Ski Takiloterylitelligenctr, PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNE#DAY BY H. G. SHITH & CO. H. G. SMITH. A. J. STEINMAN • TERMS—TWo Dollars per annum, payable all cases in advance. OFFICE—SOUTHWEST CORNER OF CENTRE SCIUARE. *if-All letters on business should be ad dressed to H. G. SMITH & CO. Nottg. CONTEN'rIIIENT BY OLIVER WENDELL DOLMEN "Man want,' but Mlle here below Little I Mil ; niy wants are feW I only whin a hut or clone, (A very pktin brown clone will do,) That I may call buy own ; And clime at hand le Midi a one, In yonder creel that fronts the MM. Plain food Is quite enough for me; Three couraeli are UN good a 8 Len ; If nature eau subalst on three, Thank Heaven for three. Amen I I alwa. , a thought cold victuala nice,— My choice would be vanilla-ice. • I cure nut much for gold or land ; Gave me a mortgage here and there, Some good bank stock, some note of hand, Or trilling railroad share,— I only asic that Fortune send A little more than j. shall spend. Honors are Hilly toys, I know, And tiLiOli are but empty names; I would, perhaps be Plenipo— liut outy near Ht. James; I'm very sure I should not care To 1111 our (Mberuator's chair. Jewels are baubles ; it Hill 'jo care tor such unfruitful bins one good sized diamond iu a pin, Some, nOt 80 /Urge, in rings, A ruby, and a pearl, or no, Will do for ;—I laugh at show. My dame should dress In cheap attire, (U aid, heavy silks are never dear:, I own perhaps I might deem,: Some :shawls of true Cashmere-- Some narruwy crapes of China silk, Like wrinkled skluNou scalded milk. I , Wealth's east...dill taleks 1 will not learn :.or ape the glittering upstart lied Snail Dot carved tables Nerve lay turn, But oil nits be OL li I ye grasping po'llp Its double care,— ' ask but one recumbent Chair. L II Ve and tile, Nor long lot' Minus' gold , it touch; Jr Heaven inure generous gifts deny, I shall DOI oo grateful for the blessing lent. Of stipple blab, and mild COOLI-11 litcrarm. From the Atlantic Monthly Istory of the Sewing Machine In hornbill, Boston, thirty years ago, there - was u shop fur the manufacture and repair of nautical instruments and philosophical apparatus, kept by Ari Davis. Mr. Davis was a very Ingenious mechanic, who had invented a success.' ful dovetailing machine, much spoken of at the time, when inventions were not as numerous as they are now. -Being thus a noted man in his calling, he gave way to the foible of of an oddity of dress and deportment. It pleased him to say extravagant and nonsensi cal things, and to go about singing, and to attradt attention by unusual gar ments. Nevertheless, being a really skilful mechanic, .he was frequently consulted by the inventors and im provers of machinery, to whom he sometimes gave a valuable suggestion. In the year 1839, two men in Boston —one a mechanic, and the other a capi talist--were striving to produce a knit ting-machine, which proved to be a task beyond their strength. When the in ventor was at his wit's end, his capital ist brought the machine to the shop of Ari Davis, to see if that eccentric genius could suggest the solution of the diffi culty, and make the machine work. The shop, resolving itself into a com mittee of the whole, gathered about the knitting-niathine and its proprietor, and were listening to au explanation of its principle, when Davis, in his wild, extravagant way, broke in with these words: " What are you bothering yourselves with a knitting-machine for ? Why don't you make a sewing-ma •' I wish I could," said the capitalist; "but it can't be done." "0, yes, it can," said Davis ; "I can make a sewing-machine myself." " Well," said the other, " you do it, Davis, and I'll insure you an indepen dent fortune." There the conversation dropped, and it was never resumed. The boastful remark of the master of the shop was considered merely one of his sallies of affected extravagance, as it really was ; and the response of the capitalist to it was uttered without a thought of producing an effect. Nor did it pro duce any effect upon the person to whom it was addressed. Davis never attempted to construct a sewing-ma chine. Among the workmen who stood by and listened to this conversation was a young man from the country, a new hand, named Elias Howe, then twenty years old. The person whom we have named the capitalist, a well-dressed and fine-looking man somewhat con sequential in his manners, was an im posing figure in the eyes of this youth, new to city ways; and he was much impressed with the emphatic assurance that a fortune was in store for the man who should invent a sewing machine. - He was the more struck with it, because he had already amused himself with in venting some slight improvements, and recently he,had caught from Davis the habit of meditating new devices. The spirit of invention, as all mechanics know, is exceedingly contagious. One man in a shop who invents something that proves successful will give the mania to half his companions, and the very apprentices will be tinkering over a device after their day's work is done. There were other reasons, also, why a conversation so trifling and accidental should have strongly impressed itself upon the mind of this particular youth. Before that day, the idea of sewing by the aid of a machine had never occurred to him. Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing-machine, was born in ISI9, at Spencer, iu Massachusetts, where his father was,a farmer and miller. There was a grist-mill, a saw-mill, and a shin gle-machine on the place; but all of them together, with the aid of the farm, yielded but a slender revenue for a man blessed with eight children, It was a custom in that neighborhood, as in New England generally, forty years ago, for families to carry on some kind of manu facture at which children could assist. At six years of age, Elias Howe worked with his brothers and sisters at sticking he wire teeth into strips of leather for "cards," used in the manufacture of cotton. As soon as he was old enough, he assisted upon the farm and In the mills, attending the district school in the winter months. He is now of opin ion, thatit WAS the rudeand simple mills belonging to his father which gave his mind its bent toward machinery ; but he cannot remember that this bent was very decided, nor that he watched the operation of the mills with much atten tion to the mechanical principles in volved. He was a careless, play-loving boy, and the first eleven years of his life passed without au event worth record ing. At eleven he went to "live out" with a farmer of the neighborhood, in tending to remain until he was twentyr, one. A kind of inherited lameness ren.- , tiered the hard work of a farmer's boy distressing to him, and, after trying it for a year, he returned to his father s house, and resumed his place in the mills, where he continued until he was sixteen. One of his young friends, returning from Lowell about this time, gave him such a pleasing description of that famous town, that he was on fire to go thither. In 1833, with his parents' reluc tant consent, he went to Lowell, and ob tained a learner's place in a large manu factory of cotton machinery, where he remained until the crash of 1887. closed the mills of Lowell, and sent him adrift, a seeker after work. He went to Cam bridge, under the shadow of venerable Harvard. He found employment there in a large machine-shop, and was set at work upon the new hemp-carding ma chinery invented by Professor Tread• well. His cousin, Nathaniel P. Banks, since Speaker of the House of Repre sentatives and Major General, worked in the same shop and boarded in the same house with him. After working a few months at Cambridge, Elias Howe found employment more congenial in Boston, at the shop of Ari Davis where the conversation occurred which we have just related. Judging merely by appearances,.no one would have pitched upon him as the person likely to make one of the revolutionizing Inventions of the age. . . ... . _ . . . _. „ . . .' • - ~. . Ai' . .__. . , ^,' .. .. ) , .... . ~. " ~ . :*tu e .W . 1. , ~.... •': ; I ~ . „ . . .1- re - .•, ' , , I. " 1 2. ..; . . '::. : , ~, _ , J. , L . , . 1 ••• .