Money

I launched CHICAGO CLIPPINGS this week.  Publishing means I got it uploaded to and approved by Amazon but launching means I set up promotions on different web sites and there are so many to choose from that it can be overwhelming.  I have learned much since THE COFFIN WAR and one thing I have learned is that researching and compiling books is way more fun than launching them.  Anyway, I opted to go with just one or two this time - baby steps.  The big promo day, September 3, finally arrived and suddenly instead of being excited I got scared no one would want my book, not even for free, and then how would I feel.  I understand the niche for my kind of books is a small one and they will never be best sellers.  I am perfectly fine with that but I don't want to be the only one who likes them either.

I checked the numbers just before we headed to town at 9 a.m. and was pleased to see there were 25 free downloads.  By the time we got to town, 20 minutes away, there were 50.  The numbers climbed steadily all day and now, on the last day of the free promotion, the total is 686 downloads.  The overall ranking of the book started at over 8,000 and got as high as 362, only 262 from being in the top 100 free books.   And CHICAGO CLIPPINGS is ranked #1 in the US History, State and Local, Midwest category!

So, because I didn't make a cent on all those downloads today's clippings will be about money from the soon to be published OREGON CLIPPINGS.

*  Four happy Dawsonites passed through Skagway recently with a canvas sack of Yukon gold that weighed 100 pounds dead weight, and which came from French gulch diggings on Eldorado creek.  They are all Canadian citizens and first came to Alaska during the popular Klondike rush of December 1897.

*Paper money cannot be used in the Philippines.  The islands are infested with ants which eat almost everything and are particularly fond of paper.  A warning was given that nothing but gold and silver coin be sent to the islands.

*It is computed that there is £80,000,000 in gold and jewels at the bottom of the sea on the route between England and India.

*An Eastern Oregon paper is taking coyote scalps for subscriptions.  Another says it will take the scalps of its subscribers if they don’t pay up their subscriptions.

*The Savings Bank, in Brussels, says the Revue Scientifique has recently adopted a process of sterilizing all bank-notes which pass through its hands.  The money is exposed for several hours to the vapor of formalin.  The Revue suggest that books lent out from the public libraries should be similarly treated.

*A good story is told of an old-fashioned miser.  He was never known to have anything in the way of new apparel but once; then he was going on a journey and had to purchase a pair of boots.  The stage coach left before daylight so he got ready and went to the hotel to stop for the night.  Among a whole row of boots and shoes in the morning he could not find the old familiar pair.  He had forgotten the new ones and he hunted in vain.  The coach was ready so he looked carefully round to see that he was not observed, put on a nice new pair that fitted him, then called a waiter and told him the circumstances, giving him ten shillings for the owner.  But the miser had bought his own boots.