How can you spot the marriage-certificate swindle? Should you buy a typewriter, or rent? How does one calculate the weight of coal in a bin or box? How are blasphemy, fornication, profanity, and offenses on the high seas defined by the law? The answers to these questions, and many more, can be found in this handy business encyclopedia, a one-volume quick reference to everything the well-informed man of industry and commerce needed to know if he was to get ahead and make a respectable name for himself in the early 20th century. QUICK TIP: Servants of an American citizen can be included in the citizen's passport First published in 1886, this tremendously popular book was a standard for decades. Today, this replica of the 18th edition is a wonderful piece of retro Americana. QUICK TIP: If you make teaching business to your wife like a puzzle or a game, she is much more likely to be enthusiastic about home finance JAMES LAWRENCE NICHOLS (d. 1895) was professor of economics at Northwestern College, and also wrote The Farmers Manual, The Household Guide, and Safe Counsel.