profit at that.  I remember well when I was about to give up the job, of asking the man who made the cases for the factory what he would make this case for.  He said he could not do it for less than eight cents, I told him I knew he could make them for five cents, and do well, but he honestly thought he could not.  He was to make two thousand per month—­twenty-four thousand a year.  After getting the work well systematized, I told him if he could not make them at that price, I would make it up to him at the end of the year.  When the time was up, he told me that it was the best part of his job, and that he would make them the next year for four cents; it will be well understood that this was for the work alone, the stock being furnished.

When I got up this new time-keeper, as usual all the clock-makers were down on me again; Jerome was going to ruin the business, and this cheap thing would take the place of larger ones.  I told them there were ten thousand places where this cheap time-piece would be useful, and where a costly striking one would never be used.  There is a variety of places where they are as useful as if they struck the hour, and there are now more of the striking clocks wanted than there were when I got up this one day time-piece.  When I first began to make clocks, thousands would say that they could not afford to have a clock in their house and they must get along without, or with a watch.  This cheap timepiece is worth as much as a watch that would cost a hundred dollars, for all practical purposes, as far as the time of day or night is concerned.  Since I began to make clocks, the price has gradually been going down.  Suppose the cheap time-keeper had been invented thirty years ago, when folks felt as though they could not have a clock because it cost so much, but must get along with a watch which cost ten or fifteen dollars, what would the good people have thought if they could have had a clock for one dollar, or even less?  This cheap clock is much better adapted to the many log cabins and cheap dwellings in our country than a watch of any kind, and it is not half so costly or difficult to keep in order.  I can think of nothing ever invented that has been so useful to so many.  We do not fully appreciate the value of such things.  I have often thought, that if all the time-pieces were taken out of the country at once, and every factory stopped making them, the whole community would be brought to see the incalculable value that this Yankee clock making is to them.

The little octagon marine case which is seen almost every where, was originated and first made by me.  I think it is the cheapest and best looking thing of the kind in the market, and all the work on the case of that clock costs but eight cents.  All of the large hang-up octagons and time-pieces were made at our factory two or three years before any other parties made them at all.  As usual, after finding that it was a good thing and took well, many others