Memoir of the Life of Eli Whitney. 207° 
A carpenter being at work upon one of the buildings of the gentle- 
man with whom Mr. Whitney boarded, the latter begged permission to 
use his tools during the intervals of study; but the mechanic being a — 
man of careful habits, was unwilling to trust them with a student, and it 
was only after the gentleman of the house had become responsible for 
all damages, that he would grant the permission. But Mr. Whitney 
had no sooner commenced his operations, than the carpenter was sur- 
prised at his dexterity, and exclaimed, “ there was one good mechanic 
spoiled when you went to college.” 
Soon after Mr. Whitney took his degree, in the autumn of 17 92, he 
entered into an engagement with a Mr. B. of Georgia, to reside 
in his family as a private teacher. On his way thither, he was so 
tunate as to have the company of Mrs. Greene, the widow of Gen. 
Greene, who, with her family were returning to Savannah, after spend- 
ing the summer at the north. At that time it was deemed unsafe to 
travel through our country without having had the small pox, and 
accordingly Mr. W. prepared himself for the excursion, by procur- 
ing inoculation while in N ew York. As soon as he was sufficiently 
fecovered, the party set sail for Savannah. As his health was not 
fally re-established, Mrs. Greene kindly invited him to go with the fam- 
ily to her residence at Mulberry Grove, near Savannah, and remain 
until _he was recruited. The invitation was accepted ; but lest he 
should hot yet have lost all power of communicating that dreadful 
disease, Mrs, Greene had white flags (the meaning of which was «well 
understood) hoisted at the landing, and at all the avenues leading 
0 the house. As a requital for her hospitality, her guest pro- 
“uted the virus, and inoculated all the servants of the household, more 
than fifty in number, and carried them safely through the disorder. 
t. Whitney had scarcely set his foot in Georgia, before he was 
met bya disappointment which was an earnest of that long series of 
adverse events which, with scarcely an exception, attended all his 
future hegotiations in the same State.* On his arrival, he was in- 
formed that Mr. B. had employed another teacher, leaving Whitney, 
“nurely without resources or friends except those whom he had made . 
In the family of Gen. Greene. In these benevolent people however, 
his case excited much interest, and Mrs. Greene kindly said to him, 
< Ina letter to his friend, Josiah Stebbins, Esq. (the late Judge Stebbins-of Maine) 
é Geo, April 11, 1793, Mr. Whitney says, “ Fortune has stood with her back 
ards me ever since I have been here.”—It does not appear that, so far as re- 
lated to eore) 
Georgia, he ever found her position reversed. 
