Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1858-08-27
Fhe Su1ferings of a Man of Genius.

Hon. JOSEPH Holt, Commissioner of Patents, in re-
porting in favor of extending GooDYEARs India Rubber
patent gives the following interesting particulars Of the
poverty endured by Goodyear and his family while pros
ecuting his experiments
From the first moment that the conception entered
his mind until his complete success-embracng period
OF from sixteen to eighteen years-he applied himself
INCREASINGLY and enthusiastically to its perfection and to
It's introduction into use in every form that his faithful
genius could devise So intensely his faculties
concentrated upon it that he seems to have been inca
pabe OF thought or action upon any other subject. He
had no other occupation was inspired by no other hope
cherished no other ambition. He carried continually
about his person piece of India rubber and into the
of all who would listen he poured incesanty the
story Of his experiments and the glowing language of his
prophecies. He was according to the witnesses COM
pletely absorbed by it, both by day and nigh pursuing
it with untirng energy and with almost superhuman
perseverance.
"Not only the powers of his mind and body thus
ardently devoted to the invention and its introduction
into use but every dollar he had could command
through the resources of his credit the influences of
friendship, was overwhelmingly cast into that soothing
caldron of experiment which was allowed to know no
repose. The very bed which his wife slept and the
linen that covered his table, seized and sold to pay
his board, and see him with his stricken household
following in the funeral of his child on foot because he
had no means with which to hire carriage. Ills
family had to endure prvatiOns almost surprising belief
being frequently without article Of oodn their house.
or fuel in the coolest weather-and indeed it is said
that they could not have lived through the winter of
1889 but for the kind offices of few charitable friends
They are represented gathering sticks in the woods
and on the edges of the highways, with which to cook
the meals and digging the potaos of their little garden
before they half grown, while one of his hungry
children, in spirit worthy of his father is heard express
ing his thanks that this much had been spared to them
1--WE often find him arrested and incarcerated in the
debtors prison, but amid its gloom his vision of
the future never grew dim, his faith in his ultimate tr
umph never faltered. Undsmayed by dscomftures and
sorrows which might well have broken the stoutes spirit
his language 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 posi-
BILE use his invention, but in England France and other
countries of Europe he zeaousy pursued the same ca
reer In 1855 he appeared at the Worlds Fair in
Paris, and the Golden Medal and the Grand Cross of
the Legion of Honor awarded to him as the
sentative of his countrys inventive genius Fortune
however, while thus caressing him with one hand was
at the moment shifting him with the other for we
learn from the testimony that these brilliant memorials
passed from the Emperor and reached their honored re-
cipent then the occupant Of debtors prison. among
strangers and in foreign land-thus adding yet anoth-
to that long sad catalogue of public beneactors who
have stood neglected and impoverished in the midst of
the waving harvest of blessings they have bestowed upon
| their race"