• ,f.! IR ...1: ' . ....; . ' ' ' .l : 'F. ~ t; ._, . . 1 : I e ' , .ii •,:::: ~. iimiv . . . . . . • LI ', . . - , . . VOLUME 68 Undersized, curly-headed, and exceed ingly fond of his joke, he was at twenty more a boy than a man. Nor was he very proficient in his trade, nor in clined to put forth extra exertion. Steady labor was always irksome to 'him, and frequently, owing to the con stitutional weakness to which we have alluded, it was painful. He was not the person to seize an idea with avid ity, and work it out with the passion ate devotion of a Watt or a Goodyear. The only immediate effect upon him of the conversation In the shop of Mr. Davis was to induce a habit of reflect ing upon the art of sewing, watching the process as performed by hand, and wondering whether it was within the compass of the mechanic arts to do it by machinery. His uppermost thought, in those years, was, 'What a waste of power to employ the ponderous human arm, and all the intricate machinery of the fingers, in performing an operation so simple, and for which a robin's strength would suffice! Why not draw twelve threads through at once, or fifty? And sometimes, while visiting i shop where army and navy clothing was made, he would look at the heaps of unsewed garments, all cut alike, all requiring the same stitch, the same number of stitches, and the same kind of seam, and say to himself, "What a pity this cannot be done by machinery! It is the very work for a machine to do." Such thoughts, however, only flitted through his mind now and then:, he was still far from any serious at tempt to construct a machine for sew ing up the blue trousers. At twenty-one, being still a journey man machinist, earning nine dollars a week, he married ; and, in time, chil dren came with inconvenient frequen cy. Nine dollars Is a fixed quantity, or, rather ' It was then; and the addition of three little mouths to be fed from itir and three little bucks to be clothed by it, converted the vivacious father into a thoughtful and plodding citizen. His day's labor at this time, when he was upon heavy work, was so fatiguing to him, that, ou reaching his home, he would sometimes be too exhausted to eat, and he would go to bed, longing, as we have heard him say, "to lie in bed for ever and ever." It was the pressure of poverty and this extreme fatigue that caused him, about the year 1843, to set about the work of invent ing the machine which, he had heard four years before, would be "au inde pendent fortune" to the inventor. Then it was that he caught the inventor's mania, which gives its victims no rest and no peace till they have accomplished the work to which they have abandoned themselves. He wasted many months on a false scent. When he began to experiment, his only thought was to invent a ma chine which should do what he saw his wife doing when she sewed. He took it for granted that sewing must be that, and his first device was a needle point ed at both ends, with the eye in the middle, that should work up and down through the cloth, and carry the thread through it at each thrust. Hundreds of hours, by night and day, he brooded over this conception, and cut many a basket of chips in the endeavor to make something that would work such a needle so as to form the common stitch. He could not do it. One day, in 1844, the thought flashed upon him. Is it necessary that a machine should imitate the performance of the hand? May there not be another stitch? This was the crisis of the invention. The idea of using two threads, and forming a stitch by the aid of a shuttle and a curved needle with the eye near the point, soon occurred to him, and he felt that he had invented a sewing-ma chine. It was in the month of Octo ber, 1844, that he was able to convince himself, by a rough model of wood and wire, that such a machine as he had projected would sew. At this time he had ceased to be a journeyman mechanic. His father had removed to Cambridge to establish a machine for cutting palm-leaf into strips for hats,—a machine invented by a brother of the elder Howe. Father and sou were living in the same house, into the garret of which the sou had put a lathe and a few machinist's tools, and was doing a little work on his own account. His ardor in the work of invention robbed him, how ever, of many hours that might have been employed, his friends thought, to better advantage by the father of a fam ily. He was extremely poor, and his father had lost his palm-leaf machine by a fire. With an invention in his head that has since given him more than two hundred thousand dollars in a single year, and which is now yield ing a profit to more than one firm of a thousand dollars a day, he could scarcely provide for has little family the necessaries of life. Nor could his in vention be tested, except by making a machine of steel and iron, with the ex actness and finish of a clock. At the present time, with a machine before him for a model, a good mechanic could not, with his ordinary tools, construct a sewing machine in less than two months, nor at a less expense than three hundred dollars. Elias Howe had only his model in his head, and he had not money enough- to pay for the raw ma terial requisite for one machine. There was living then at Cambridge a young friend and schoolmate of the inventor, named George Fisher, a coal and wood merchant, who had recently inherited some property, and was not disinclined to speculate with some of it. The two friends had been in the habit of conversing together upon the project of the sewing-machine. When the in ventor had reached his final conception, in the fall of 1844, he succeeded in con vincing George Fisher. of its feasibili ty, which led to partnership between . . ,etn for bringing the invention in use. The terms of this partnership were these: George Fisher was to re ceive into his house Elias Howe and his family, board them while Elias was making the machine, give up his garret for a workshop, and provide money for material and tools to the extent of five hundred dollars; in return for which he was to become the proprietor of one-half the patent, if the machine proved to be worth patenting. Early in December, 1844, Elias Howe moved into the house of George Fisher, set up his shop in the garret, gathered mate rials about him, and went to work. It was a very small, low garret, but it sufficed for one zealous, brooding work man, who did not wish for gossiping visitors. It is strange how the great things come about in this world. This George Fisher, by whose timely aid such an inestimable boon was conferred upon womankind, was led into the enterprise as much by good nature as by expec tation of profit, and it was his easy acquisition of his money that made it easy for him to risk it. So far as we know, neither of the partners indulged in any dream of benevolence. Howe wanted to invent a sewing -machine to deliver himself from that painful daily toil, and Fisher was inclined to aid au old friend, and not disinclined to own a share in a valuable patent. The great est doers of good have usually proceed ed in the same homely spirit. Thus Shakespeare wrote, thus Columbus sailed, thus Watt invented, thus New ton discovered. It seems too, that George Fisher was Elias lowe's only convert. "I believe," testified Fisher in one of the great sewing-machine suits, "I was the only one of his neigh bors and friends in Cambridge that had any confidence in the success of the invention. He was generally looked upon as very visionary in undertaking anything of the kind, and I was thought very foolish in assisting him." It is the old story. All the winter of 1844-45 Mr. Howe worked at his machine. His conception of what he intended to produce was so clear and complete, that he was little delayed by failures, but worked on with almost as much certainty and steadi ness as though he had a model before him. In April he sewed a seam by his machine. By the middle of May, 1845, he had completed his work. In July he sewed by his machine all the seams of two suits of woollen clothes, one suit for Mr. Fisher and the other for himself, the sewing of both of which outlasted the cloth. This first of all sewing-machines, after crossing the