The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1899-11-17
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER II. 1899.
THE VALUE OF PERSISTENCY

maturity, aitSi
through for work, entered an ole
inn at Birmingham, England, and
sat down faint and exhausted on a
wooden settee. He had spent his
last penny IN purchasing roll. He
had no friends in the city, and
work there was none.
The whole world seemed to be
against him. Only a month before
he had been a grinder of cutlery in
Sheffield, and though his pay was
small, it enabled him to live. But
a depression of trade had thrown
him. with hundreds of others, out
of employment. and, after searching
vainly for something to do IN his
native city, the young man had
wandered to Birmingham with only
a single shilling in his pocket.
q
Weak, hungry and Respondent
his impulse was to cease all endeav-
or and lie down in despair. But
the youth had good stuff in him, and
as he sat disconsolately, with his
head bowed in his hands, one Of
the loungers in conversation with a
friend gave utterance to the adage:
"Rome was not built in day"
The expression caught his ear and
stirred his heart with new resolution
tfll not give up yet" he cried,
striking his fist upon the table In
front of him. an try again ana
trust in Cod whatever happens"
Invigorated by his rest he left the
inn and sought work, and before
night he had obtained place In a
buckle factory. His wages were
small, but by being economical ne
managed to save several pounds.
Soon after he made the acqualn-
lance of young lady, who, with
her brothers, was engaged in the
manufacture of steel pens. They
were the black "barrel" pens, and
were very stiff and scratchy COM
pared with the quilts which they
were intended to supersede. AS each
pen was slipped, punched and pol
ished by hand they sold at enor-
mously high prices.
The young man became interest
ed in pens, and, being a natural
mechanic, he soon devised an i'm
provement. This was to cut three
Sits in pen instead of one. The
idea carried out at once gave an
impetus to the trade. He nex'
turned his inventive mind in the di'
rection of a more rapid means o.
manufacture. He worked early ano
late, many times discouraged, bu
always persistent, and at last com
pleted a machine that would turn
out pens by the thousands in thu
time hitherto required to make on
by hand.
He made his invention known t.
the young lady and her brothers
and asked her to marry him. Tn
morning he was married the youn
machinist rose early, made gros
of pens, sold them for thirty-si
dollars, and with this money pal
all his wedding expenses. In fe'
years he had large factory run
ming in Birmingham which employ
ed two hundred men, all engaged i
the manufacture of Gillott's ste,
pens.
Joseph elliott lived to amass
fortune, and his pens are sold a
over the world. The price of or
steel pen when he entered bushes
would buy nine hundred at the tin
of his death. In the works that |
established FIVE tons of steel al
used daily and one hundred ar
fifty million of pens are manufa
tured annually. Before he died
visited the old inn, where he stay'
on his first arrival in Birmingham
and purchased the rickety old sett
upon which he had set in the tin
of his dependency so many yea
before. In his will he devised it
his children, with the conditi,
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