The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-07-24
OSE WORKISGMiy,s POLICY.
It Brought Him Prosperity and Homer Both-Tho Late Ex-Governor bigeio~.

It Brought Him Prosperity ana Hoh"S
 Both-The Late Ex-Governor hiEeio~.
 A correspondent of the New York sun
 sends the following to that paper
 which is interesting. as il concerns
 man who was highly popular in New
 Haven county and whom everybody
 knew and respected:
 In the fall Of 1857. after the failure of
 the Ohio Life and Trust co.. business
 came to a standstill. In New Haven. Conn. where then lived. a few car
 riage shops kept n part of their force
 busy. but with these exceptions all the
 great industries of this country were
 practically closed.
 Among the thousands thrown out of
 employment was Hobart B. Bigelow. a
 Journeyman machinist. who. after serv-
 ing an old-fnshIoned apprenticeship.
 had been for two years working at his
 trade in one of the large shops Of the city. Some six months before the pam ic began he had married. and the cou- pie were housekeeping in a three-room apartment In modest way. Bigelow had in the savings bank a deposit of somewhat less than two hundred dol lars. which he did not wish 10 draw upon If he could avoid 1t. He had been engaged in building engine lathes of a kind of which there was steady de- mand when business was normal When his employers dismissed all their men except two or three, who were kept to do any odd jobs that might come in and to keep the machinery of the plant in good condition. he went to them and told them that he did not wish to be idle. that he understood the situation and knew that months must pass be- fore a resumption of business activity could be expected. He asked them to let him come and work daily the usual number of hours, and continue lathe building, they to charge up against the finished goods the cost of castings. use of machinery. &c., and his time at his regular wages. the latter to be credited to him, and then, when lathes were again In demand, as fast as any were sold he should be paid for his work upon them and a specified percentage of the profit.
 The firm consented. He then went to the tradesmen who supplied his family. told them of his engagement, showed them his bank book, and arranged with them that on the first of every month he would pay for one-half of what he had purcsased during that time, and they would trust him for the remain der until the lathes were sold. Six mornings every week he went to the shop, carrying his frugal lunch in his dinner pail, and worked his ten hours as brisk1y and blithely as though times were good. The following spring there was resumption of activity, and lathes went off rapidly, and before Bigelow owed no man a penny and had more than one thou sand dollars to his credit in the savings bank.
 Nor was this all. A shrewd business man, one of those capitalists that la bor leaders denounce, had seen the young man going daily to his work, and had his curiosity aroused sufficiently to make some inquiries about him. He was so favorably impressed that he sought an interview with Bigelow and offered to set him up in business. The offer was accepted and the young jour neyman within eighteen months from the time of the shutdown was at the head of considerable establishment, and before many years had passed he was himself capitalist and large employer of labor. Nor was that all. He was so highly appreciated by his fellow citizens that, although repub- lican, he was elected mayor of the dem- ocratic city of New Haven by a hand some majority, and few years later, in 1880, he was elected governor of Con necticut. Ex-Governor Bigelow died a few years since, mourned by all his fel- low townsmen, and those who knew him during his entire career like to re- fer to it, as the writer has done, as an example for other American workmen to emulate when the times are hard and the outlook not encouraging. There are always better times ahead for those who have the courage and faith of this young journeyman me- chanic.