file which includes the original        
illustrations4       ,see #daiec-;h4htm 
or #daiec-;h4zip3                       
7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/cache_/epu
b_/#daiec_/pg#daiec-;images4html7       
or                                      
7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/files_/#da
iec_/daiec-;h4zip7         ,images of   
the original pages are available through
       ,core ,historical ,literature of 
,agriculture 7,,chla71       ,albert ,r4
 ,mann ,library1 ,cornell ,university1  
see                                     
http3_/_/chla4library4cornell4edu_/cgi_/
t_/text_/text-idx8cchla2idno#caciffh    
and       ,internet ,archive_/,american 
,libraries1 see                         
http3_/_/archive4org_/details_/cyrushall
mccormi#jj;cass      ,,cyrus ,,hall     
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k  ,his ,life and ,work 
,illustration3 ,c4 ,h4 ,mc,cormick      
7signature7   ,,cyrus ,,hall            
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k  ,his ,life and ,work 
by  ,,herbert ,n4 ,,casson  ,author of  
,the ,romance of ,steel1 ,the ,romance  

of the ,reaper1 etc4  ,illustrated      
,illustration  ,chicago ,a4 ,c4         
,mc,clurg  ,co4 #aiji  ,copyright ,a4   
,c4 ,mc,clurg  ,co4 #aiji  ,published   
,october1 #aiji  ,entered at            
,stationers' ,hall1 ,london1 ,england   
,the ,lakeside ,press ,r4 ,r4 ,donnelley
  ,sons ,company ,chicago               
,,introduction   ,whoever wishes to     
understand the making of the ,united    
,states must read the life of ,cyrus    
,hall ,mc,cormick4 ,no other one man so 
truly represented the dawn of the       
industrial era1--the grapple of the     
pioneer with the crudities of a new     
country1 the replacing of muscle with   
machinery1 and the establishment of     
better ways and better times in farm and
 city alike4 ,beginning exactly one     
hundred years ago1 the life of          
,mc,cormick spanned the heroic period of
 our industrial advancement1 when great 
things were done by great individuals4  
,to know ,mc,cormick is to know what    
type of man it was who created the      

,united ,states of the nineteenth       
century4 ,and now that a new century has
 arrived1 with a new type of business   
development1 it may be especially       
instructive to review a life that was so
 structural and so fundamental4  ,as    
,professor ,simon ,newcomb has observed1
 ,it is impressive to think how few men 
we should have had to remove from the   
earth during the past three centuries to
 have stopped the advance of our        
civilization4 ,from this point of view1 
there are few1 if any1 who will appear  
to be more indispensable than           
,mc,cormick4 ,he was not brilliant4 ,he 
was not picturesque4 ,he was no caterer 
for fame or favor4 ,but he was as       
necessary as bread4 ,he fed his country 
as truly as ,washington created it and  
,lincoln preserved it4 ,he abolished our
 agricultural peasantry so effectively  
that we have had to import our muscle   
from foreign countries ever since4 ,and 
he added an immense province to the new 
empire of mind over matter1 the         

expansion of which has been and is now  
the highest and most important of all   
human endeavors4  ,as the master builder
 of the modern business of manufacturing
 farm machinery1 ,mc,cormick set in     
motion so many forces of human          
betterment that the fruitfulness of his 
life can never be fully told4 ,there are
 to-day in all countries more than one  
hundred thousand patents for inventions 
that were meant to lighten the labor of 
the farmer4 ,and the cereal crop of the 
world has risen with incredible gains1  
until this year its value will be not   
far from ten thousand millions of       
dollars1--very nearly the equivalent of 
all the gold in coin and jewelry and    
bullion4  ,so1 if there is not power and
 fascination in this story1 it will be  
the fault of the story-teller1 and not  
of his theme4 ,the story itself is      
destined to be told and retold4 ,it     
cannot be forgotten1 because it is one  
of those rare life-histories that blazon
 out the peculiar genius of the nation  

under the stress of a new experience4   
,as it is passed on from generation to  
generation1 it may finally be polished  
into an ,epic of the ,wheat1--the tale  
of ,man's long wrestle with ,famine1 and
 how he won at last by creating a       
world-wide system for the production and
 distribution of the ,bread4      ,h4   
,n4 ,c4  ,,chicago1 ,september #a1      
#aiji4     ,,contents       ,,chapter   
,,page        ,i4 ,,the ,,world',s      
,,need ,,of ,a ,,reaper              #a 
,,ii4 ,,the ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,home    
#ac       ,,iii4 ,,the ,,invention ,,of 
,,the ,,reaper              #bf         
,,iv4 ,,sixteen ,,years ,,of            
,,pioneering              #dh           
,v4 ,,the ,,building ,,of ,,the ,,reaper
 ,,business      #fh        ,,vi4 ,,the 
,,struggle ,,to ,,protect ,,patents     
#ia       ,,vii4 ,,the ,,evolution ,,of 
,,the ,,reaper             #aje         
,,viii4 ,,the ,,conquest ,,of ,,europe  
#abc        ,,ix4 ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,as
 ,a ,,manufacturer             #aci     