ocean many times, and figuring as a dumb but irrefutable witness in many a court, may still be seen at Mr. Howe's office in Broadway, where, within these few weeks, it has sewed seams in cloth at the , rate of three hun dred stitches a minute. It is agreed by all disinterested persons (Professor Ren wick among others) who have examined this machine, that Elias Howe, in making it, carried the invention of the sewing machine farther on towards its complete and final utility, than any other inventor has ever brought a first rate invention at the triai. It is a little thing, that first machine, which goes into a box of the capacity of about a cubic foot and a "half. Every contriv ance in it has been since improved, and new devices have been added; but no successful-,sewing machine has ever been made, of all the seven hundred thousand now in existence, which does not contain some of the essential de vices of this first attempt. We make this assertion without hesitation or re serve, because it is, we believe, the one point upon which all the great makers are agreed. Judicial decisions have re peatedly affirmed it. Like all the other great inventors, ' Mr. Howe found that, when he had completed his machine, his difficulties had but begun. After he had brought the machine to the point of making a few stitches, he went to Boston one day to get a tailor to come to Cambridge and arrange some cloth for sewing, and give his opinion as to the quality of the work done by the machine. The com rades of the man to whom he first ap plied dissuaded him from' going, alleg ing that a sewing -machine„ if it worked well, must necessarily reduce the whole fraternity of tailors to beggary; and this proved to be the unchangeable conviction of the tailors for the next ten years. It is probable that the machines first made would have been destroyed by violence, but for another fixed opin ion of the tailors, which was, that no machine could be made that would re ally answer the purpose. It seems strange now, that the tailors of Boston could have persisted so long in such an opinion ; for Mr. Howe, a few weeks after he had finished his first model, gave them an opportunity to see what it , could do. He placed his little engine in one of the rooms of the Quincy 1-fall Clothing Manufactory, and scati ng self before it, offered to sew up any seam that might be brought to him. One un believing tailor after another brought a garment, and saw its long seams sewed perfectly, at the rate of two hundred and fifty stitches a minute ; which was about seven times as fast as the work could be done by hand. For two weeks he sat there daily, and sewed up seams for all who chose to bring them to him. He amused himself, at intervals, in executing rows of ornamental stitch ing, and lie showed the strength of the machine by sewing the thick plaited skirts of frock coats to the bodies. At last, he challenged five of the swiftest seamstresses iu the establishment to sew a race with the machine. Ten seams of equal length were prepared for sewing, five of which were laid by the machine, and the other five given to the girls. The gentleman who held the watch, and who was to decide the wager, testified, upon oath, that the five girls were the fastest sewers that could be found, and that they sewed " as fast as they could, —much faster than they were in the habit of sewing,"—faster than they could have kept on for one hour. Never theless, Mr. Howe finished his 'five seams a little sooner than the girls finished their five; and the umpire, who was himself a tailor, has sworn, that " the work done on the machine was the neatest and strongest." Upon reading testimony like this, we wonder that manufacturers did not in stantly set Mr. Howe at work making sewing machines. Not one was ordered. Not a tailor encouraged him by word or deed. Some objected that the machine did not make the whole garment. Others dreaded,to encounter the fierce opposi- tion of the journeymen. Others really thought it would beggar all hand sewers, and refrained from using it on prin ciple. Others admitted the utility of the machine and the excellence of the work done by it; but said they, "We are doing well as we are, and fear to make such a change." The great cost of the machine was a most serious obstacle to its introduction. A year or two since, Mr. Howe caused a copy of his first machine to be made for exhi bition in his window, and it cost him two hundred and fifty dollars. In 1845 he could not have furnished his ma chine for less than three hundred dol lars, and a large clothier or shirtmaker would have required thirty or forty of The inyentor was not disheartened by the result of the introduction of the machine. The next thing was to get the invention patented, and Mr. Howe again shut himself up in George Fish er's garret for three or four months, and made another machine for deposit in the Patent Office. In the spring of 1846, there being no prospect of reve nue from the invention, he engaged as " engineer " upon one of the railroads terminating at Boston, and " drove" a locomotive daily for some weeks; but the labor proved too much for his strength, and he was compelled to give it up. Late in the summer, the model and the documents being ready for the Patent-Office, the two associates treated themselves to a journey to Washington, where the wonderful machine was ex hibited at a fair, with no results except to amuse the crowd. September 10, 1846, the patent was issued, and soon after the young men returned to Cam bridge. George Fisher was now totally dis couraged. He had maintained the in ventor and his family for many mouths; he had provided the money for the tools and material for two machines; he had paid the expense of getting the patent, and of the journey to Washington ; he had advanced in all about two thousand dollars; and he saw not the remotest probability of the invention becoming profitable. Elias Howe moved back to his father's house, and George Fisher considered his advances in the light of a dead loss. "I had lost confidence," he has since testified, " In the machine's ever paying anything." But mothers and inventors do not give up their offspring so. America having rejected the invention, Mr. Howe resolved to offer it to England. In October, 1846, his brother, Amuse B. Howe, with the assistance of their father, took passage in the steerage of a sailing packet and conveyed one of the machines to London. An English man was the first manufacturer who had faith enough In the American sewing machine to invest money in it. In Cheapside, Amasa Howe came upon the shop of William Thomas, who em ployed, according to his own account, five thousand persons in the manufac ture of corsets, umbrellas, valises, car pet-bags, and \ shoes. William Thomas examined and approved the machine. Necessity, as Poor Richard remarks, cannot make a good bargain ; but the bargain which it made on this occa sion through the agency of Amasa B. Howe, was signally bad. He sold to Mr. Thomas, for two hundred and fifty pounds sterling, the machine he had brought with him, and the right to use as many others in his own business as he desired. There was also a verbal understanding that Mr. Thomas was to patent the invention in England, and, if the machine came into use there, he was to pay the inventor three pounds on every machine sold. That was an ex cellent day's work for William Thomas of Cheapside. The verbal part of the bargain has never been carried out. He patented the invention; and ever since the machines began to be used, all sewing -machines made in England., or imported into England, have paid tribute to him at the rate of ten pounds or less for each machine. Elias Howe is of opinion that the investment of that two hundred and fifty pounds has yielded a profit of one million dollars. Mr. Thomas further proposes to engage the inventor to adapt the machine to ' the work upon corsets, offering him the munificent stipend of three pounds a LANCASTER PA. WEDNESDAY MORNING, MAX 8 1867 ~._. week, and to defray the expense of I thropntattitided, a leading branch of workshop, tools, and material. ~ l rhe - national industry was tributary tO Amass B. Howe returned tb' CAUL- hirrt. - `The. first step was to ;get back bridge with this offer. America being from England that first machine, and still insensible to the charms of then," the document issued from the Patent invention, and the two hundred and. Office. In the course of theraiimmer of fifty pounds having been immediateb , 1849 he contrived to raise the hundred absorbed by the long-accumulating rg dollars requisite for their -deliverance; cessities of the family, and there being and the Hon. Anson J3urlingame, who no prospect of advantageous employ r was going to London, kindly undertook ment at home,Elias Howe accepted to hunt them up in the wilderness of the offer, and both brothers set sail for Surrey. He found them, and sent them London, February 5, 1847. They went home in the autumn of the same year. in the eerage, and cooked their ow j ;The inventor wrote polite letters to the provisions. William Thomas provide infringers , ' warning them to desist, and a shop and its requisites, and even - ; offering to sell them licenses to con vancecl money for the passage to Eng- ; tinue. All • but one of them, it appears, land of the inventor's family, whosr..