The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1858-09-04
SufIerings Of q Ma. Of Ce,,,..

Hon. Josep Holt, Commissioners Of Pat.
ents, in reporting in favor Of extending
Goodyear's India Rubber patent, gives the
following interesting particulars Of the power
~ endured by Goodyear and his family
while prosecuting his experiments
From the first moment that the coneep.
ton entered his mind, until his complete
succ.ss-embracing . period of from six
teen to eighteen years-he applied himself
unceas'ns'y and enthusiastically to its per-
lection, and to its introduction into use, in
every form that his faithful genius could
devise. So intensely were his faculties cor.
centrated upon it, that he seems to have
been incapable Of thought or action upon
any other subject. He had no other occu-
patton, was inspired by no other hope. cher.
ished no other ambition. He carried con.
tInually about his person . piece of India
rubber, and into the ears Of all who would
listen, he poured necessarily the story of bis
experiments and the glowing langu Of his
prophecies. tie Was, according to the Wit.
nesses, completely absorbed by it, both by
Gay and by night, pursuing it with untirine
yerancc.
. Not only were the powers of his mind
and body thus ardently devoted TO the in.
vention and its introduction into use. but
every dollar he had or could command thro'
the resources of his credit or the influences
OF friendship, WAS uncalculatingly cast into
that seething caidron Of experiment, which
was allowed to know no repose. The verv
bed on which his wife slept, and the linen
that 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 he 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 coldest
weather-and, indeed, it is said that thev
could not have lived through the winter Of
1889 but for the kind offices of few ch.ri-
table friends. They are represented a. "a
thering sticks in the VI oods and on the ede,s
OF the highways with which to cook their
meas, and digging the potatoes Of their lite
garden before :hey were half grown, while
one Of his hungry children, in a spirit worthy
OF his father, is heard EXPIRE -sing his thanks
that this much had been spared them.
1--WE often find him arrested and incaree-
rated in the debtors prison, but even amid
ITS gloom his vision Of the future never grew
dim, his iaith in his ultimate triumph never
faltered. Undi'mayed by discomfiturss and
sorrows which might have broken the stoutest
spirit, his language every vi ere and under
oil circumstances, was that of encourage.
ment and Of profound conviction Of 6nal
success. Not only in the United States did
he thus exert himself TO establish and apply
to every possible use his invention, but il
England, France and other countries Of Eu.
rope, no zealously pursued the same career.
In 1855 he appeared at the Worlds Fair in
Paris, and the Golden Medal and the Grand
Cross Of the Legion of Honor were awarded
to him al the representative of his country's
inventive genius. Fortune, however, While
thus caressing him with one hand, was 1t
the same moment smi'ing him with the
other; for we learn from the testimony
that these brilliant memorials passed frsm
the Emperor and reached their honored 70.
cient, then the occupant Of debtors prison,
among strangers and in . foreign land-thus
adding yet another to that long sad eats.
losus OF public benefactors who have stood
neglected and impoverished in the mids, Of
the waving harvest of blessings they had
bestowed upon their race"