Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-02-20
Joseph Gillott's Good Fortune.

Joseph elliott was Sheffield artisan,
who, soon after he became of age, was
compelled by stress of poverty. occs-
stoned by long depression Of trade, to
leave the parental hearth and to seek
his fortunes elsewhere. He found his
way to Birmingham, and, entering the
town on foot, stopped for resreshment
at an old public house in Digbeth.
Long after, when Joseph elliott had
become q millionaire. and was buying
up1valuable properties in and about the
town, this house came into the market
for sale. elliott bought it and when
it was being RACED to the ground he
directed the work. men to cut out par
ticular square Of the settle, or seat,
running round the tap-room, and to
send it to his house to be made up into
a chair that should be handed down as
an heirloom in his family. 1t was the
first seat he had sat on in Birmingham,
his last penny before pushing on
into the town whose fame and wealth
he was destined 80 largely to share and
to increase. He soou found employ
ment as a maker of buckles, trade
then enjoying u Temporary squirt, and
soon, with characteristic energy, was
working on his own account. In the
garnet Of a very small house in Bread
street-a locality marked down for de-
struction as a Sum-" elliott made
buckles and other "steel toys" He
made very excellent goods" said the
merchant VINO used to buy OF him, and
70 hi xxanb ~
work showed evidences Of taste be-
You'd that commonly possessed by a
workman, and this insured him plenty
of orders while native ingenuity
enabled him to execute them in the
readiest way, with the least expenditure
of time and labor, ana with the direct
est aid from Mechanical means.
He was engaged to u young woman
in his own rank of life, whose two
brothers, John and William Mitchell,
were working in about the same style
as himself on the new thing Just
beginning to be inq Tired after-steel
pens. Their sister was helping them,
and in the condolences OF courtship
would often explain to her lover the ma
ture Of her pursuits. No doubt the
brothers were working by rule of
thumb" producing, by painful labor OF
clipping, shearing, filing and punching
by hand, a fairly salable article. But
elliott saw at once that the press could
be made available for nearly every pro-
cess, and that the production could bs
multiplied al infnitum. Aided by his
skill in tool-making, which stood him
in good stead during all the greater
part of his career, he worked secretly
in his garrett till he hal perfected ap-
pliances which enabled him to make
single-handed as many pens rs could
be made by twenty persons in the same
time under the old system, and OF u
better and more uniform quality tina n
had yet been seen. He found ready
sale for all he could make. and in u
short time the demand grew faster than
his power Of production, aud he wanted
help. Then his sweetheart, Mi IS
Mitchell, agreed to his proposal that
they should marry and work together.
and reap the golden harvest while it was
ripe. In after years Mr.. elliott used
often to tell how. on the very morning
of his marriage, he began and finished u
gross of pens, and sold them for 81 As.
before going to church.-Great Indus
tries of Great Britain.