,x4 ,,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,as  
,a ,,man             #aed        ,,xi4  
,,the ,,reaper ,,and ,,the ,,nation     
#ahh       ,,xii4 ,,the ,,reaper ,,and  
,,the ,,world                #bjc       
,,xiii4 ,,give ,,us ,,this ,,day ,,our  
,,daily ,,bread        #bcd             
,,index                                 
#bdi     ,,illustrations                
,,page     ,,portrait ,,of ,,cyrus      
,,hall ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k                
,frontispiece      ,,old ,,blacksmith   
,,shop ,,on ,,walnut ,,grove ,,farm1    
,,virginia                #ad      ,,the
 ,,old ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,homestead1   
,,walnut ,,grove ,,farm1 ,,rockbridge   
,,county1 ,,virginia                    
#ah      ,,portrait ,,of ,,robert       
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k                       
#bb      ,,portrait ,,of ,,mrs4 ,,mary  
,,ann ,,hall ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k          
#bd      ,,new ,,providence ,,church1   
,,rockbridge ,,county1 ,,virginia       
#bh      ,,facsimiles ,,from            
,,manuscript ,,by ,,mr4                 

,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k1 ,,giving ,,his ,,own 
,,account ,,of ,,the ,,origin ,,of ,,the
 ,,reaper                           #cj 
,,first ,,practical ,,reaping ,,machine 
#cd      ,,the ,,field ,,on ,,which     
,,the ,,first ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,reaper
 ,,was ,,tried1         ,,walnut ,,grove
 ,,farm1 ,,virginia                     
#ch      ,,interior ,,of ,,blacksmith   
,,shop ,,in ,,which ,c4 ,h4             
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,built         ,,his 
,,first ,,reaper                        
#db      ,,reaping ,,with ,,crude       
,,knives ,,in ,,india                   
#ej      ,,reaping ,,with ,,sickles ,,in
 ,,algeria                              
#ef      ,,reaping ,,with ,,cradles ,,in
 ,,illinois                             
#fj      ,,an ,,early ,,advertisement   
,,for ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k',s ,,patent     
,,virginia ,,reaper     #fd      ,,the  
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,reaper ,,of #ahdg1  
,,on ,,which ,,seats ,,were ,,placed    
,,for         ,,the ,,driver ,,and ,,the
 ,,raker                                

#gj      ,,portrait ,,of ,,cyrus ,,hall 
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k1 #ahci                
#gf      ,,panoramic ,,view ,,showing   
,,the ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,reaper ,,works
 ,,before ,,the         ,,chicago ,,fire
 ,,of #ahga1 ,,on ,,chicago ,,river1    
,,east ,,of ,,rush         ,,street     
,,bridge                                
#hb      ,,men ,,of ,,progress          
#if      ,,the ,,first ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k
 ,,self-,,rake ,,reaping ,,machine      
#aab      ,,portrait ,,of ,,cyrus ,,hall
 ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k1 #aheh               
#abj      ,,portrait ,,of ,,cyrus ,,hall
 ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k1 #ahfg               
#acf      ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,reaper    
,,cutting ,,on ,a ,,side ,,hill ,,in    
,,pennsylvania          #add            
,,reaper ,,drawn ,,by ,,oxen ,,in       
,,algeria                               
#aej      ,,the ,,reaper ,,in ,,heavy   
,,grain                                 
#aff      ,,harvesting ,,near ,,spokane1
 ,,washington                           
#agd      ,,portrait ,,of ,,cyrus ,,hall

 ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k1 #ahhc               
#ahb      ,,the ,,works ,,of ,,the      
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,harvesting ,,machine
 ,,company            #aij              
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,reaper ,,in ,,use   
,,in ,,russia                           
#aif      ,,chart ,,showing ,,relative  
,,distribution ,,of ,,values ,,by       
,,producing         ,,countries ,,of    
#aijh ,,of ,,world',s ,,production ,,of 
,,five         ,,principal ,,grains     
#bjf      ,,chart ,,showing ,,relative  
,,values ,,in #aijh ,,of ,,the          
,,world',s         ,,production ,,of    
,,the ,,five ,,principal ,,grains       
#bjf      ,,mammoth ,,wheat-,,field ,,in
 ,,south ,,dakota ,,with ,,twenty       
,,harvesters         ,,in ,,line        
#bad      ,,harvesting ,,in ,,roumania  
#bbb      ,,harvesting ,,heavy ,,grain1 
,,south ,,america                       
#bcj      ,,indians ,,reaping ,,their   
,,harvest1 ,,white ,,earth1 ,,minnesota 
#bcf      ,a ,,harvest ,,scene ,,upon ,a
 ,,russian ,,estate                     

