The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1923-06-14

04A0 Ao10 lS represented AGu0Sna IN
the state legislature as senator from
Racine county (Kenosha and Racine
then being one county, and in 1856 and
1857 when the county split into two,
he represented Kenosha as state sena-
tor. In 1862 and 1853 he represented
Kenosha in the assembly.
While Sholes was in the state legis-
lature he was witness of the homicide
of one of the members by another, a
tragedy made familiar to the world by
Charles Dickens in American Notes."
The account given by Dickens was tax
en- IRON the write-up of Sholes in the
Kenosha paper, then the Southport
Telegraph"
Sholes removed from Kenosha after
his twenty years Of activity here to be-
come editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel
and Milwaukee News.
Sholes not only invented the first
practical writing machine, but chris
tened it, calling it a Typewriter"
He sold his royalty rights for the sum
of $4,000, then considered a goodly
sum, to James Densmore, who was un-
successful as selling agent, but Dens-
more made contract with the Rem
lngtons for the manufacture of the
machine under date of March /, 1878,
and Densmore was subsequently en-
r1ched. The actual manufacture Of the
machine began in September, 1873,
when the first practical machine was
prepared for the market known by
Sholes' name of "The Type Writer"
Two years later Mark Twain, one of
the very first converts to the "new-
tangled" thing, wrote the Remington
company the following characteristic
letter:
Gentlemen:
Please do not use my name in any
way. Please do not even divulge the
fact that 1 own a machine. 1 have
entirely stopped using the Typewriter.
for the reason that | never could write
a letter with it to anybody without re-
9eiWng request by return mail that
| would not only describe the machine
put state what progress I had made in
the use of it, ETC., etc. l don't like to
write letters; and SO don't want people
l 70 5now that | own this curiosity
Yours truly,
Sarnl. L. Clemens
Iwain's First Typewriter Letter,
Mark Twain's first letter on Sholes'
"Type-W Writer" is quite as entertaining
and is given in the memoir as follows:
Dear Brother:
] am trying to get the hang of this new
tangled writing machine, but am not
making a shining success of it. How
ever this is the first attempt ever have
made and yet 1 perceive that l shall
easily Ave- g.
IN Its use. saw the thing in Boston
the other day and was greatly taken
with it. Susie has struck the keys once
or twice, and no doubt has printed
some letters which do not belong where
she put them.
The having been a compositor is likely
TO be great help to me, since one
chiefly needs swiftness in banging the
Keys The machine costs 1876 dollars.
The machine has several virtues I he
heye it will print faster than I can
write. One may lean back in his chair
L and work it. 1t piles an awful stack
OF words on one page. 1t don't muss
things or scatter ink blots around. Of
course it saves paper.
Susie is gone now and l fancy I shall
make better progress Working this
typewriter reminds me of old Robert
buchanan, who, you remember, used to
set up articles at the case without pre-
Vously putting them in the form of
manuscript. l lost in admiration
OF such marvellous intellectual capacity.
Love to Mollie Your brother.
SAM.
About C. L. Sholes.
The visionary Kenoshan. CHRISTOPHER
L. Sholes, whose invention had caused
the revolution in the world of writing,
was almost lost sight Of, but the new
memoir does his name ample Justice,
An ip+orac+ioo
given in the Herkimer publication, part
of which reads as follows:
"Sholes was man of very unusual
and attractive character. Some might
have called him an eccentric, but his
eccentricities were of kind which en-
deared him to everyone. He is de-
scribed as one of the most unselish.
companionable and kind-hearted men
that ever lived. He was also a man of
extreme personal modesty, and of al
most excessive tenderness of con-
science, viewed from the usual bust
ness standpoint. He was always more
than just to others and less than Just
to himself.
Some phases of his character were
a puzzle. AS an editor he made it a
rule to copy into his own paper all the
adverse criticisms which were passed
upon him by his political adversaries,
and some of them were very bitter and
unjust, and he would always omit all
complimentary notice of himself and
his work. Gentle and lovable, cult
waited and brilliant, modest and unself-
ish, these were the outstanding fea-
lures of Christopher Latham Sholes.
"He was not the kind of man ever to
make much money. In the days before
the typewriter he had, by fortunate
chance acquired wealth, but he did not
keep it. The typewriter gave him an
other opportunity but he let it pass.
From fit to last he was singularly
indifferent to worldly fortune. One
day, in his later years, he remarked to
friend that he had been trying all
his life to escape from, becoming a
millionaire and he thought he had sue
ceeded admirably.
Gle was always a visionary and one
Of his visions was of human Utopia
which should witness the abolition of
greed and poverty and the dawn of
universal love"