It has been publicly stated that Mr. Barnum endorsed largely on blank notes and drafts and that he was thus rendered responsible to a far greater extent than he was aware of; such, however, was not the case.
The troubles that have grown out of the failure of this great business, have left me poor and broken down in spirit, constitution and health. I was never designed by Providence to eat the bread of dependence, for it is like poison to me, and will surely kill me in a short time. I have now lost more than forty pounds of flesh, though my ambition has not yet died within me.
CHAPTER XI.
EFFECTS OF THE FAILURE ON MYSELF—REMOVAL TO WATERBURY AND ANSONIA—UNFORTUNATE BUSINESS CONNECTIONS.
After saying so much as I have about my misfortunes in life, I must say a few words about what has happened and what I have been through with during the last four years.
When the Jerome Manufacturing Company failed, every dollar that I had saved out of a long life of toil and labor was not enough to support my family for one year. It was hard indeed for a man sixty-three years old, and my heart sickened at the prospect ahead. Perhaps there never was a man that wanted more than I did to be in business and be somebody by the side of my neighbors. There never was a man more grieved than I was when I had to give up those splendid factories with the great facilities they had over all others in the world for the manufacture of clocks both good and cheap, all of which had been effected through my untiring efforts. No one but myself can know what my feelings were when I was compelled, through no fault of my own, to leave that splendid clustre [sic.] of buildings with all its machinery, and its thousands of good customers all over this country and Europe, and in fact the whole world, which in itself was a fortune. And then to leave that beautiful mansion at the head of the New Haven bay, which I had almost worshipped. I say to leave all these things for others, with that spirit and pride that still remained within me, and at my time of life, was almost too much for flesh and blood to bear. What could have been the feelings of my family, and my large circle of friends and acquaintances, to see creditors and officers coming to our house every day with their pockets full of attachments and piles of them on the table every night. If any one can ever begin to know my feelings at this time, they must have passed through the same experience. Yet mortified and abused as I was, I had to put up with it. Thank God, I have never been the means of such trouble for others. I had to move to Waterbury in my old age, and there commence again to try to get a living. I moved in the fall of 1856, and as bad luck would have it, rented a house not two rods from a large church with a very large steeple attached to it, which had been built but a short time before. In one of the most terrific hurricanes and snow storms that I ever knew in my life, at four o'clock in the morning of January 19th, 1857, this large steeple fell on the top of our house which was a three story brick building. It broke through the roof and smashed in all the upper tier of rooms, the bricks and mortar falling to the lower floor. We were in the second story, and some of the bricks came into our room, breaking the glass and furniture, and the heaviest part of the whole lay directly on our house. It was the opinion of all who saw the ruins that we did not stand one chance in ten thousand of not being killed in a moment. I heard many a man say he would not take the chances that we had for all the money in the State. One man in the other part of the house was so frightened that he was crazy for a long time. Timbers in this steeple, ten inches square, broke in two directly over my bed and their weight was tremendous. I now began to think that my troubles were coming in a different form; but it seems I was not to die in that way. The business took a different shape in the spring, and I moved (another task of moving!) to Ansonia. Here I lived two years, but very unfortunately happened to get in with the worst men that could be found on the line of Rail-road between Winsted and Bridgeport. In another part of this book I have spoken of them; I do not now wish to think of them, for it makes me sick to see their names on paper. I had worked hard ever since I left New Haven—one year at Waterbury, and two at this place (Ansonia,)—but got not one dollar for the whole time. I was robbed of all the money which Mr. Stevens, (my son-in-law,) had paid me for the use of my trade-mark in England, for the years 1857-'58. This advantage was taken of me, because I could collect nothing in my own name.
