Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 6.djvu/137

 PETER COOPER 301 brewery ; thence to Catskill, where he added brick-making to making beer ; then to Brooklyn to try hatting again ; and finally to Newburgh, where he returned to brewing. In all these shiftings of home and business Peter remained with his father and gave him what help he could ; he used in later life to recall his carrying about the beer-kegs to his father's customers ; but at the age of seven- teen, with his parents' consent, he came back to New York, and looked about for work on his own account. He had saved up from his small earnings, while with his father, the sum of ten dollars, and with this, he tells us, he bought a lottery ticket, which drew a blank. This seeming misfortune he turned to good account, for he then determined never to trust *to luck again, but to be content to earn his bread in the appointed way : it was his first and last specu- lation. On reaching New York he had the usual difficulty in finding employ ment, but at length was accepted as an apprentice by a firm of carriage-makers, to whom, with his father's consent, he bound himself until he should come of age ; his masters agreeing to pay him $25 a year and his board. His grand- mother had a house on Broadway, in which she gave him the use of an upper room, and here in his spare hours he employed himself in wood-carving, in which he acquired some proficiency. In his business he worked so industriously, and made himself so valuable to his employers, that when his time expired they offered to lend him the money to go into business for himself ; but he did not accept this generous offer, as he was determined never to be in debt. While with Messrs. Burtis and Woodward he had invented a machine for mortising wheel- hubs, thus giving the first evidence of an inventive faculty which, though never accomplishing great things, was often of considerable service both to himself and the community. On leaving the business of carriage-making Peter Cooper went to Hempstead, L. I., where he found work in a woollen factory. Here he invented and patented an improvement on the machine in use for shearing the nap of cloth ; and as during the war of 181 2 all commerce with England ceased, cloth-making in America flourished, and from the sale of his machines, which he could hardly make fast enough to supply the demand, young Cooper reaped a considerable profit. One of his first customers was the late Matthew Vassar, of Poughkeepsie, to whom he not only sold some of his machines, but also the right to dispose of them in Dutchess County. When he found that his earnings had enabled him to lay by the sum of $500, he thought himself justified in asking a young woman, Miss Sarah Bedel, whom he had met when in Hempstead, to become his wife ; but before doing so, he determined to visit his parents in New- burgh, and inform them of his intention. He found them in great trouble, his father in debt and needing help ; and without hesitation he placed his small sav- ings at his disposal, paid the most pressing of the debts, and made arrange- ments for paying off the rest. His father was thus saved from bankruptcy by his son's devotion ; but the action was characteristic of Peter Cooper, both in its unselfishness, and as indicative of his business integrity. He would never be in debt himself, and he was equally resolved to keep those belonging to him as free as himself. He took pride in the fact that neither he nor his father had ever