when, seeing the men needy, the government having been unable to pay
promptly, he himself advanced enough money to pay the entire regiment.
In the month of October, 1867, at the early age of forty-eight he died.

But he had lived long enough to see his machine adopted and appreciated
as one of the greatest labor-saving devices in the world. It is
estimated that to-day the sewing-machine saves annually the enormous sum
of $500,000,000. It has been truly said that had it not been for the
sewing-machine it would have been impossible to have clothed and kept
clothed the vast armies employed on both sides during the late war.
Great, indeed, is a world's benefactor; such is Elias Howe.

ISAAC M. SINGER.

The greatest competitor of Mr. Howe was I. M. Singer. In 1850 there
appeared in a shop in Boston, a man who exhibited a carving machine as
his invention.

Mr. Parton, in the _Atlantic Monthly_, said: "Singer was a poor, baffled
adventurer. He had been an actor and a manager of a theatre, and had
tried his hand at various enterprises, none of which had been
successful." The proprietor of the shop, who had some sewing-machines
there on exhibition, speaking of them, said: "These machines are an
excellent invention, but have some serious defects. Now if you could
make the desired improvement, there would be more money in it than in
making these carving machines." This seemed to gently impress Singer,
and the friend advancing $40, he at once began work. According to
Singer's testimony in the Howe _vs._ Singer suits, the story of this
wonderful man runs something like this:

"I worked day and night, sleeping but three or four hours out of the
twenty-four, and eating generally but once a day, as I knew I must get a
machine made for forty dollars or not get it at all. The machine was
completed the night of the eleventh day from the day it was commenced.
About nine o'clock that evening we got the parts of the machine
together, and commenced trying it. The first attempt to sew was
unsuccessful, and the workmen, who were tired out with almost
unremitting work, left me, one by one, intimating that it was a failure.
I continued trying the machine, with Zieber, who furnished the forty
dollars, to hold the lamp for me; but in the nervous condition to which
I had been reduced, by incessant work and anxiety, was unsuccessful in
getting the machine to sew light stitches.

"About midnight I started with Zieber to the hotel, wher