The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-06
ELISHA GRAY IN WANT.
Inventor of the Telephone who Has
Made 30 MiIIiOnaires.

Made 20 MiIliOnaires.
From the New York World.
Prof. Elisha Gray, the inventor of the
telephone, and the owner of a brain which
has been the means of making million
aires of twenty men, is spending the even
ing Of his eventful life in poverty This
genius who is one of the three greatest
inventors of the century, finds himself a
poor man at GO, and in the very shadow
of the palaces of some of the men who
have Toasted from the products OF the
brains he is now forced to live In a hum
BILE house, the half of whose rooms and
table is shared by day boarders who pays
the regulation price of the weekly meal
ticket.
He can sit in his place in Highland
Park, H.. and call the names of a score
of powers In the world of finance who
have caught him in a corner. found him
without a penny and fooled him into SELL
ing his patents for a song, The pitiful
lament of the latter days is that he did
not have a conservator appointed when
he had money. He now fears he may die
without a cent.
Prof. Gray knows his failing better than
any. one else. He has been up and down.
He has made fortunes and
spent them. He has never had any con-
siderable amount of money that he did
not think 1t was enough to last forever.
lie admits that 1t never occurred to him
to he a scientist for money. He has never
looked for any return save the fame. He
once spent a year in devising a plan for
an Improvement in the work of the tele-
phone. The improvement was grabbed up
on sight. 1t brought him a check for
$4,000
He thought this was enough to last
him the balance of his life He ordered
his wife and family to pack the trunks.
They sailed for Europe the next week.
There was nothing too good or expensive
for them to buy. They brought home pic
lures statuary and art treasures, and the
home was decorated like palace of a
king.
This season of extravaganza was follow
ed by one of extreme want. The Professor
became filled with an idea that 1t would
be practicable to send autograph messages
by telegraph. The plan took so much of
his time that he forgot to pay the grocer
and the butcher The barn on his home
stead became his study. He borrowed
all the money he could get his friends to
loan him. This went for wires, batteries
and machinery. He became so filled with
the scheme on his mind that time and
again he was carried by his station in his
trips to Chicago for material He lived
like man in a perpetual dream. The
men who knew him knew that something
great was to transpre. They waited.
Prof. Gray is getting to the point where
he will sell for a song. IL has come TO
the point where boarders have been taken
in the home TO help meet the bills. He
has lost his buoyancy of spirit and has
descended to the plane of an ordinary
grinder for an ordinary salary. The big
snip which was erected for his use has
practically been abandoned. The fires In
the plant are smokeless. and, pent up in
his little study, which has been shorn Of
the pictures bought in golden DAYS he
has been compelled TO abandon his plans
Of science for sciences sake, and is now
trying TO recoup his fortunes by working
in the most commonplace lines He spent
the last year in improving a bicycle lamp.
me improvement was quickly gobbled
up by a man who had money and maid
oash-the smallest possible fraction Of its
actual worth.