#bdb     ,,cyrus ,,hall                 
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,his ,,life ,,and    
,,work     ,,chapter ,i  ,,the          
,,world',s ,,need ,,of ,a ,,reaper      
,either by a very strange coincidence1  
or as a phenomenon of the instinct of   
self-preservation1 the year #ahji1 which
 was marked by famine and tragedy in    
almost every quarter of the globe1 was  
also a most prolific birthyear for men  
of genius4 ,into this year came ,poe1   
,blackie1 and ,tennyson1 the poet       
laureates of ,america1 ,scotland1 and   
,england2 ,chopin and ,mendelssohn1 the 
apostles of sweeter music2 ,lincoln1 who
 kept the ,united ,states united2 ,baron
 ,haussemann1 the beautifier of ,paris2 
,proudhon1 the prophet of communism2    
,lord ,houghton1 who did much in        
science1 and ,darwin1 who did most2     
,fitz,gerald1 who made known the        
literature of ,persia2 ,bonar1 who wrote
 hymns2 ,kinglake1 who wrote histories2 
,holmes1 who wrote sentiment and humor2 
,gladstone1 who ennobled the politics of

 the ,british empire2 and ,mc,cormick1  
who gave the world cheap bread1 and     
whose life-story is now set before us in
 the following pages4  ,none of these   
eminent men1 except ,lincoln1 began life
 in as remote and secluded a corner of  
the world as ,mc,cormick4 ,his father's 
farm was at the northern edge of        
,rockbridge ,county1 ,virginia1 in a    
long1 thin strip of fairly fertile land 
that lay crumpled between the ,blue     
,ridge on the east and the ,alleghanies 
on the west4 ,it was eighteen miles     
south of the nearest town of ,staunton1 
and a hundred miles from the ,atlantic  
coast4 ,the whole region was a quiet1   
industrious valley1 whose only local    
tragedy had been an ,indian massacre in 
#agfd1 in which eighty white settlers   
had been put to death by a horde of     
savages4  ,the older men and women of   
#ahji could remember when wolf-heads    
were used as currency2 and when the     
stocks and the ducking stool stood in   
the main street of ,staunton4 ,also1    

they were fond of telling how the       
farmers of the valley1 when they heard  
that the ,revolution had begun in       
,massachusetts1 carted #acg barrels of  
flour to ,frederick1 one hundred miles  
north1 and ordered it sent forthwith to 
the needy people of ,boston4 ,this grew 
to be one of the most popular tales of  
local history1--an epic of the patriots 
who fought for liberty1 not with        
gunpowder but flour4  ,by #ahji the more
 severe hardships of the pioneer days   
had been overcome4 ,houses were still   
built of logs1 but they were larger and 
better furnished4 ,in the ,mc,cormick   
homestead1 for instance1 there was a    
parlor which had the dignity of mahogany
 furniture1 and the luxury of books and 
a carpet4 ,the next-door county of      
,augusta boasted of thirteen carriages  
and one hundred and two cut-glass       
decanters4 ,and the chief sources of    
excitement had evolved from ,indian     
raids and wolf-hunts into elections1    
lotteries1 and litigation4  ,it was     

perhaps fortunate for the child         
,mc,cormick that he was born in such an 
out-of-the-way nook1 for the reason that
 in #ahji almost the whole civilized    
world was in a turmoil4 ,in ,england    
mobs of unemployed men and women were   
either begging for bread or smashing the
 new machines that had displaced them in
 the factories4 ,in the ,tyrol1 sixty   
thousand peasants1 who had revolted from
 the intolerable tyranny of the         
,bavarians1 were being beaten into      
submission4 ,in ,servia1 the ,turks were
 striking down a rebellion by building a
 pyramid of thirty thousand ,servian    
skulls1--a tragic pile which may still  
be seen midway between ,belgrade and    
,stamboul4 ,sweden was being trampled   
under the feet of a ,russian army2 and  
the greater part of ,holland1 ,austria1 
,germany1 and ,spain had been so        
scourged by the hosts of ,napoleon as to
 be one vast shamble of misery and      
blood4  ,in the ,united ,states there   
was no war1 but there certainly did     

