakes she would be safe, but how could she? A friend with whom she consulted pointed a way out. “You have a gift for candy making,” said this friend, “but there are various things you have to learn. There must be a way to prevent the failures you sometimes encounter. Read up on candy making. Find out what the scientists who have made a study of the subject have to say. You may discover something of profit.” She followed this advice. -She found that the great candy makers had thermometers by which the heat of the melted matter was registered so they could know the exact moment it had reached the proper consistency; Previously she had cooked her candy as

natural cooks do foods —judging by appearance of experience and not always being exact in results. Learned to Avoid Failures. She studied candy making from the scientific end. She got thermometers and used them so well that thereafter she made no failures. She studied the proportions of the various Ingredients that went into the different things she made and never departed from the formula. To all the knowledge she acquired from her reading she added her great natural ability. One thing which she did from the start operated in her favor. She charged a'price that seemed very high, but which made people -appreciate what they got. For everything she made she charged one dollar a pound. Her orders Increased so fast that her little girl could not attend to all the deliveries. She had to hire a boy. Then she paid what seemed a staggering price to have boxes designed for her that would be distinctive and add to the attractiveness of the candies. Many days she was at the range for hours at a stretch, and then she put in other hours boxing her product. She never let anything go out until she was fully satisfied that it was as near perfection In quality and appearance as she could make it. It was hard, very hard work. Money came In, but it seemed to go out faster than she earned it. Her husband did not improve. He was helpless, and the bills of the physicians and the druggists made heavy inroads on her earnings. The more she worked and the more she earned the more she, seemed to need. But while she toiled her business steadily expanded. The people she served came to know of her brave struggle and this, added to the satisfaction those who knew good candy felt, widened the circle of her patrons. Someone suggested that it would be a good thing if she could place her candy on sale in town. There is an establishment in Montclair that caters to the most exclusive trade. ness was confined largely to fine books, high class stationery and dainty furnishings.. The head of this establishment made a radical departure when he pat Mrs. Tabor's homemade candies on sale, but it proved a good stroke of business for him. His price was one dollar a pound, the same as Mrs. Tabor charged other customers, but he charged her a bommission gn the.sales. i: ’ Business Expanded Rapidly, With .The' placing of her goods bn sale in town, Mrs. Tabor had so much to do that she had to get assistance.

She exercised great care in the selection of a helper. She also had to get aid fn putting up the candies. She had to keep books, too, and became more and more of a regulation bust* ness woman. Within a year of her arrival in Montclair, Mrs. Tabor was known throughout the whole Montclair district, and Mrs. Tabor’s homemade candy had become an institution. Then, by degrees, she and her candy became known to Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, Verona, Caldwell and the Oranges. That portion of New Jersey is one of beautiful homes, owned by people of wealth or considerate meanß. To deliver to all the people in this wide section who gave orders to her became more and more difficult for the little woman who had made a business for herself. There is a lot of entertaining in the Oranges and the Montclairs. For banquet or party, wedding or luncheon, dinner or reception to be without Mrs. Tabor’s homemade candy came to be a rarity. She established a regular delivery service, and this led to some families giving orders for a certain quantity of candy each week. It is three years since Mrs. Tabor arrived in Montclair with her children and her stricken husband, and with very few dollars to provide for her needs. Mr. Tabor Is no better. The physicians have done their best for him, but it is doubtful if he ever will be well. His wiffe, who never suspected she had an atom of business sense, has developed into a most capable business woman. The knack she had for candy making, and which she employed at church socials in Texas and elsewhere has been the salvation of the family in a material sense. Today she cannot fill the or

ders she receives from the wide territory of rich New Jersey that has come to know her and her candies. Long since she passed the stage where she had any worries about the money end of her affairs, And she never would have known her capabilities had it not been that necessity forced her to develop the qualities that had been dormant.

She Liked to Make Candy.