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