exist an abnormal surplus of adversity4 
,the young republic1 which had fewer    
white citizens than the two cities of   
,new ,york and ,chicago possess to-day1 
was being terrorized in the ,west by the
 ,indian ,confederacy of ,tecumseh2 and 
its flag had been flouted by ,england1  
,france1 and the ,barbary pirates4 ,its 
total revenue was much less than the    
value of last year's hay crop in        
,vermont4 ,it was desperately poor1 with
 its people housed for the most part in 
log cabins1 clothed in homespun1 and fed
 every winter on food that would cause a
 riot in any modern penitentiary4       
,there was no such thing known1 except  
in dreams1 as the use of machinery in   
the cultivation of the soil4 ,the       
average farmer1 in all civilized        
countries1 believed that an iron plow   
would poison the soil4 ,he planted his  
grain by the phases of the moon2 kept   
his cows outside in winter2 and was     
unaware that glanders was contagious4   
,joseph ,jenks1 of ,lynn1 had invented  

the scythe in #afee1 for the more speedy
 cutting of grasse2 and a ,scotchman had
 improved it into the grain cradle4 ,but
 the greater part of the grain in all   
countries was1 a century ago1 being cut 
by the same little hand sickle that the 
,egyptians had used on the banks of the 
,nile and the ,babylonians in the valley
 of the ,euphrates4  ,the wise public   
men of that day knew how urgent was the 
need of better methods in farming4      
,fifteen years before1 ,george          
,washington had said1 ,i know of no     
pursuit in which more real and important
 service can be rendered to any country 
than by improving its agriculture4 ,but 
it was generally believed that the task 
was hopeless2 and any effort to         
encourage inventors had hitherto been a 
failure4 ,an ,english society1 for      
instance1 had offered a prize of one    
hundred and fifty dollars for a better  
method of reaping grain1 and the only   
answer it received was from a traveller 
who had seen the ,belgians reaping with 

a two-foot scythe and a cane2 the cane  
was used to push the grain back before  
it was cut1 so that more grain could be 
cut at a blow4 ,as to whether or not he 
received the prize for this discovery is
 not recorded4  ,the city of ,new ,york 
in #ahji was not larger than the ,des   
,moines of to-day1 and not nearly so    
well built and prosperous4 ,two miles to
 the north of it1 through swamps and    
forests1 lay the clearing that is now   
known as ,herald ,square4 ,there was no 
street railway1 nor cooking range1 nor  
petroleum1 nor savings bank1 nor        
friction match1 nor steel plow1 neither 
in ,new ,york nor anywhere else4 ,and   
the one pride and boast of the city was 
,fulton's new steamboat1 the ,clermont1 
which could waddle to ,albany and back1 
if all went well1 in three days or      
possibly four4  ,as for social          
conditions1 they were so hopelessly bad 
that few had the heart to improve them4 
,the house that we call a slum tenement 
to-day would have made an average       

,american hotel in #ahji4 ,rudeness and 
rowdyism were the rule4 ,drunkenness was
 as common1 and as little considered1 as
 smoking is at the present time2 there  
was no organized opposition to it of any
 kind1 except one little temperance     
society at ,saratoga4 ,there were no    
sewers1 and much of the water was drawn 
from putrid wells4 ,many faces were     
pitted with small-pox4 ,cholera and     
yellow jack or strange hunger-fevers cut
 wide swaths of death again and again   
among the helpless people4 ,there was no
 science1 of course1 and no sanitation1 
and no medical knowledge except a medley
 of drastic measures which were apt to  
be as dangerous as the disease4  ,the   
desperate struggle to survive appears to
 have been so intense that there was    
little or no social sympathy4 ,there was
 very little pity for the pauper1--he   
was auctioned off to be half starved by 
the lowest bidder2 and for the criminal 
there was no feeling except the utmost  
repulsion and abhorrence4 ,it was found1

 for instance1 in #ahji1 that in the    
jail in ,new ,york there were           
seventy-two women1 white and black1 in  
one chairless1 bedless room1 all kept in
 order by a keeper with a whip1 and fed 
like cattle from a tub of mush1 some    
eating with spoons and some with cups   
and some with their unwashed hands4 ,and
 the men's room of that jail1 says this 
report1 is worse than the women's4      
,also1 in #ahji1 the chronic quantity of
 misery had been terribly augmented by  
the ,embargo1--that most ruinous        
invention of ,president ,jefferson1     
whereby ,american ships were swept from 
the sea1 with a loss to capital of      
twelve millions a year1 and a loss to   
labor of thirty thousand places of      
employment4 ,according to this amazing  
act of political folly1 every           
market-boat sailing from ,new ,jersey to
 ,new ,york--every sailboat or          
canoe--had to give bail to the federal  
government before it dared to leave the 
dock4  ,whatever flimsy little structure

