Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-08-21

The Curse of Drlnk--The Inventor
of the Baboook Fire Extlngulsher
a Pauper.
San Francisco Call,
Since last Saturday the Aims. house
has numbered among its inmates an
old gray-headed man of about So years
Of age apparently In the last stages Of
chronic alcoholism, and presenting in
every respect the appearance of COM
plete physical, il not mental, decrepi-
tude. Yet, if the story told
by the aged pauper be true,
he has in times past occupied a
far different position, his name
being familiar throughout the length
and breath of the United States
as that of the inventor of the
Babcock FIRE extiDguisher. To an in
terviewer who visited him at the Aims
House he gave a sketch of his life his
tory, beginning with his birth at Ro-
chester, N. N, in 1917, from which
place, al the age of five, he removed
with his parents to Mount Vernon, Ia,
and later to Mansfield, in the same
State. AT the age of twenty.one he
graduated from the Pennsylvania Uni
Verslty of Medicine, but did not prac-
tice, entering instead into the mercan-
tile business, at first in partnership
with his father at Indianapolis, Ind,
later, on his own account, in Dayton, O..
He was very successful for eight years,
but in 1854 his good fortune deserted
him, and, after suffering a number of
reverses, he went into liquidation.
going to New York, he secured a posi-
ton as dry goods clerk and remained
there two years, during which time he
married. Going back to Indianapolis
he purchased, with his savings, an
interest in his fathers business, and
for six years was quite successful. At
the end Of this time reverses again
assailed him, and he retired from bust
ness with but $4,000.
While in Indianapolis, however, in
1860, he had patented the fire extin-
guisher, which grew out Of his expert
ments in chemistry, for which he
always had a taste, and after his fail
ure he ~endeavored to do something in
the way of disposing of it, while act
ing as travelling agent for some
Cincinnati tobacco and liquor firm, but
met at first with but poor success
However, about a year later, he leased
the right to manufacture and sell the
extinguisher to Peabody & Co., Of Chi
cage, for five years at $4,000 a year.
and Immediately thereafter came to
San Francisco. He ran the old Buck
eye Hotel, on Market street, fol
a while, %practicing medicine also, but
being burned out, removed first tC
Oakland and afterward to Petaluma
where he kept a store tor a while
finally falling. He retrieved himself
+. by successfully specializing in Monte
rey lands with his annuity, and about
this time lost his wife, which bereave
t ment Immediately preceded the first
! step of his downward career, since il
led him to try and drown his sorrows
in drink. Having once entered upor
9 the path of vice, he pushed it tt
: the end, spending the proceeds
! of his annuities in drink. Be
2 fore entering upon the down
ward course, however, with the none!
! derived from his land speculations, h,
. purchased farms in YamhilI county
! Ore, for his laughter and each of hi
three sons, where, he believes, they ar
all now, living in prosperous circum
t stances, though shame has prevented
! him from applying to them of late TO
assistance. He was first sent to tn
: almshouse three years ago, remaining
for six months, and being again sen
f out in July of last year. Between
times he has wandered about the coun
y try, and the writer remembers seem.
him in 1883, wandering about tn
streets of Santa Rosa, Sonoma county
d in the lowest stages of drunken pau
perism, his arrest for vagrancy, etc
d being a regular weekly occurrence fo
n some months,