The Mystic Key; Or, the Asylum Secret Unlocked

by Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886. ... CHAPTER IX. How I Succeeded In My Business. But in business matters, it was with me as with other business agents, that misfortunes do not always come single, but in clusters or battalions, sometimes. By an extra effort, after my capital--my book plates, of two thousand dollars' value--were burned, I succeeded in starting again, without mortgaging any of my property or borrowing money, and had my books reprinted, after rewriting them, in an elegant type and style of binding, in New York city, at Pelletraus & Raynor's publishing house, at a cost of twenty-five hundred dollars for one thousand books, including my new stereotype plates. After selling about half of these books, and after paying for the whole, lacking one hundred dollars, a fire in New York burned the remainder of my books and all my plates! This time I had an insurance of one thousand dollars on the plates, and with this insurance to start with, I reproduced the plates a third time, at the same cost, and came safely through, meeting every payment promptly, without borrowing a cent this time either. And now I hope to be able to pay for my " Great Drama,"--of about four thousand dollars cost for the first edition of one thousand sets, of four books each--without mortgaging or borrowing! I mention these facts to encourage the faint-hearted and doubting, to stimulate their energies, knowing that what has beeu done can be done again by the same indefatigable perseverance and undaunted courage, determining that with you there is no such thing as failure. Defeats must be encountered--but failures must never be allowed to befall our undertakings. For by such herculean efforts are the spirit forces born within us. Another fact in reference to reforms seems very noticeable from my standpoint of observa...

40 pages, Paperback

Published February 3, 2012

About the author

AKA E.P.W. Packard was an advocate for the rights of women and people accused of insanity.