I should consider my history incomplete, unless I went back for many years to speak of the treatment which I received from a certain man. I shall not mention his name, and my object in relating these circumstances, is to illustrate a principle there is in man, and to caution the young men to be careful when they get to be older and are carrying on business, not to do too much for one individual. If you do, in nine cases out of ten, he will hate and injure you in the end. This has been my experience. Many years ago, I hired two men from a neighboring town to work for me. It was about the time that I invented the Bronze Looking-Glass Clock, which was, at that time, decidedly the best kind made. After a while these two men contrived a plan to get up a company, go into another town, and manufacture the same kind of clock. This company was formed about six months before I found it out, and much of their time was spent in making small tools and clock-parts to take with them. This was done when they were at work for me on wages. They induced as many of my men as they could to go with them, and took some of them into company. When they had finished some clocks, they went round to my customers and under-sold me to get the trade. This is the first chapter. When I invented the thirty-hour brass clock in 1838, one of these men had returned to Bristol again, and was out of business; but he had some money which he had made out of my former improvements. I had lost a great deal of money in the great panic of 1837. After I had started a little in making this new clock, he proposed to put in some money and become interested with me, and as I was in want of funds to carry on the business, I told him that if he would put in three thousand dollars, he should have a share of the profits. I went on with him one year, but got sick of it and bought him out. I had to pay six thousand dollars to get rid of him. He took this money, went to a neighboring town, bought an old wood clock factory, fitted it up for making the same clock that I had just got well introduced, and induced several of my workmen to go with him, some of whom he took in company with him. As soon as I had the clock business well a going in England, he sent over two men to sell the same patterns. He has kept this up ever since, and has made a great deal of money.
After the failure of the Jerome Manufacturing Company, as I have already stated, I went to Waterbury to assist the Benedict & Burnham Company. After I had been there six or eight months, and had got the case-making well started, (my brother, Noble Jerome, had got the movements in the works the year before.) this same man I have been speaking about, came to me and made me a first-rate offer to go with him into a town a short distance from Waterbury, and make clocks there. I accepted his offer, but should not have done so, had it not been for the depressed condition to which I had been brought by previous events. I accordingly moved to the town where he had hired a factory. He was carrying on the business at the same time in his old factory, and came to this new place about twice a week. My work was in the third story, and it was very hard for an old man to go up and down a dozen times a day. About this time I obtained a patent on a new clock case, and as I was to be interested in the business, I let the Company make several thousand of them. We could make forty cents more on each clock than we could on an O-G. clock. As I was favorably known throughout the world as a clockmaker, this Company wanted to use my label as the clocks would sell better in some parts of the country than with his label. They were put upon many thousands. Soon after we commenced, I told him I would make out a writing of our bargain because life was uncertain. He said that was all right, and that he would attend to it soon. As he always seemed to be in a hurry when he came, I wrote one and sent it to him, so that he might look it over at his leisure and be ready to sign it when he came down again. The next time I saw him, I asked him if the writing was not as we agreed; he said he supposed it was, but that he had no time to look it over and sign it then, but would do so when he had time. I paid into the business about one thousand nine hundred dollars in small sums, as it was wanted from time to time, and worked at this man for eight months to get a writing from him, but he always had an excuse. He had agreed to give the case-maker a share of the profits if he would make the cases at a certain price, but put him off in the same way. We both became satisfied that he did not mean to do as he had agreed, and I therefore left him. The money which I had paid in was what I had received for the use of my name in England. I had the privilege of paying it in as it was wanted, working eight months, keeping the accounts which I did evenings, and giving this man a home at my house whenever he was in town. All of this which I had done, he refused to give me one dollar for, and it was with great difficulty that I got my money back. I had to put it into another man's hands, as his property, to recover it. This man, probably, had two objects in view when he went to Waterbury to flatter me away. He did not want me to be there with my name on the movements and cases, and therefore he made me a first-rate offer. I had been broken up in all my business, and felt very anxious to be doing something again. I was a little afraid when he made the offer, but knew that he had made a great deal of money out of my improvements and was very wealthy, and I did think he would be true to me, knowing as he did my circumstances. Look at this miser, with not a child in the world, and no one on earth that he cares one straw about, and yet so grasping! Oh! what will the poor creature do in eternity!