m^ 



EMBARRASSMENTS OF THE AUTHOR. 117 



agreed that the man who could proceed further in a course of 

 this sort, was fairly deserving of all the distress brought upon 

 himself, beside being justly debarred the sympathy of others. 

 And he was not unfrequently reminded that he could at any 

 time improve his circumstances, by acting upon the advice of 

 friends, to return to his former occupation of hardware. There 

 was no longer any alternative for him, except to make choice of 

 one of two ways — either to return to what others thought a 

 respectable occu})ation, in order to support his family, or to sub- 

 sist as he best could in his then embarrassed condition. 



The earnings of himself and family in the manufacture, by 

 the common methods, of some small articles for which there was 

 yet some demand, and the forlorn resort of the friendless and the 

 destitute, — the pawnbroker's shop, — were his chief dependence. 



The parties before alluded to, to whom licenses had been sold 

 for the acid gas process, were so much discouraged by these occur- 

 rences, that no application could be made to them for assistance. 



The recollection of the losses that had been previously sus- 

 tained, in the depreciation of India rubber stocks, was now 

 revived afresh in the public mind, and it was useless to look to 

 any individual in the community for funds to be used in this 

 manufacture, so strong was the prejudice against it. 



The shares of the numerous companies that had failed with 

 total loss of their capital, were so widely distributed, that their 

 failure was indeed a public calamity ; and although the pecuniary 

 interests of the public were in no way affected by the disappoint- 

 ment of the inventor in the failure of his experiments, yet the 

 effect of their disaffection, in consequence of their former losses, 

 manifested in their distrust of every thing connected with the 

 subject, was not only the cause of much chagrin to him at the 

 time, but was also the chief hinderance to the introduction of 

 his subsequent improvements. 



He was obliged, for the want of means, to discontinue man- 

 ufacturing, and Mr. Hayward left his employment, and re- 

 turned to the manufacture (on his own account) of various 

 articles, after the method first practiced by the Roxbury com- 