 of industry had been built up in thirty
 years of independence1 was thrown      
prostrate by this ,embargo4 ,a hundred  
thousand men stood on the streets with  
helpless hands1 begging for work or     
bread4 ,the jails were jammed with      
debtors1--#a1cjj in ,new ,york alone4   
,the newspapers were overrun by         
bankruptcy notices4 ,the coffee-houses  
were empty4 ,the ships lay mouldering at
 the docks4 ,in those hand-to-mouth days
 there was no piled-up reserve of food  
or wealth1--no range of towering        
wheat-banks at every port2 and the      
seaboard cities lay for a time as       
desolate as though they had been ravaged
 by a pestilence4  ,in that darkest year
 the hardscrabble little republic       
learned and remembered one of its most  
important lessons1--the fact that       
liberty and independence are not enough4
 ,here it was1 an absolutely free       
nation1--the only free civilized country
 in the world1--and yet as miserable and
 poor and hungry as though it were a    

mere province of a ,european empire4    
,so1 by degrees1 there came a change in 
the ,american point of view1--a swing   
from politicalism to industrialism4 ,the
 mass of the people were now surfeited  
with oratory and politics and war4 ,they
 began to settle down to hard facts and 
hard work4 ,instead of declaiming about 
the rights of man1 they began to build  
roads and weave cloth and organize stock
 companies4 ,slowly they came to realize
 that a second ,revolution must be      
wrought1--a ,revolution that would      
enable them to write a ,declaration of  
,independence against ,hunger and       
,hardship and ,hand ,labor4  ,up to the 
year #ahji the chief topics of interest 
in ,american legislatures and grocery   
stores were the blockades1 the ,embargo1
 the treaties1 the badness of ,napoleon1
 the blunders of ,jefferson1 and the    
rudeness of ,england and ,france4 ,but  
after that year the chief topics of     
interest came to be of a wholly         
different sort4 ,they were such as the  

tariff1 the currency1 the building of   
factories and canals1 the opening of    
public lands1 the problem of slavery1   
and the development of the ,west4 ,the  
hardy1 victorious little nation began to
 talk less and work more2 and so by a   
natural evolution of thought the era of 
,george ,washington and ,thomas         
,jefferson came to an end1 and the era  
of ,robert ,fulton and ,peter ,cooper   
and ,cyrus ,hall ,mc,cormick was in its 
dawn4  ,from #ahaj to #ahbj there was a 
rush to the land4 ,twenty million acres 
were sold1 in most cases for two dollars
 an acre4 ,thousands of men who had been
 sailors turned their backs on the sea  
and learned to till the soil4 ,town     
laborers1 too1 whose wages had been     
fifty cents a day1 tramped westward     
along the ,indian trails and seized upon
 scraps of land that lay ownerless4     
,nine out of ten ,americans began to    
farm with the utmost energy and         
perseverance1--but with what tools8     
,with the wooden plow1 the sickle1 the  

scythe1 and the flail1 the same rude    
hand-labor tools that the nations of    
antiquity had tried to farm with1--the  
tools of failure and slavery and famine4
  ,such was the predicament of this     
republic for the first seventy-five     
years of its life4 ,it could not develop
 beyond the struggle for food4 ,it was  
chained to the bread-line4 ,it could not
 feed itself4 ,not even nine-tenths of  
its people could produce enough grain to
 satisfy its hunger4 ,again and again1  
until #aheh1 wheat had to be imported by
 this nation of farmers4 ,so1 as we now 
look back over those basic years1 from  
the summit of the twentieth century1 we 
can see how timely an event it was that 
in the dark year #ahji the inventor of  
the ,reaper was born4     ,,chapter ,,ii
  ,,the ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,home   ,,if 
we wish to solve the riddle of the      
,reaper1--to know why it was not        
invented in any of the older nations    
that rose to greatness and perished in  
so many instances for lack of bread1--we

 can find the key to the answer in the  
home and the ancestry of the            
,mc,cormicks4 ,we shall see that the    
family into which he was born           
represented in the highest degree that  
new species of farmer1--self-reliant1   
studious1 enterprising1 and             
inventive1--which was developed in the  
pioneer period of ,american history4    
,robert ,mc,cormick1 the father of      
,cyrus1 was in his most prosperous days 
the owner of four farms1 having in all  
#a1hjj acres4 ,but his acres were only  
one-half of his interests4 ,he owned as 
well two grist-mills1 two sawmills1 a   
smelting-furnace1 a distillery1 and a   
blacksmith-shop4 ,he did much more than 
till the soil4 ,he hammered iron and    
shaped wood1 and did both well1 as those
 can testify who have seen an iron crane
 and walnut cabinet that were made by   
his hands4 ,more than this1 he invented 
new types of farm machinery1--a         
hemp-brake1 a clover huller1 a bellows1 
and a threshing-machine4  ,the little   

