June i, 1909.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



325 



The Late Eben H. Paine. 



THE news of the death of Eben H. Paine, cabled from Lon- 

 don on the morning of May 8, not only filled the rubber 

 trade with profound regret, but there was added the shock 



of its being so unexpected, since only a very few persons had 



had an intimation of his illness. 



Mr. Paine had just entered upon his fitty-lilth ycir. liavjng 



been born on April 28. 1855, but owing to the sturdy constitution 



which he had inherited from long-lived ancestors at Jay, in 



western Maine, he retained to the end the appearance of a 



much younger- man, with the same vitality and energy that 



always had characterized him. He was the son of Joel ar.d 



Evaline (Humphrey) Paine, who both reached an advanced 



age. The Indi.\ Rubber World in 1894 chronicled the si.xty- 



third anniversary of their 



wedding. 

 .•\t the time that Eben 



Paine as a boy left his vil- 

 lage home to make a career 



for himself, Robert D. 



Evans and the late Charles 



M. Clapp were interested in 



the rubber trade in and 



near Boston in various 



ways. It is believed that 



he first found employment 



with the firm Clapp, Evans 



& Co. One of the concerns 



formed by these gentlemen 



was the .American Rubber 



Co., of which Mr. Evans 



was the principal founder, 



and which started in 1873 



as a jobbing concern. In 



1877 this company estab- 

 lished a factory at Cam- 



bridgeport, Massachusetts, 



and Mr. Paine, who already 



had been in their employ as 



a salesman, was put in 



charge of the New York 



selling agency. Later he 



was called to Boston as 

 chief selling agent of the 



American Rubber Co., which 



continued to grow until it 

 was one of the largest and 

 most successful rubber toot- 

 wear firms in existence. 



The American Rubber Co. was included in the original plan 

 of organization of the United States Rubber Co., and Mr. 

 Evans was the first president selected by the latter. This was 

 in 1892. Mr. Paine at once became one of the chief selling 

 agents of the new corporation ; in 1895 he was placed in charge 

 of the New York selling agency, and in May, 1901, was made 

 manager of sales of the whole company. Increasingly success- 

 ful in his field all the while, Mr. Paine was next placed in 

 charge of developing the export trade in footwear. On July 

 3, 1907, he sailed for London to till the position of advisory direc- 

 tor of the United States Rubber Co., Limited, the European 

 branch of the company he had so long represented. He had since 

 been active in the new field, visiting the leading trade centers 

 in person, and everywhere forming friendships by reason of the 

 same pleasing personality that had made him so well liked in 

 his own country. 



Mr. Paine had made one visit to the States since taking his 

 post abroad, and was expected to make another this summer. 

 News of his illness first reached New York four or five days 

 before tlic end — reported to be a result of ptomaine poisoningi 

 followed by nervous collapse. Mr. Paine married Miss Harriet 

 .\. Wright, of Cambridge, Mass., who survives, and he left two 

 sisters, Mrs. Dr. E. H. Stevens, of Cambridge, and Mrs. Asaph 

 Leach, of Whitman, Mass. 



Few men in the .\merican rubber trade in the last twenty 

 years were better known than Eben Paine. In all of the great 

 centers of trade he had hoSts of acquaintances and scores of 

 friends. Possessed of abundant vitality, he was energetic, breezy, 

 shrewd. Where the broad practical joke was esteemed the high- 

 est type of wit, he was a 

 rollicking practical joker; 

 where a well-told story or 

 a witty reply was most ap- 

 preciated, he was always 

 ready. As a business man 

 he was more than ordinarily 

 capable, and as an adjuster 

 of differences, between buy- 

 er and seller, he was force- 

 ful, fair and wonderfully 

 convincing. In his special 

 liixe, rubber footwear, his 

 knowledge of the business 

 was encyclopedic. He will 

 long be remembered and 

 mourned by a wide circle 

 of business men to whom 

 he was always "Eben" — -the 

 capable, optimistic and wel- 

 come visitor. 



J. OTIS MINOTT. 



Joseph Otis Minott died 

 in Paris, France, on May 

 14, of pneumonia, in his 

 forty-sixth year. He was 

 a son of the late Joseph Al- 

 bert Minott, who spent 

 forty-two years in the india- 

 rubber trade in New York, 

 and was one of the found- 

 ers of the Goodyear Rub- 

 ber Co., with which he was 

 connected at the time of 

 his death. Joseph Otis 

 Minott was born in Orange, New Jersey. He studied art in 

 the United States, subsequently carried on his studies under 

 the European masters, and for seven years past had spent 

 most of his time in Paris. His specialty was painting 

 miniatures. John Sargent is quoted as saying that he was with- 

 out an equal in this branch of art. At the time of his death 

 he was imdcr an agreement to paint the miniatures of King 

 Edward and Queen Alexandra. His studio was in Paris, but he 

 had a house in St. James's square, London, as well as an ad- 

 dress in New York. Mr. Minott was a director in the Goodyear 

 Rubber Co., of which one of his three surviving brothers, Fred- 

 erick Shcpard Minott, is now secretary. He was also a direc- 

 tor i5f the Orange Water Co. in New Jersey. 



CHARLES D. SESHLER, 



Charles Dunh.\m Deshler, who died at his home at New 

 Brunswick, New Jersey, on May 10, was the father of James 



