96 GOODYEAR ON GUM-ELASTIC. 



property invested in manufacturing establishments. The writer 

 did not count upon the disadvantages he had to contend with, 

 on account of impaired credit, and did not know, what ex- 

 perience has since taught him, that under circumstances of em- 

 barrassment, the only wise course is not to continue the same 

 business, at least not to continue it under suspended liabilities ; 

 although it is often for the interest of the creditors at the time, 

 that this should be done. 



The course he adopted was attended with continued embar- 

 rassment, by the shifting of claims into the hands of strangers, 

 and by being held by them to bonds in different States. He 

 could not make an assignment without divesting himself of the 

 titles to his unfinished inventions, in which state they would 

 have been of no value to himself or to his creditors. Under 

 the laws that then existed, during the space of ten years he 

 was repeatedly imprisoned for debt ; but, notwithstanding the 

 depressing influences of these circumstances, he assiduously ap- 

 plied himself to the improvements before alluded to, and shortly 

 before he engaged in experimenting upon gum-elastic, (while con- 

 fined upon the jail limits,) he completed one of these improve- 

 ments, from the sale of which he derived the means of subsist- 

 ence for himself and family. His anticipations of ultimate 

 success in life were never changed, and his hopes were seldom 

 for a moment depressed. 



These trials were not wholly without their advantage ; les- 

 sons of life were learned from them. If any one is desirous to 

 learn more of human nature than he can learn in any other 

 way, or wishes for a moment to look upon the darkest side of 

 life's fleeting shade, let him, for such a cause as debt and mis- 

 fortmie, be placed within the bars of a prison door, without a 

 dollar in his pocket, and in conscious innocence look out upon 

 the world, and reflect upon the wide contrast in his condition 

 with that of those who are enjoying liberty without ; while 

 within he finds his fellow sufferers all upon the same level, 

 whether incarcerated for the sum of one hundred pence, or of 

 one hundred thousand pounds. Then, notwithstanding the 