-ere disposed toacknowledge his rights joined him soon,--wife and three chilc.V- rand to accept his proposal. That one ren. After eight months of labor, the / induced the others to resist, and noth inventor succeeded in adapting his ma-, ling rmained but a resort to the it eourts. chine to the purposes of the stay-maker; ,Assia d by his, father, the inve for be and when this was done, the stay-maker gan a ult ; but he was soon mad aware apparently desired to get rid of the in- that j stice is a commodity much be / ventor. He required him to do the yond he means of a journeyman me miscellaneous repairs, and took the chaui He tried to reawaken the faith tone with him which the ignorant of Ge ge Fisher, and induce him to purse-holder, in all lands, is accustomed- furnis the sinews of war; but George to hold in his dealings with those t.' Fisher:had had enough of the sewing whom he pays wages. The Yankee, of machine: he would sell his half of the course, resented this behavior, and Wil; patvt for what it had cost him ; but he Liam Thomas discharged Elias Howe:,woWd advance no more money. Mr. from his employment. . HAWe then looked about for some one To be a poor stranger with a sick ~virho would buy George Fisher's share. wife and three children in America ' is .He found three men who agreed to do to be in a purgatory that Is providedis—and tried to do it, but could not o e, with a practicable door Into parszlise. - c this money. To be such a person in London, is to be The person to whom he was finally in a hell without visible outlet. indebted for the means of securing his Since undertaking to write this little rights was George W. Bliss, of Massa history of the sewing-machine, we have chusetts, who was prevailed upon to gone over about thirty thousand pages buy Mr. Fisher's share of the patent, of printed testimony taken in the nu- and to advance the money needful for merous suits to which sewing-machine carrying on the suits. He did this only patents 'have given rise. Of all these as a speculation. He thought there pages, the most interesting are those might be something in this new notion from which we can gather the history o f sewing by machinery, and, if there of Elias Howe during the next few was, the machine must become univer months. From a chance acquaintance, sal, and yield large revenues. This named Charles Inglis, a coachmaker, might be; he even thought it probable; who proved to be a true friend, he hired still, so weak was his faith, that he a small room for a workshop, in which, consented to embark in the enterprise after borrowing a few tools, he began to only on condition of his being secured construct his fourth sewing -machine. against loss by a mortgage on the farm Long before It was finished, he saw that or the Inventor's father. This gener he must reduce his expenses or leave ous parent—who is still living in Cam his machine unfinished. From three bridge—came once more to the rescue, rooms he removed his family to one, and thus secured his sows fortune. and that a small one, in the cheapest The suits went on ; but, as they went quarter of Surrey. Nor (lid that econ- on at the usual pace of patent cases, the only suffice ; anti he resolved to send Inventor had abundant leisure to push his family home while he could, and his invention out of doors. trust to the machine in hand for the Towards the close of 1850 we find him means to follow them. in New York, superidtending the con " Before his Wife left London," tea- struction of fourteen sewing machines lilies Mr. Inglis, "he had frequently borrowed money from me in sums of at a shop in Gold street, adjoining which he had a small office, furnished with a five pounds, and requested me to get five-dollar desk and two flfty-cent chairs. him credit for provisions. On the eve- One of those machines was exhibited ning of Mrs. Howe's departure, the night. iattla e fair iu Castle Garden iu October, was very wet and stormy,and her health 1851, where, for the space of two weeks, being delicate, she was unable to walk it sewed gaiters, pantaloons, and other to the ship. He had no money to pay thework. Several of them were sold to a cab-hire, and he borrowed a few bootuaaker iu Worcester, who used shillings from me to pay it, which he them for sewing boot-legs with perfect repaid by pledging some of his clothing. success. Two or three others were daily Some linen came home from his wash- operated in Broadway,; to the satisfac erwomau for his wife and children on tion of the purchasers. We can say, the day of her departure. She could not therefore, of Elias Howe, that besides take it with her on account of not hay- inventing the sewing -machine, and be ing money to pay the woman." After sides making the first machine with his the departure of his family, the soli- own hands, he brought his invention to tary inventor was still more severely the point of its successful employment pinched. "He has borrowed a shilling in manufacture. from me," says Mr. Inglis, " for the While• he was thus engaged events purpose of buying beans, which I saw occurred which seriously threatened to him cook and eat in his own room.' rob, him of all the benefit of his inveu- After three or four months of labor tion. The infringers of his patent were the machine was finished. It was worth not men of large means nor of extraor fifty pounds. The only customer he divary energy, and they had no " case" could find for it was a workingman of whatever. There was the machine his acquaintance, who offered five which Elias Howe had made in 1845, pounds for it, if he could have time to there were his letters-patent, and all pay it in. The inventor was obliged to the sewing-machines then known to be accept this offer. The purchaser gave iu existence were essentially the same his note for the five pounds, which as his. But in August, 1850, a mans-be-- Char es Inglis succeeded iu selling to came involved with the infringers who snot er mechanic for four pounds. To was of very different mettle from those pay is debts and his expenses home t steady-going Yankees, and capable of Mr. owe pawned his precious first carrying on a machine and his letters-patent. much more vigorous war "He faro than they. This was that Isaac drew a hand-cart, with his baggage on it, to the ship, to save the expense of Merritt Singer who has since so often astonished the Fifth Avenue, and is cartage" ; and again he took passage in now amusing Paris, by the oddity and the steerage, along with his English splendor of his equipage.