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story of poverty and toil, ending with the grandest
success. In the town of Spencer, Mass., in 1825, a
boy six years old, somewhat lame, might have been
seen any day working with several little brothers
and sisters at sticking wire teeth into leather,
to make cards for combing cotton. The father
was a miller by trade, but from sawing boards,
or grinding corn, there came scarcely enough to
support a wife and eight children. It followed
presently that somebody must go out from the big
family and earn food for himself; therefore at the
age of eleven, the cheerful, good-tempered Elias
was sent to a farmer’s. to “live out” till he was
twenty-one,

For a year he worked steadily; but naturally
‘weak in body, the hard labor proved too severe,
and he went back to his father’s mill. At twelve
years old, most boys are in school, with little
knowledge or thought of how some other little
fellows work from morning till night, with no
opportunity for either study or play.

Elias was, as you see, one of these unfortunate
“other little fellows,” but he was ambitious, and
having heard of Lowell and its mills, at sixteen
he obtained the consent of his parents to go there.
It was a risk; he might make a permanent and
profitable place for himself, or he might be wrecked
by the bad habits of many about him. However,
the boy who could not at sixteen say “no,” when
asked to drink, or go into other sins, probably
would not have the backbone to say “no” at
twenty-one. For two years he labored faithfully ;
then the mill closed, and he was obliged to go
elsewhere. Under the shadow of Harvard Uni-
versity, he found another situation in the machine
shop where was employed his cousin, afterward
Major-General N, P. Banks, and they both boarded
in the same house. At twenty-one we find young
Howe with an inventor in Cornhill, Boston, earn-
ing the munificent sum of nine dollars a week.
This would have provided a fair support for one
person, but as he had married, and soon had three
little children to feed and clothe, life of course be-
came again a struggle for bread. In poor health,
he was now so often very weary, that he said “he
longed to lie in bed forever and ever.”

Liking machinery and. curious about inventions,
he was always asking himself if he could not “think

out something” which would give more money to’

his family. At last, as his wife sewed, he fell to
wondering why some machine could not be made
to take fifty stitches while she was taking one.
This idea presently took: possession of him. For
months he pondered over it. He experimented ina
simple way, with a needle pointed at both ends and
eye in the middle, and finally, by a rough model of
wood and wires, he convinced himself that a sew-
ing machine was a possibility.

But how was the money needed for the construc-
tion of a machine, to be obtained? Nine dollars

LITTLE BIOGRAPHIES.—HOW SUCCESS IS WON.

a week left no surplus for such a purpose. Possi-
bly he might earn more if working in a shop of his
own, he thought ; so he moved his lathe and a few
tools into his father’s garret in Cambridge. Day
after day he thought over his invention, but noth-
ing came of it. But it is a long road which never
turns, and by and by the way seemed open to suc-
ceed. He found an old schoolmate Georgé Fisher,
who believed in him and his invention, and who
took him and his family to his own home, gave
him a small garret for a workshop, and five hun-
dred dollars with which to experiment. This was
a foothold indeed for the young mechanic. Satis-
fied that his family would have enough to eat for
a time at least, he threw off care and set himself
diligently at work on his machine, and in six
months had completed one; it was only about
one foot and a half long, and equally high; but
to his great delight it would actually sew seams.

Now he had visions of luxury for his wife and
babies. For of course, the world would eagerly
purchase a thing so valuable in saving labor and
time. He took it at once to Boston, and the tailors
all looked at it; but nobody would buy. Indeed
they probably felt like breaking it in pieces, as the
miners did Watt’s engine. They saw the curious
wizard thing that would take their sewing out of
their hands, and therefore they resolutely opposed
it. Besides the machine would cost five hundred
dollars, and few were able to pay that sum if they
so desired. By the help of Mr. Fisher the machine
was patented in Washington; but the months went
slowly by, and there was no purchaser.

Want stared Elias Howe in the face, and he felt
that he must go back again, for the sake of. his
family, to daily work. Through a relative he be-

came engineer on one of the roads leading out of: ~

Boston, but his ill health forced him to abandon
it. Out of work, owing George Fisher nearly two
thousand dollars, with little prospect of ever pay-
ing it, hé moved his family back into his father’s
house in Cambridge.

He did not however lose his hope, for he believed
that if America did not care for his invention, Eng-
land would see the value of it. His brother Amasa
therefore took passage in the steerage of a sailing
vessel, carrying the precious, but apparently profit-
less machine to London. There William Thomas,
of Cheapside, with possibly some previous knowl-
edge of Yankee shrewdness, caught the idea of the
inventor, and was much sharper than a Yankee in
making a bargain. He bought the machine for
twelve hundred and fifty dollars, with the right to
make and use as many others as he chose; and he
offered the inventor fifteen dollars a week if he
would come across the ocean to operate it.

After four months Amasa returned. The money
he brought was soon used in paying debts, and as
nothing else opened in the way of work, the broth-
ers started again in the steerage, cooking their