CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



either by themselves or by the village black- 

 smith. That the Reaper did the work of ten 

 men, they could not deny. But it was driven 

 by an expert. "It's all very wonderful, but 

 I 'm running a farm, not a circus," thought 

 the average spectator at these exhibitions. 

 Also, there was in all Eastern States at that 

 time a surplus of labor and a scarcity of money, 

 both of which tended to retard the adoption of 

 the Reaper. 



Neither did the business men of Staunton pay 

 any serious attention to it. There was a Sam- 

 son Eager at that time who made wagons, a 

 David Gilkerson who made furniture, a Jacob 

 Kurtz who made spinning wheels, and an 

 Absalom Brooks who made harness. But none 

 of these men saw any fortune in the making of 

 Reapers, and Staunton lost its great opportunity 

 to be a manufacturing centre. 



Failure was being heaped on failure, yet 

 Cyrus McCormick hung to his Reaper as John 

 Knox had to his Bible. He went back to the 

 little log workshop with a fighting hope in his 