log workshop still stands where ,robert 
,mc,cormick and his sons hammered and   
tinkered on rainy days4 ,it is about    
twenty-four feet square1 with an uneven 
floor1 and a heavy door that was hung in
 place by home-made nails and home-made 
hinges4 ,there was a forge on either    
side of the chimney1 so that two men    
could work at the same time2 and one    
small rusted anvil is all that now      
remains of its equipment4               
,illustration3 ,,old ,,blacksmith ,,shop
 ,,on ,,walnut ,,grove ,,farm1          
,,virginia  ,in this shop the first     
practical reaping machine was built by  
,cyrus ,hall ,mc,cormick in #ahca  ,as  
for the ,mc,cormick homestead itself1   
there were so many manufacturing        
activities in it that it was literally  
half a home and half a factory4 ,shoes  
were cobbled1 cotton1 flax1 and wool    
were spun into yarn1 woven into cloth1  
and fashioned into clothes for the whole
 family4 ,the stockings and mitts and   
caps were all home-made1 and so was the 

cradle in which the eight children were 
rocked4 ,what with the moulding of      
candles1 and sewing of carpet-rags1 and 
curing of hams1 and boiling of soap1 and
 drying of herbs1 and stringing of      
apples1 the ,mc,cormick home was        
practically a school of many trades for 
the people who lived under its roof4    
,robert ,mc,cormick was an educated man4
 ,he was not at all like the poor serfs 
who tilled the soil of ,europe4 ,he     
belonged to the same general class as   
those other eminent                     
farmers1--,washington1 ,jefferson1      
,adams1 ,webster1 and ,clay4 ,he was a  
reader of deep books and a student of   
astronomy4 ,lawyers and clergymen would 
frequently drive to his house to consult
 with him4 ,and in mechanical pursuits  
he had an unusual degree of skill1      
having been born the son of a weaver and
 accustomed from babyhood to the use of 
machinery4  ,he was a gentle1 reflective
 man1 with a genius for self-reliance in
 any great or little emergency4 ,when a 

new stone church was built1 and he found
 that his pew was so dark that he could 
not see to read the hymns1 he promptly  
cut a small window in the wall1--a      
peculiarity which is still pointed out  
to visitors4 ,on another occasion1 with 
this same spirit of resourcefulness1 he 
drove the spectre of yellow fever from  
the home4 ,this dreaded disease was     
gathering in a full harvest in the      
farm-houses of the county4 ,it had cut  
down three of ,mrs4 ,mc,cormick's       
family1--her father1 mother1 and        
brother1--and had swung its fatal scythe
 toward the boy ,cyrus1 who was then    
five years of age4 ,when the doctor was 
called1 he insisted that the child      
should be bled4 ,but you bled all the   
others1 and they died1 said ,robert     
,mc,cormick quietly2 ,i'll have no more 
bleedings4 ,no remedy for yellow fever1 
except bleeding1 was known to the       
doctors of a century ago1 so ,robert    
,mc,cormick at once invented a remedy4  
,he devised a treatment of hot baths1   

hot teas1 and bitter herbs2 and ,cyrus  
was rescued from the fever and restored 
to perfect health4  ,such a man as      
,robert ,mc,cormick would have been     
practically impossible in any other     
country at that time4 ,there1 in that   
isolated hollow of the ,virginian       
mountains1 he was a citizen of a free   
country4 ,his vote had helped to make   
,thomas ,jefferson ,president4 ,he was a
 proprietor1 not a serf nor a tenant4   
,he was not compelled to divide up every
 cord of wood and bushel of wheat with a
 king or a landlord4 ,whatever he earned
 was his own4 ,he was an ,american2 and 
thus1 in the endless chain of cause and 
effect1 we can trace the origin of the  
,reaper back1 if we wish1 to ,george    
,washington and ,christopher ,columbus4 
,the whole spirit of the young republic 
pushed towards the invention of         
labor-saving machinery1--towards        
replacing the hoe with the steel plow1  
the needle with the sewing-machine1 the 
puddling-furnace with the ,bessemer     

converter1 the sickle with the ,reaper4 
,and it is fair to say that the social  
forces that represented the ,american   
spirit were focused to a remarkable     
degree in the home in which ,cyrus ,h4  
,mc,cormick had his birth and his       
education4  ,there was another          
contributing influence1 too1 in the     
making of ,mc,cormick1--the fact that   
the blood of his father and mother came 
to him in a pure strain of              
,scotch-,irish4 ,it was this inheritance
 that endowed him with the tenacity and 
unconquerable resiliency that enabled   
him not only to invent a new machine1   
but to create a new industry and hold   
fast to it against all comers4  ,the    
,scotch-,irish6 ,the full story of what 
the ,united ,states owes to this        
fire-hardened race has never yet been   
told1--it is a tale that will some day  
be expanded into a fascinating volume of
 ,american history4 ,it is not possible 
to understand either the character or   
the success of ,mc,cormick without      