* He was then friend, Charles Inglis. His brother a poor and baffled adventurer. He had Amasa had long before returned to been an actor and manager of a theatre, America. and had tried his hand at various en- In April, 1849, Elias Howe landed in terprises, none of which had been New York, after an absence of two very successful. In 1850, lie invented years from the country, with half a (as he has since sworn) a carving crown in his pocket. Four years had machine, and, having obtained an nearly elapsed since the completion of order for one from Boston, he made it, his first machine, and this small piece and took it himself to Boston. In the of silver was the net result of his labors shop in which he placed his carving upon that invention. He and his friend machine he saw, for the first time, sev went to one of the cheapest emigrant cral sewing. machines, brought there for boarding houses, and Elias Howe repairs. Orson C. Phelps, the propri sought employment in the machine- etor of the shop (Mr. Singer says), shops, which, luckily, he found without showed him one of these machines, and delay. The news reached him soon said to him that, if it could be improved that his wife was dying of consumption, so as to render it capable of doing a but he had not the money for a journey greater variety of work, "it would be a to Cambridge. In a few days, how- good thing;" and if Mr. Singer could ever, he received ten dollars from his accomplish this, he could get more father, and he Was thus enabled to reach money from sewing than from carving his wile's bedside, and receive her, last machines. Whereupon Mr. Singer breath. He had no clothes except those contemplated the apparatus, and at he daily wore, and he was obliged to night meditated upon it, with so much borrow a suit from his brother-in-law success, that he was able in the morn in which to appear at the funeral. It in g to exhibit a drawing of an im was remarked by his old friends, that proved machine. This sketch (so he his natural gayety of disposition was. siPears) contained three original de quite quenched by the severity of his vices, which to this day form part of recent trials. He was extremely down- the sewing-machine made by the Sing cast and worn. He looked like a man er Company. The sketch being ap just out after a long and agonizing sick- proved, the next thing was to construct nese. Soon came intelligence that the a model. Mr. Singer having no money, ship in which he had embarked all his the purchaser of his carving-machine household goods had been wrecked off agreed to advance fifty dollars for the Cape Cod, and was a total loss. purpose; upon which Mr. Singer flew But now he was among friends, who at the work like a tiger. hastened to relieve his immediate ne- "I in cessities, and who took care of his chil-. worked," he says, "day and night, else in but three or four hours out of dren. He was soon at work ; not, in deed, at his beloved machine, but at the twenty-four, and k eating generally work which his friends considered but once a day, as I newlmust get a much more rational. He was again a machine made for forty dollars, or not journeyman machinist at weekly wages.t it at all. The machine was corn- As nature never bestowed two eminent 1111 g feted the night of the eleventh day gifts upon the same individual, the man from the day it was commenced. About who makes a great invention is seldom nine o'clock that evening we got the the man who prevails upon the public parts of the machine together, and corn- to use it. Every Watt needs his Boul- meuced trying it. The first attempt to ton. Neither George Fisher nor Elias sew was unsuccessful, and the work- Howe e possessed the executive force men, who were tired out withalmet requisite for so difficult a piece of work unremitting work, le ft me_ one by_ one, as the introduction of a machine which intimating that it was a failure. i con i hen cost two or three hundred dollars- tinned trying the machine, with Zieber" to make, and upon which a purchaser vho furnished the forty dollars) " to had to take lessons as upon the piano, (ho the lamp for me, but, in the nervous and which the whole body of tailors condition to which I had been reduced by incessant work and anxiety, was un regarded with dread, aversion, or con tempt. It was reserved, therefore, for successful in getting the machine to sew other men to educate the people into tight stitches. About midnight Istarted availing themselves of this exquiSi : ?.vith Zieber to the hotel where I labor-saving apparatus. boarded. Upon the way we sat down Upon his return home, after his resi- on a pile of boards, and Zieber asked deuce in London, Elias Howe discov- me if I had noticed that the loose loops ered, much to his surprise, that the of thread on the upper side of the cloth c sewing-machine had become celebrated came from the needle. It then flashed , though its inventor appeared forgotten. upon me that I had forgotten to adjust Several ingenious mechanics, who had the tension upon the needle thread. only heard or read of a machine for Zieber and I went back to the shop. I sewing, and others who had seen the adjusted the tension, tried the machine, Howe machine, had turned their atten- and sewed five stitches perfectly, when tion to inventing in the same direction, the thread broke. The perfection of or to improving upon Mr. Howe's de- those stitches satisfied me that the ma vices. NVe have before us three hand- chine was a success, and I stopped work, machine was carried about in Western bills, which show that in 1849 a sewing- went •to the hotel, and had a sound sleep. By t a hree ti o'Clock the next day I had the m e , and started New York, and exhibited as a curiosity at a charge of twelve and a half cents' with it to New chi York where I employ- Cha for admission. At Ithaca the following ad Mr. rles M. Keller to get out a bill was about in May, 1849, a few weeks patent for it." after the inventor's return from Europe: Such was the introduction to the A great curiosity! The Yankee Sew- sewing-machine of the man whose en ing-Machine is now exhibiting at this ergy and audacity forced the machine place from BA.m.to 5 P. nf, upon an unbelieving public. He bor rowed a little money, and, forming a The public were informed by other partnership with his Boston patron and bills, that this wonderful machin eould the machinist in whose shop he had I make a pair of pantaloons in fort min- made his model, began the manufacture utes, and do the work of six ands. The people of Ithaca, it appears, at- of the machines. Great and numerous were the difficulties which arose in his tended the exhibition in great num- path, but one by one he overcame them hers, and many ladies carried home all. He advertised, he travelled, he specimens of the sewing, which they sent out agents, he procured the inser preserved as curiosities. But this was .tion of articles in the newspapers, he not all. Some machinists and others : exhibited the machine at fairs In town in Boston and elsewhere were making an d coun t r y. sewing-machines in a rude, imperfect Several times he was upon the point of failure, but in the manner, several of which had been sold nick of time something always hap to manufacturers, and were in daily pened to save him, and year after year operation. he advanced' toward an assured suc- The inventor, upon inspecting these cess. We well remember his early ef crude products, saw that they all con- forts, when he had only the back part tained the devices which he had first of a small store in Broadway, and a lit combined and patented. Poor as he tie shop over a railroad depot; and we was, he was not disposed to Submit to remember also the general incredulity this infringement, and he began forth- with regard to the value of the machine with to prepare for war against the in- with which his name was identified. fringers. When he entered upon this Even after hearing him explain it at litigation, he was ajoutheyman maohin- great length, we were very far from Ist; his machine and his letters patent expecting to see him, one day, riding were in_pawn three thousand miles .to the Central Park in a French diii away, and the patience, if not the purses, gene, drawn by five horses, paid for of. his friends was exhausted, - Mien by the' sewing-machine. Still less did we anthapate that, within twelve years, the Binger Company would be selling a thousand sewing-machines a week; at &profit otattlionsand dollua day, He was the true &flees of;St s, Piert business of selling the mulch* made it easier for all his subsequent competitors. Mr. Singer had not been long in the business before he was reminded by Elias Howe