Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1858-07-31


Ths suasiAss e ! Man q osniu'.
Hon 1osurH HON C6mmlssioucr Of Pa
tents, d reporting " Iavor Of extending Good
years India Rubber Patent, gives the following
inieFesiibg pafticnlafs Of the poverty endured
by the inventor and hmily while prosecuting
bis experiments:
From the first moment that the concep-
ton entered his mind, unlil bis complete
success--c embracing a period Of from six
teen to eighteen years-he applied himself
unceasiney aud enthusiastically TO its per-
Fection and to its Introduction into use, in
every form that Bis fruitful genius could de-
wise So intensely were his facilities con
centrated upon II that he seems 70 have
been incapable Of thought or Of action
upon any other subject lie bad no other
occupation, was iuspiredby no other hope,
cherished no other ambition. He carried
continually about his person piece Of In
dia-rnbber, aud into the ears Of all who
would listen, he poured incessantly the sto-
ry Of his experiments and the glowing lan-
guage Of his prophesics, He was, accord
ing to the witnesses, completely absorbed
by it, both by day and night, pursuing it
with uutiring energy and with almost su-
perhuman perseverance, Not only were
the powers of his mind aud body thus ar
IDENTIFY devoted to the invention, and intro
duction into use, but every dollar he pos
sessed or could command through the re-
sources Of his credit, or the influence of
friendship, was overwhelmingly cast into
that seethirg chsldron Of experiments,
which was allowed to know no repose. The
very bed on which his wife slept aud the
linen which covered his table, were seized
and sold to pay his board, and we see him
with his stricken household following in the
funeral Of his child on foot, because be had
no means with which to hire carriage
His family had to endure privatiOns almost
surprising belief being frequently without
an article Of food in their house, or fuel in
the coolest weaiher-and indeed, it is said,
that they could not have lived through the
winter of 1889 but for the kind Offices OF n
few charitable friends They are repre-
sented as gathering sticks in the woods and
on the edges Of the highways, with which
to cook their meals, and digging the pota-
toes of their little garden before they were
half grown, while one of bis hungry child
rem, in spirit worthy of his father, is
heard expressing his thanks that this much
had beet spared to them.
We often find him arrested and incarcer-
ated ia the debtors prison, but even amid its
gloom. his vision of the future never grew
dim, his faith in bis ultimate triumph never
falted. Undismayed by discom6tmes and
sorrows which might well hate broken the
stoutest spirit his lahguage everywhere,
and under all circumstances, was that of
encouragement and of profound conviction
of final success. Not only in the United
States did he thus exert himself to establish
and apply to every possible use his inven-
tion, bht in England, France, and other
countries Of Europe, he zealously pursued
t6e same Career. I'm. 1855 he appeared at
the Worlds Faif il Taris; and the golden
medal and the Grand Cross Of Che Jfcgioh
of Honor were awarded to him as the rep
resentative Of his scountry's inventive genius
Fortune, however, while thus caressing him
with one hand, was at the same moment
shifting him with the other for we learI
from the testimony, that these brilliant
memorials passed from the Emperor and
reached their honored recipient, then the
occupant of a debtors prison, among
strangers and in foreign lahd-thus add
ing yet another TO that long, sad catalogue
of public benefactors who have stood neg
lected and impoverished in the midst Of the
waving harvest of blessings they had be-
slowed upon their racee