knowing the ,scotch-,irish influences   
that shaped him4  ,the one man who did  
more to launch the ,scotch-,irish on    
their conquering way1 so it appears1 was
 ,john ,knox4 ,this preacher-statesman1 
who never feared the face of man1 forced
 ,queen ,mary from her throne1 and      
established self-government and a pure  
religion in ,scotland1 about            
seventy-five years after the discovery  
of ,america4 ,this brought ,english     
armies down upon the ,scotch1 and for   
very nearly two centuries the struggle  
was bitter and desperate1 the ,scotch   
refusing to compromise or to bate one   
jot or tittle of a covenant which many  
of them had signed with their blood4    
,illustration3 ,,the ,,old              
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,homestead1 ,,walnut 
,,grove ,,farm1 ,,rockbridge ,,county1  
,,virginia  ,at the height of this      
conflict1 about #cjj1jjj of these       
,scotch ,covenanters left their ravaged 
country and set out in a fleet of little
 vessels for the north of ,ireland4     

,here they settled in the barren and    
boggy province of ,ulster1 and presto6  
in the course of two generations ,ulster
 became the most prosperous1 moral1 and 
intelligent section of the ,british     
empire4 ,its people were1 beyond a      
doubt1 the best educated masses of that 
period1 either in ,great ,britain or    
anywhere else4 ,they were the most      
skilful of farmers4 ,they wove woollen  
cloth and the finest of linen4 ,they    
built schools and churches and          
factories4 ,but in #afih1 the ,english  
,parliament1 jealous of such            
progressiveness1 passed laws against    
their manufacturing1 and ,ulster was    
overrun1 as ,scotland had been1 with the
 police and the soldiery of ,england4   
,the ,scotch-,irish fought1 of course1  
even against such odds4 ,they had never 
learned how to submit4 ,but as the      
devastation of ,ulster continued1 they  
resolved to do as their                 
great-grandfathers had done1--emigrate  
to a new country4 ,they had heard good  

reports of ,america1 through several of 
their leaders who had been banished     
there by the ,british government4 ,so   
they packed up their movable property1  
and set out across the wide uncharted   
,atlantic ,ocean in an exodus for       
liberty of industry and liberty of      
conscience4  ,by the year #aggf there   
were more than #ejj1jjj of the          
,scotch-,irish in this country4 ,they   
went first across the ,alleghanies1 into
 the new lands of western ,virginia1    
,tennessee1 ,kentucky1 and ,texas4      
,beyond all question1 they were the     
hardiest and ablest founders of the     
republic4 ,they dissolved the rule of   
the ,cavaliers in ,virginia2 and in the 
little hamlet of ,mecklenburg they      
planned the first defiance of ,great    
,britain and struck the key-note of the 
,revolution4 ,they gave ,washington     
thirty-nine of his generals1 three out  
of four members of his cabinet1 and     
three out of five judges of the first   
,supreme ,court4  ,of all classes of    

settlers in the thirteen colonies1 they 
were the best prepared and most willing 
for the struggle with ,england1 for the 
reason that they had begun to fight for 
liberty two hundred and fifty years     
before the battle of ,bunker ,hill4     
,they were not amateurs in the work of  
revolution4 ,they were veterans4 ,and   
so1 because they were pioneers and      
patriots by nature and inheritance1 the 
,scotch-,irish became1 in the words of  
,john ,fiske1 the main strength of our  
,american democracy4  ,naturally1 they  
were pathfinders in industry as well as 
in the matter of self-government1 as    
many of them had been manufacturers in  
,ireland4 ,thousands of the best        
manufacturers and weavers in ,ulster    
went to seek their bread in ,america1   
writes ,froude1 and they carried their  
art and their tools with them4 ,in one  
instance1 by the failure of the woollen 
trade1 #bj1jjj of them were driven to   
the ,united ,states4 ,as might have been
 expected1 these ,scotch-,irish         

,americans have produced not only five  
of our ,presidents1 but also such       
merchants as ,a4 ,t4 ,stewart2 such     
publishers as ,harper1 ,bonner1         
,scribner1 and ,mc,clurg2 and such      
inventors as ,joseph ,henry1 ,morse1    
,fulton1 and ,mc,cormick4 ,they were    
possibly the first large body of people 
who had ever been driven from           
manufacturing into farming2 and it was  
not at all surprising1 therefore1 that  
the new profession of making farm       
machinery should have been born upon a  
,scotch-,irish farm4  ,as for ,cyrus ,h4
 ,mc,cormick1 he represented the fourth 
generation of ,american ,mc,cormicks4   
,his great-grandfather1 ,thomas         
,mc,cormick1 quit ,ulster in the        
troublous days of #agce4 ,he was a      
soldier at ,londonderry2 and later      
became noted as an ,indian fighter in   
,pennsylvania4 ,his son ,robert1 who    
moved south to ,virginia1 carried a     
rifle for ,american independence at the 
battle of ,guilford ,court-house1 ,north