that he was infringing his patent of 1846. The adventurer threw all his energy and his growing means into the contest against the original in ventor. The great object of the infring ing interest was to discover an earlier inventor than Elias Howe. For this eurpose, the patent records of England, France, ' and the United States were most diligently searched; encyclopedias w ere examl n ed, linden attempt was even made to show that the Chinese lied possessed a sewing-machine for'ages. Nothing, however, was discovered that would have made a plausible defence, until Mr. Singer joined the infringers. He ascertained that a New York me- chanic, named Walter Hunt, who had a small machine-shop up a narrow alley in Abingdon Square, had made, or tried to make, a sewing-machine as early as 1832.. Walter Hunt was found. He had attempted to invent a sewing-ma chine in 1832; and, what was more Im portant, he had hit upon the shuttle as the means of forming the stitch. He said, too, that he had made a- machine wnicli did sew a little, but very imper fectly, and, afer wearying himself with fruitless experiments, he had thrown it aside. Parts of this machine, after a great deal of trouble, were actually found among a quantity of rubbish in the garret of a house in Gold Street. Here was a discovery ! Could Mr. Hunt take - these parts, all rusty and broken, into his shop, and complete the machine as originally made, so that it would sew? He thought he could. Urged on by the indefatigable Singer, supplied by him with money, and stimulated by the prospect of fortune, Walter Hunt tried hard and long to put his machine to gether; and when he found that he could not, he employed an ingenious inventor to aid him in the work. But their united ingenuity was unequal to the performance o: an impossibility: the machine could not be got to sew a seam. The fragments found in the garret did. Indeed, demonstrate that in 1832 Walter Hunt had been upon the track of the invention; but they also proved that he had given up the chase iu despair, long before coming up with the. game. And this the courts have uniformly held. In the year 1854 1 after a long trial, Judge Sprague, of Massachusetts, decided that "the plaintiff's patent is valid, and the defendant's machine Is an infringement." The plaintiff was Elias Howe; the real infringer, I. M. Singer. Judge Sprague further observed, that " there is no evidence in this case, that leaves a shadow of doubt that, for all the benefit conferred upon the public by the introduction of a sewing-machine, the public are indebted to Mr. Howe." This decision was made when nine years had elapsed since the completion of the first machine, and when eight years of the term of the first patent had expired. The patent, however, even then, was so little productive that thte inventor, embarrassed as he was, was able upon the death of his partner, Mr. Bliss, to buy his share of it. He thus became, for the first time, the sole proprietor of his patent ; and thisoccur red just when it was about to yield a princely revenue. From a few hundreds a year, his income rapidly increased, until it went beyond two hundred thou• sand dollars. He has received in all up to the present time, about seventeen hun dred thousand dollars. By the time the extension of the patent expires, Sep tember 10, 1867, the amount will not fall far short of the round two millions. As Mr. Howe has devoted twenty-seven years of his life to the invention and development of the sewing-machine, the public have compensated him at the rate of seventy-five thousand dollars a year. It has cost him, however, im mense sums to defend Ms rights, and he is now very far from being the rich est of the sewing-machine kings. He has the inconvenient reputation of be ing worth four millions, which is exact ly ten times the value of his present estate. So much for the inventor. In speak ing of the improvers of the sewing machine, we know not how to be cau tious enough ; for scarcely anything can be said on that branch of the subject which some one has not an interest to deny. We the other day looked over the testimony taken In one of the suits which Messrs. Grover and Baker have had to sustain in defence of their well- known "stitch." The te-4timony in that single case fills two ilium, use volumes, containing three thousand five hun dred and seventy-five pages. At the Wheeler and Wilson establishment in Broadway, there is a library of similar volumes, resembling in appearance a quantity of London and Paris Directo ties. The Singer Company are equally blessed with sewing-machine literature and Mr. Howe has chests full of it. We learn from these volumes, that there is no useful device connected with the ap paratus, the invention of which is not claimed by more than one person. And no wonder. If to-day the ingenious reader could invent the slightest real improvement to the sewing-machine, so real that a machine having it would possess an obvious advantage over all machines that had it not, and he should sell the right to use that improvement at so low a rate as fifty cents for each machine, lie would find himself in the enjoyment of an income of onehundred thousand dollars per annum. The con sequence is, that the number of patents already issued in the United States for sewing-machines, and improvements in sewing-machines, is about nine hun dred! Perhaps thirty of these patents are valuable, but the great improve ments are not more than ten in number; and most of those were made in the in fancy of the machine. By general consent of the able men who are now conducting the sewing machine business (including Elias Howe), the highest place In the list of improvers is assigned to Allen B. Wilson. This most ingenious gen tleman completed a practical sewing machine early in 1849, without ever having seen one, and without having any knowledge of the devices of Elias Howe, who was then buried alive in London. Mr. Wilson, at the time, was a very youngurneyman cabinet-mak er, living in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. After that desperate contest with diffi culty which inventors usually experi ence, he procured a patent for his ma chine, improved it, and formed a con nection with a young carriage-maker of his acquaintance, Nathaniel Wheeler, who had some capital ; and thus was founded the great and famous house of Wheeler and Wilson, who are now making sewing-machines at the rate of about fifty-three thousands year. These gentlemen were honest enough in op posing the claim of Elias Howe, since Mr. Wilson knew himself to be an original inventor, and he employed devices not to be found in Mr. Howe's machine. Instead of a shuttle, he used a "rotating hook,"—a device as ingeni ous as any in mechanism. The "four motion feed," too, was another of Mr. Wilson's masterly inventions, sufficient of itself to stamp him an inventor of genius. Nothing, therefore, was more natural than that Messrs. Wheeler and Wilson should regard Mr. Howe's charge of infringement with astonish ment and indignation, and join in the contest against him. Messrs. Grover and Baker were early in the field. William 0. Grover was a Boston tailor, whose attention was di rected to the sewing machine soon after Mr. Howe's return from Europe. It was he who, after numberless trials, In vented the exquisite devices by which the famous " Grover and Baker stitch" is formed,—a stitch which for some pur poses is of unequalled utility. When, by the decision of the courts, all the makers had become tributary to Elias Howe, paying him a certain sum for each machine made, then a most violent warfare broke out among the leading houses,—Singer and Company, Wheeler and Wilson, Grover and NUMBER 18 Baker,—each accusing the other of in fringement. At Albany, in 1858, these causes were Wise tried, and parties Otiu• cern.ed saw before ! them a ,gcpcl..three inonthaork *Mkt. 