Wisconsin herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1846-1849, 1848-11-25
SELECT MISCELLANY.
The Sufferings, Perseverance, and
Triumph Of Genius.

mere is at present III rsnSianu, All hHie'-
lean who was sent to that country to endea-
vor to interest the capitalists in anew bridge
which he has constructed. His name is
REMINGTON, and he is a native of Virginia.
An account of his progress is given by him
self, in the following letter to the late DIX
ON H. LEWIS, and is published in Hunts
Merchants Magazine:
STAFFORD, England, Aug. Is, 1S4S.
My DEAR SIR: | should have written
sooner but had nothing pleasant TO say.
reached London on the LIST of JAM, lS47,
without money or friends, which was just
the thing desired when | left America, and
lust the thing, assure yon, will never de-
sire again. commenced operations at once,
on the supposition that in this overgrown
city, would at least enlist one man. But
Englishmen are not Americans. An Eng
lishman will advance any amount on an alb
solute certainty, but not one penny where
there is the slightest risk, if he got the whole
world by it. spent the first five months
looking for this man with unparalleled per-
severance and industry, living for less than
three pence per day.
am convinced that few persons in Lon
don know so much of that iDcomprehens-
bly, large city as do myself. But alas my
wardrobe was gone to supply me with
wretche,ly baked corn-bread, on which |
lived entirely. ! slept on straw, for which
paid balf-penny per night. | became rag
ged and filthy, and could no longer go among
men of business. Up to this time my spr-
its never sunk, nor did they then; but my
sufferings were great My limbs were dis
torted with rheumatism induced by cold and
exposure--iny face and head swelled to
most unnatural size with cold and tooth ache,
and those who slept in the same horrid den
al myself were wretched street beggars, the
very ceanest of them literally alive with all
manner of creeping things. But | was no
beggar. ] never begged, or ever asked a
favor of any man since came to England.
Ask George Bancroft, whom 1 called upon
two or three times, if ever asked the slight
est favor, or even presumed upon the letter
you gave me to him. | did write him a note
asking him to come and witness the triumph
of opening the Bridge at the Gardens, and
delivered the note at his own house myself;
although Prince Albert came, | never got
even a reply to the note. If Bancroft had
come, and been the man to ouly have recoS-
nized me-, in my rags as was, it would have
saved me much Subsequent suffering.
will not believe that Bancroft ever saw any
note, for his deporttnent' TO the was very
kind. Ip't ne efme
The succeeding three sInenth rs after the
first five, will not dsfglb gp ,it A. the time |
commenced to build the Bridge. ! will not
harrow up my feelings to write, nor pain
your heart TO read the incidents of those
ninety days. My head turned gray, and
must have died but for the jew, who did
fnr ackp nxpl-
edgment of fIO on demand. These wicked
robberies have amounted to several hundred
pounds, every penny of which had To pay
subsequently for, since my success at Stat
ford, not a man in England that can read,
but knows my address. 1t cost me f1O to
obtain the shilling with which | paid my
adnilttance into the Royal Geological Gar
deDs, where j succeeded, after much nortl-
fication, in getting the ghost Of model
made of the Bridge. The model, although
bad one, astonisbed everybody. Every
engineer of celebrity in London was called
in TO decide whether IL was practicable to
throw it across the lake. Four or five of
them, at the final decision, declared that the
model before them was passing strange, but
that II could not be carried TO a much greater
length than the length Of the model.
This was the point of life or death with
me. was standing among men of the sup
posed greatest talents as civil engineers tibet
the world could produce, and the point de-
cided against me. This one time alone
were my whole energies ever aroused.
never talked before-l was haggard and
faint for want of food-my spirits sunk
in sorrow of my moBrnful prospects
clothes had none-yet, standing over this
model, did ] battle with those men. Every
1
and was big with truth-eyery argument
carried conviction. The effect on those men
was like magc-Indeed they must have been
devils not to have believed under the cir
cumstances. / succeeded. Ny agreement
with the proprietor was, that should SUI
perintend the construction of the Bridge
without any paw whatever, but during the