Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1894-11-17

terry ticket and he expected it
would draw a prize. But wait let
me tell you the story of the lottery
ticket. He and some other men
working at Jersey City decided to
make up a pool and buy a lottery
ticket, each man to put in a dollar.
When the time came the others
backed out, and only himself and
one other, a carpenter, put in their
dollars. They sent the money to
New Orleans. The ticket drew
$1,000.
with his share he bought out
the Newark factory, and in short
time had 600 men at work turning
out the banks, and even then he
could not keep up with his orders
He was soon making a clear profit
of 81 900 a week, then $4,000, then
almost that much day. During
the time the craze lasted, and you
know it was not of short duration,
he made large fortune"
"And what became of the MANI"
| asked.
ooh, they put him in an insane
asylum. He couldn't stand pros
perity. He lost a great deal of
money almost as rapidly as he
made it, although, fortunately, he
had put a couple of hundred thous-
and or so in real estate, which his
wife now has"
"But that's an exceptional case"
| said
"Not by any MEANS" said an
other patent Attorney, who had
heard this story. Listen to this:
ga few years ago New England
patent attorney was on his way
from his home to Washington on
legal business before the Patent Of
fee. En- route another patent at
torney came into the car, and the
first one-Smith we'll call him for
short-told his friend that he was
going to Washington. This was
good news to his friend, who asked
him to execute a commission for
him there. He proceeded to ex-
plain that man in Washington of
the name of Bell, but about whom
he knew very little, had some kind
of patent by which persons at
distance could talk to one another.
1T isn't perpetual motion ma
chine, is it?' asked Smith jokingly,
who, like all men having to do
with patents, was sceptical of new
tangled devices.
"His friend went on to tell him
that the invention had something
to do with electricity, the science of
which was not very familiar to him,
but he knew that Smith had de-
voted a good deal of attention to
that subject, and therefore he was
the right man to investigate the
matter. He told him, as he under
stood it, Bell had a working model
of bis device, that some very sue
cessful experiments had been made,
but he wanted capital to back his
idea. Bell, he said, offered to sell
a half interest in the patent for a
very little money, and this man
was so much impressed with what
he had heard that he agreed to
supply half the money for the in
terest if Smith would do the same,
"But Smith was not impressed.
The idea of talking over a wire
seemed so wildly improbable to him
that he did not believe it was worth
while to make cursory investiga-
ton even, and he never went near
Bell. Think of it." said this man
in conclusion; Smith could have
obtained quarter interest in the
Bell telephone patents for a few
hundred dollars, and because the
idea did not just strike him right
he allowed this colossal fortune to
slip through his fingers"
These two stories remind me of
little incident in the life of Com
modore Vanderbilt, and as it had
to deal with a patent l thought it
would interest my friends. When
Westinghouse first obtained his
patent on the air brake, like most
inventors, he was poor and friend
less, and he found considerable diff
ficulty in inducing the railroads to