'llsT'd lucky chanae;tne memlliktif this happy faint ily had not entirely; lost his temper,, and wairsa somskdegree capable of using his is t. Xt.oceurred to this wisehead, that, no matter who invented first, or who second, Alike were then as sembled at Albany thenien who, among them,;beld patents whiati controlled the whole business of making sewing-ma chines ~• and that it would be infinitely better for them to combine and control, than to contend with and devour one another. They all came into this opin ion • and thus was formed the "Combi nation," o f which such terrible things are uttered by the surreptitious milers of sewing-machines. Elias Howe, Who is the best-tempered man in the world, and only too easy in matters pecuniary, had the complaisance to join this con federation, only insisting that at lose twenty-four licenses should be issued by it, so as to prevent the manufaillure from sinking into a monopoly. By the terms of this agreement, Mr. Howe was to receive 11130 dollars upon every ma chine sold in the United States, and one dollar upon each exported. The other parties agreed to sell licenses to use their various deviceS, or any of them, at the rate of fifteen dollars for each machine; but no license was to be granted without the consentof all the parties. It was further agreed, that part of the license fees received should be reserved as a fund for the prosecution of infringers. This agreement remained unchanged until the renewal of Mr. Howe's patent in 1860, when his fee was reduced from five dollars to oue dollar, and that of the Combination from fifteen dollars to seven. That is to say, every sewing-machine made, which includes any device or devices the patent for which is held by any other member of the Combination, pays seven donne to the Combination. Of this seven dollars, Mr. Howe receives his one, and the other six goes into the fund for the defence of the patents against infringers. For example, take the Wilcox and Gibbs machine, the only one, as far as we know, which was not invented by a Yankee, or in Yankee land. Twelve years ago, Mr. James E. A. Gibbs, a Virginia farmer, saw in the Scientific American a picture of a sewing•ma chine. Being a man of a decided turn for mechanics, he examined the draw ing with great attention ; but, as it ex hibited only the upper part of the ma chine, he ciuld form no idea of the con trivance underneath by which the stitch was formed. The working of the appa ratus was, however, very plain, down to the moment when the needle perforates the cloth ; and he fell into the habit of musing upon the course of events after the point of the needle was lost to view. The result of his cogitations, aided by infinite whittling, was the ingenious lit tle revolving hook which constitutes the peculiarity of the Wilcox and Gibbs machine. But that machine, besides employing Mr. Gibbs's invention, uses the feeding apparatus of Allen B. Wil• son, and the eye-pointed needle of Elias Howe. It is therefore tributary to the Combination, and pays its seven dollars for each machine. A similar history could to related of the "Florence," the " Weed," the " Elliptic," the " Em pire," and others. All these machlhes are worth examination by those who mechanical devices The " Florence," for example, (so called because it is made in Florence, Massachusetts,) has a beautiful con trivance, by means of which the opera tor can sew backwards as well as for wards. The shuttle of this machine is so constructed as to make its own " tension " ; or, in other words, the shuttle holds the thread as tightly or as loosely as the seam requires. With out presuming to give an opinion with regard to the comparative utility of the various machines, we may say that we were exceedingly struck with the elegance and ingenuity of the " Flor ence." The business of making and selling sewing-machines, which was not fairly started before 1857, has attained a truly wonderful development. Twenty-seven firms or companies have been engaged in it at one time, a few of which have lately withdrawn, leaving abouttwenty still in the business. One of these has twenty-four stores,,of its own, in the large cities of the world, besides a much larger number of local agents. Another boasts that there are thirty-nine cities on this planet where its machines can be bought at all times. We can our selves bear witness, that, in such cities as Cincinnatti, St. Louis, and Chicago, each of the well-known makers has a spacious and elegant establishment, with all the appurtenances to which we are accustomed in New York. In Aus tralia, one of our New York companies, at least, has an establishment of its own. Gentlemen best acquainted with the business compute that the whole num ber of sewing-machines made in the United States up to the close of the year 1899 was about seven hundred and fifty thousand. During the quarter ending December 10, 1860, the number of ma chines made by licensed companies, as reported by them to Elias Howe, was 52,219! This is above the rate of two hundred thousand per annum. Mr. Howe is of opinion that about half as many more are produced by unlicensed makers, including . the Yankees who, driven from the United States by the Combination, have set up their facto ries on the other side of the Canada line. If his conjecture is correct, we are now producing the astounding and almost incredible number of one thousand sew ing-machines every working-day, at an average cost to the purchaser of sixty dollars each. The world however, is a very large place, and America still sup plies it with most of its sewing-ma chines, When we visit single estab lishments in New England which em ploy five hundred machines, when we learn that the shirt-makers of one city, Troy, are now running more than three thousand of them, and when we consid er that there are in the United States six millions of families, most of whom mean to have a sewing-machine when they can afford it, we can believe that even so many as a thousand a day may be absorbed. About one fifth of all the machines made in the United States are exported to foreign countries. Wheeler and Wilson, Grover and Baker, Singer and Company, Wilcox and Gibbs, the Florence, and others, are familiar names in St. Petersburg, Paris, London, Ber lin, Vienna, Madrid, Melbourne, Mex ico, Rio Janeiro, Havana, Valparaiso, Vancouver's Island, and wherever else in the world many stitches are taken. Foreigners can no more make a Yan kee sewing-machine than they can make a Yankee clock. They have not the machinery—as curious as the ma chine itself—by which each part of the apparatus is made at the minimum of expense, and with perfect certainty of excellence. To found a sewing-ma chine manufactory in Europe which could compete with those of America would involve an experldature of two millions of dollars, and the expatriation of several of our American foremen. It is only upon a great scale that the machines can be made well or profit ably. By means of the various improve• ments and attachments, the sewing machine now performs nearly all that the needle ever did. It seams, hems, tucks, binds, stitches, quilts, gathers, fells, braids, embroiders, and makes button-holes. It is used in the manu facture of every garment worn by man, woman, or child. Firemen's caps, the engine-hose which 'firemen use, sole leather trunks, harness, carriage cur tains and linings, buffalo-robes, horse blankets, horse-collars, powder-flasks, mail-bags, sails, awnings, whips, sad dles, corsets, hats, caps, valises, pocket books, trusses, suspenders, are among the articles made by its assistance; but it Is employed, quite as usefully, in mak ing kid gloves , parasols, and the most delicate articles of ladies' attire. Some of our readers, perhaps, witnessed the shn*, the other day in New York, of the shoes, gaiters, and laidles' boots' for the Paris Exhibition. They were of all degrees of delicacy, from EATINI•011/ AlarrEalingai Btretrxes .ADS* , 419' a per 'SUM O onaI of4.l2arel tan llnes; P 3 per year Ibr a ad diti B AL L" Eprj"gmetioxeLniatiarr,axl. CM. SAL AMWERING, 7 cads a Una 1 the WO, and 4 osntr for each =Mop= er• BMW. Nano= inserted In Local Co , 15 cents or Una. ElyscLeL BMWS' Preooanit x tu a ri deaths, 10 cents per hne for tha t and 5 oents for ever9o: lll 51nent A iralieniiiitOrTile; 9-1 - Muslims Cards,/re hues= tau, one Year,— .. 