The old-fashioned clocks--Their expensiveness--Condition of the clock trade of Connecticut sixty years ago--Early history of Chauncey Jerome--A hard life--Death of his father--Becomes a farmer's boy--Is anxious to become a clock-maker--An over-wise guardian--Hardships of an apprentice--How Jerome became a carpenter--Hires his winters from his master--Becomes a dial-maker--The clock-making expedition--Jerome's first savings--Takes a wife--A master carpenter--Poor pay and hard work--Buys a house--A dull winter--Enters Mr. Terry's factory--The wooden clock business--Sets up in business for himself--Industry and energy rewarded--His first order--Sends his clocks South--Enlarges his business--Improvements in his clocks--Losses on southern shipments from dampness--Depression of business--Jerome's anxiety--A wakeful night--Invention of the brass--A new era in the clock trade--Beneficial effects of Jerome's invention--Magnitude of the Connecticut clock trade at present--Growth of Jerome's business--Makes a fortune--Organization of the "Jerome Clock-making Company"--Practical withdrawal of Mr. Jerome--Difficulties of the company--Jerome a ruined man--Honest independence--Finds employment--Becomes the manager of the Chicago Company. CHAPTER XVII. ELIAS HOWE, JR. The first sewing-machine--Birth of Elias Howe--A poor man's son--Raised to hard work--His first employment--The little mill-boy--Delicate health--Goes to Lowell to seek his fortune--Thrown out of employment--Removes to Cambridge--Works in a machine shop with N.P. Banks--Marries--A rash step--Growing troubles--A hard lot--Conceives the idea of a sewing-machine--His first experiments unsuccessful--Invents the lock stitch and perfects the sewing-machine--Hindered by his poverty--A hard struggle--Finds a partner--His winter's task--His attic work-shop--Completion of the model--Perfection of Howe's invention--Efforts to dispose of the invention--Disappointed hopes--Popular incredulity--Becomes an engine driver--Amasa Howe goes to England with the sewing-machine--Bargain with the London merchant--Elias removes to London--Loses his situation--The rigors of poverty--Returns to America--Death of his wife--Fate's last blow--The sewing-machine becomes better known--Adoption by the public--A tardy recognition--Elias Howe sets up in business for himself--Buys out his partner's interest--The sewing-machine war--Rapid growth of the sewing-machine interest--Earnings of the inventor--A royal income--Honors conferred upon him--Enlists in the United States Army--A liberal private--Last illness and death. CHAPTER XVIII. RICHARD M. HOE.