The Portland daily press., 1898-04-02

room heavy, snow-oovered man, whose
conspicuous feature was long ana tah-
glsd red beard, now hung. like MS nusny
eyebrows, with icicles He was nghUly
clad for the rigors of a Wisconsin winter,
but il poor, he was not abashed. In
few minutes he had qurralled with the
| landlord over the prico OF ped f1e ue-
manded room at the stove, ana appeared
to be- extremely irritable. Sholos espec-
tally took an instant dislike 10 the man
almost the only man in the world, he
often said, toward whom he had ever felt
antipathy. Yet this was the person into
| whose hands he was fated to surrender
himself. Densmore's large, cumbersome
body and hairy red face seemed in har-
mony with his irritable manner. Whan
he had anything to gain he could not be
repulsed. He seemed to be impervious 10
the shafts of ridicule and insensible to
Sights. AS persistent as gravity, he
would win wherever it was human'y pos
sioIe He did win wealth, great wealth,
even for this dav, but he never Haunted
it in the faces of thosa who had treated
him with scant courtesy in his days of
poverty.
Densmore, who nourished passion for
exploiting a great invention, had seen
the writing machine and believed in it.
| He had himself invented a car now in
general use, but at this time $500 was all
| he could command. This he gave to
| Sholes, taking an interest in the machine
| for 1t. He undertook to find the capital
| ist, without whom nothing could come
| of the years of toll and worry. In New
York, among the inhospitable men of
money, he needed all his tenacity and in
sensibility. There was only An unwaver-
| ing confidence in himself to sastain him
under the daily rebuffs. For months he
al OF har Of ff1rn trJrp
with dietary strangely like the raw
turnips of Colonel Sellers. Raw apples
constituted all his food during the period
of trudging from one repellant office to
anotuer
Although one of a changing crowd of
money seeking inventors, his strong per-
sonaility was long, remembered in the
offices Of investors. From this bitter
struggle with skeptics more sensitive
man would have retired with defeat. but
he won. Not all at once, but he gained
step by step, always deserving more than
he achieved. When this hardest work was
Done and the manufacture of the machine
was begun on a small Gale, his arrange
ment was that Sholes should receive $l2,-
0G0 year. -Four years went by, it is
said and virtually all the inventor re-
ceiyed was frequent diScOuraging re.
| port At last Deusmre induced the weary
| inventor to accept S12, 600 for all that was
! due and for all MS rights.
Densmore was kind in his own rough
way to the inventor. He invited him to
| New York or pleasure and kept him
wretched by public quarrels with walters
| conductors, policement, and every body
with whom they had anything to do
Densmore now lived in the East, and his
income from the machine was said to be
more than 100000 year. Sholes, having
had several hemorrhages, went to Color
ado for two winters, and Densmore bore
the expense of a winter in Florida. When
Sholes completed an improvement to the
ms chine Densmore demanded it as q
right and got it. When Sholes's fami
and friends ragged, the inventor defender
the gift as matter of conscience, He
urged that to sell the improvement to
others would injure the business, and
that they had just claim on any i'm
proyements which Sholes might invent.
While there were no written conditions,
it was understood that Sholes would be
taken care or
AT last the inventor retired perma-
nently to his bed. Not that he was
wholly unable to move about. but he had
a theory Every person, he said, was en-
dowed with certain amount of vital
energy. II he dissipated it in physical
exercise he shortened his life. He pro-
posed to conserve his energy by living al
most prone His bed was workshop
he undertook the construction of new
kind of writing machine. He made sever
models, and one that pleased him.
Densmore kept his eye on it, ridiculed il.
then demanded it. He urged that but for
him the first machine would never have
been success, and that he had done we'll
by the inventor. He would make no
written terms, but he would deal FAIRLY
if anything should come of it, which he
could not believe.
AS his sons had an interest i'll the new
machine, Sholes refused. This enraged
Densmore. who threatened fight in the
Patent Office and in the courts His let
tiers were savage and but for the ridicule,
which touched the inventor pride, Sholes
might have eluded the vigilance of the
sons and won
Perhaps the life of this inventor is not
exceptional. 1t is q commonplace that
the inventor is often compelled to surren-
der all his rights for o comparatively
small amount before the invention reaches
the stage of manufacture. But 1T is GER
tain that but for the strange influence OF
Densmore, but for the shrinking of the
sensitive inventor from everything vio-
lent, Sholes might have retained suffi-
Gent interest in his own creation to have
become millionaire.
The possession of great wealth did not
change the habits or manners of Dens-
lived mainly on apples, and did not hest
tate to rebuke entire trangers in public
restaurant for eating meat. He died soon
after the death Of Sholes, leaving large
fortune. The little lett by the inventor
was not the product of his invention.
Yet he had accomplished what men had
tried to do for nearly 200 years in vain.
The first attempts had In view the con-
struction of machine by which the
blind could write. 1t was about forty
years ago that the idea of machine OF
displace the pen was formed, but all the |
models were defective until Latham
Sholes turned his genius to the prolebm
He made no fewer than three machines
on different principles. This invention
has effected wonderful change in office |
work, has made the briefs of lawyers and |
the manuscripts of writer's more legibIe |
and has made an occupation for tens of
thousands of young women. The man
who did it received the smallest of the
benefits.