6 Lima. Aim Executor.' '4OO AdnaltilstratOre 2.00 =aeee' LOG rs' nottoes,. - LSD Other " Nottoegr three umee,..., ton lines, or leak the stout Balmoral to 'the boot of kid, satin, or velvet; and every kind of htitoh had been emplojred. In their manufacture. Some of the stitches were so line that they could not be dig tinotly seen without a magnifying-glass, and some were as coarse and strong as those of men's boots. The special wonder of this display was that cum stitch in every one of those beautiful _ . shoes was executed by the machine. Mr. E. C. Burt, who made this splen did contribution to the Exhibition, as sured us, and will assure the universe In general at Paris, that all this variety of elegant and durable work was per formed on the "Howe Sewing-ma- chine." Upon ordinary booth and shoes, the machine has long been em ployed ; but it is only recently that any one has attempted to apply it to the manufacture of those dainty things which ladies wear upon their feet when they go forth, armed cap-a-pie, for con quest. A similar change has occurred In other branches of manufacture. As operators have increased in skill, and as the special capabilities of the differ- ent rnachinea have been better under- stood, finer kinds of work have been done upon them than used to be thought possible. Some young ladies have de veloped a kind of genius for the sewing machine. The apparatus has fascinated them; they execute marvels upon it, as Gottschalk does upon the piano. •One of the most recent applications of the maebine is to the sewiag of straw A Yankee in Con- hats and bonnets necticut has invented attachments by which the finest braids are sewn into bonnets of any form. Attempts have been made to estimate the value, in money, of the sewing-ma chine to he people of the. United States. Professor Renwick, who has made the machine a particular study, expressed the opinion seven years ago, ou oath, that the saving in labor then amounted to nineteen millions of dollars per Messrs. Wheeler and Wilson have published au estimate which in dicates that the total value of the labor performed by the sewing -machine, in 1863, was three hundred and forty-two millions of dollars. A good hand-sewer averages thirty-five stitches per minute ; the fastest machines on some kinds of work perform three thousand a minute. There are iv a good shirt '20,620 stitches ; what a saving to do them at machine speed! We glean from the volumes of testimony before us a few similar facts. The stitching of a man's hat by hand requires fifteen minutes; by ma chine, oue minute. One girl can do the sewing by machine of as many boys' caps as ten can do by hand. In fine clothing for men, the saving is, of course, not so great. Messrs. Brooks Brothers of New York say that the making of a first-rate overcoat by hand requires six days' steady sewing; by machine, three days. In the general work of a tailor, the madhine saves a journeyman about four hours in twelve. Carriage-trimmers testify that one ma chine and three hands are equivalent to eleven hands. In the truss and bandage business, which is one of very great extent and importance, one ma chine is equal to ten women. In the manufacture of bugs for flour, salt and meal, of which the city of New York produces two millions of dollars' worth per annum, a machine does the work of nine girls. In mere hemming, on a machine fitted expressly for the purpose, one machine does the work of tiny girls. Yet where is the woman who can say that her sewing Is less a tax upon her time and strength than it was before the sewing-machine came in ? But this is not the machine's fault ; it is the fault of human nature. As soon as lovely woman discovers that she can set ten stitches in the time that one used to re quire, a fury seizes her to put ten times as many stitches in every garment as she formerly did. Tailors and Bean'- , stresses ' not content with sewing the seams of garments, must needs cover them with figures executed by " stitch ing." And thus it is that man never is, but al ways to be, blest. If with one part of his brain he invents a labor saving apparatus, the other lobes im mediately create as much new labor as the apparatus saves. But it is this chase of Desire after Ability which keeps the world moving, and tends always to equalize the lot of men. The sewing machine is one of the means by which the industrious laborer is as well clad as any millionnaire need be, and by which working-girls are enabled safely to gratify their woman's instinct of decoration. In the early days of the sewing -ma chine, it was not supposed that it would ever come into general use In. families. The great cost of the machine, and the supposed difficulty of learning to use It, were considered fatal obstacles to its general introduction into households. The price has now been reduced to fifty-five dollars for the cheapest good machines, and it has been found that an intelligent woman can learn to sew with it in an hour. An average seam stress becomes proficient in the use of it in a month. For some time past, therefore, the great object of the celebra ted makers is to produce the best family machine. This is the point of rivalry among them. A lady who leaves her home, after a breakfast consultation with her hus band, and goes forth to select a family sewing-machine, has undertaken au expedition which promises nothing but pleasure; but it does not perform its promise. The sewing -machine estab lishments in Broadway are numerous and splendid. She pauses before a magnificent marblestore, with windows formed of single panes of plate glass ; in one of which are sewing machines, brit • liant with polished steel, silver plate, and rosewood, and in the other are beautiful garments covered with mirac ulous stitching, executed by thosepret ty parlor ornaments. Yielding to these allurements, she enters a grand saloon, ' a hundred feet long, extending back to another street, and covered with Wilton carpet, of better quality, probably, than that which she treads in her own par lor. Perhaps the walls and ceilings are frescoed ; and, if they are not, they are richly papered and painted. Sewing machines in long rows, not too close together for convenient moving about, agreeably dot the whole surface of the apartment, as far as the eye can pene trate the gloom of the distance. Along the wall, at the farther end of the room, she will discover, by and by, a row of enclosed desks, like those of a bank, each desk being a small apartment, as elegant and commodious as taste and money can make it. These are for the dignitaries of the Company,—the president, the treasurer, the cashier, the general agent, the advertising clerk. Here and there a young lady may be seen '• operating" one of the machines in a graceful attitude, and with such perfect ease as to dispel the fears of a purchaser most distrustful of her pow ers. The rapid and yet not noisy click of the machines is cheering, and seems the appropriate music of the place. And this grand hall is only one of many apartments. The basement, and the cellar below the basement, each as large as the store, are occupied as depositories, repairing-shops, packing-rooms; while In the story above the store may be found superb rooms, wherein ladies who ' have bought a machine receive instruc tion in the art of using it, attending daily, if they choose, until they have becomeproflcients in hemming, sewing, braiding, making button-holes, and in all the other varieties of needle-work. The clerk who advances to wait upon the lady soon learns her errand, and discovers her ignorance. Indeed, she frankly avows her ignorance. Sho has come out, she artlessly says, in pur suit of knowledge. She desires to as certain which is the best sewing ma chine in existence for family use. Long practice has taught an intelligent and ambitious young man how to deal with cases of this kind. He does in his inmost soul, believe thatthe sewing machines made by the company he serves are the very best in the world, especially for family use. But he feels the, delicacy of his situation. "Of course, madam, we are interested par ties, and it would be• no more than natural that we should represent our machines to be the best in the market. Continued on fourtkpage.
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