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Show Practiced What He Preached Ellas Howe, of Sewing Machine Fame, Though Worth a Million, Enlisted En-listed as a Private in a Connecticut Regiment. "I knew the inventor of the sewing machine well. I remember as though It were yesterday the day Elias Howe came to Bridgeport, Conn., looking for a site for his sewing machine factory He was a queer-looking man, very thick set, with long curly hair, and that day, and often after, when I got to know him Intimately, I was struck with the resemblance between him and the popular likenesses of Benjamin Benja-min Franklin. That likeness was not only In Howe's features, but also in his way of looking at life. He was as practical a man as Franklin himself, and, like Franklin, Howe was blessed with a great deal of common sense "1 could tell you many interesting stories of Howe," continued the late Abner L. Train, a member of Yale's famous' class of 1853, and afterwards a noted Connecticut editor; "how, for example, after he had won his patent fights in the courts of the United States his Income increased in one year from about $500 to $300,000. But the most interesting story I know , about Howe Is connected with the Civil war. "When the war broke out by that time Howe was one of the rich men of i the country, and one of its leading ! manufacturers he became tremen- dously excited. Not even In the heat j of his patent suits could any one re- member having seen him 60 worked ! up; and he backed up his words in 1 favor of the Union by giving his time freely to the cause and advancing a great deal of money to the state for the purpose of equipping its soldiers. He also contributed liberally to bounty funds, and, it is suspected, looked after the family of more than one 'boy' at the front. "Well, things had gone on this way with Howe tor about a year when he began to say vehemently to his friends that every ablebodied man under fifty years of age not only ought to give what time and money he could to the Union cause, but should also enlist. adding that he purposed at the first opportunity to practice what he preached. "At the time a regiment was being enlisted in western Connecticut for a three-year service. It was to be the Seventeenth Connecticut Volunteers. One day who should walk into a place where enlistment was going on for this regiment but Elias Howe. No one was surprised to see him there, for every one knew how zealous he was in behalf of the north. But when he walked up to the enlisting officer and said in a quiet voice that he desired to enlist for three years every one was Immediately seized with astonishment. 'I want to enlist as a private,' he added, and in silent amazement the pen was handed to him and he wrote his name with a firm hand upon the enlistment roll. "With the regiment this man, who was then worth at least a million dollars dol-lars five years later his estate was Inventoried at two millions this man who was one of the famous inventors of the world, and one of the leading I manufacturers of the new world, was mustered In as a private some time later and carried a knapsack on his back and a musket over his shoulder to the front. But before he did that he gave further strong evidence of his love for the Union. There was some delay or difficulty about raising the needed funds to equip the Seventeenth properly I suppose because of some procrastination at Washington. But whatever the cause of delay, when Howe heard of it he almost secretly advanced the needed funds. "When he marched away with the regiment Mr. Howe looked enthusiastically enthusias-tically forward to the day when he might be able to do something for his country on the line of battle. But after he had been in service a little while the surgeons of the regiment discovered that he was not in the best of health In fact, was not fit physically physi-cally for military duty. So, to the deep disappointment of Mr. Howe, he was compelled to retire from the army, in which, so far as I know, he was the only millionaire who chose to enroll himself as a private." (Copyright. 1911. by E. J. Edwards. All KlRhtB Reserved.) |