 ,carolina1 in #agha4 ,he was a farmer  
and weaver by occupation1 a typical     
,ulsterman1 whose farm was a busy       
workshop of invention and manufacturing4
  ,illustration3 ,,robert               
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k  ,on his mother's     
side1 too1 ,cyrus ,mc,cormick had behind
 him a line of battling ,scotch-,irish4 
,she was the daughter of a ,virginian   
farmer named ,patrick ,hall1 one of     
whose forefathers had been driven out of
 ,armagh by the massacre of #afda4      
,patrick ,hall was the leader of the    
old-school ,presbyterians in his region 
of ,virginia4 ,so rigid was he in his   
loyalty to the faith of the             
,covenanters1 that once when a new      
minister came to preach in the little   
kirk1 and lined out a ,watts hymn       
instead of a psalm of ,david1 ,patrick  
,hall picked up his hat and strode out1 
followed by a goodly part of the        
congregation4 ,he at once built upon his
 own farm a new church of limestone1 in 
which no such levity as hymn-singing was

 permitted4  ,cyrus ,mc,cormick's mother
 inherited her father's strength of     
character1 without his severity4 ,she   
was a thorough ,celt1 impulsive1        
free-spoken1 and highly imaginative4    
,judging from the stories about her that
 are remembered in the neighborhood1 it 
is evident that she was a woman of      
exceptional quality of mind4 ,she was   
not as studious as her husband1 but     
quicker and more ambitious4 ,as a girl1 
she had been strikingly handsome1 with a
 tall and commanding figure4 ,she was   
saving and shrewd1 with the             
,scotch-,irish passion for getting      
ahead4 ,she allowed no idle moments in  
the home4 ,if the children were dressed 
before breakfast was ready1 out they    
went to cut wood or weed the garden4    
,she knew the profession of housekeeping
 in all its old-fashioned complexity2   
and she worked at it from dawn to       
starlight1 with no rest except the      
relief of flitting from one task to     
another4  ,mrs4 ,mc,cormick came riding 

by our farm one day1 said an aged       
neighbor1 at a time when my father and  
mother were hurrying to save some hay   
from a coming rain-storm4 ',if you don't
 hurry up you'll be too late1' she said2
 and then tying her horse to the fence  
she picked up a rake and helped with the
 hay until it was all in the barn4      
,that's the kind of woman she           
was1--always full of energy and ready to
 help4  ,illustration3 ,,mrs4 ,,mary    
,,ann ,,hall ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k  ,but    
,mrs4 ,mc,cormick was much more than    
industrious4 ,she had a fine pride in   
the ownership of beautiful              
things1--flowers and handsome clothes   
and silverware and mahogany furniture4  
,her flock of peacocks was one of the   
sights of the county2 and in her later  
life1 when she was for ten years the    
sole manager of the farm1 she was       
accustomed to drive about in a wonderful
 carriage with folding steps1 drawn by  
prancing horses and driven by a stately 
colored coachman1--an equipage of so    

much style and grandeur that it is still
 remembered by the neighbors4 ,she loved
 to drive fast1 said one old lady2 and  
,i was much impressed as a little girl  
with the startling way in which her     
horses would come clattering and dancing
 up to the door4  ,thus there was in the
 ,mc,cormick home the spiritual and     
imaginative element that was vital to   
the development of a man whose whole    
life was a battle against the prejudices
 and impossibilities of the world4      
,cyrus ,mc,cormick was predestined1 we  
may legitimately say1 by the conditions 
of his birth1 to accomplish his great   
work4 ,from his father he had a specific
 training as an inventor2 from his      
mother he had executive ability and     
ambition2 from his ,scotch-,irish       
ancestry he had the dogged tenacity that
 defied defeat2 and from the            
wheat-fields that environed his home    
came the call for the ,reaper1 to       
lighten the heavy drudgery of the       
harvest4     ,,chapter ,,iii  ,,the     

,,invention ,,of ,,the ,,reaper   ,not  
far from the ,mc,cormick homestead was  
the ,old ,field ,school1 built of logs  
and with a part of one of the upper logs
 cut out to provide a window4 ,here the 
boy ,cyrus sat on a slab bench and      
studied five books as though they were  
the only books in the world1--,murray's 
,grammar1 ,dilworth's ,arithmetic1      
,webster's ,spelling ,book1 the ,shorter
 ,catechism1 and the ,bible4  ,he was a 
strong-limbed1 self-contained1          
serious-natured boy1 always profoundly  
intent upon what he was doing4 ,even at 
the age of fifteen he was inventive4    
,one winter morning he brought to school
 a most elaborate map of the world1     
showing the two hemispheres side by     
side4 ,first he had drawn it in ink upon
 paper1 then pasted the paper upon      
linen1 and hung it upon two varnished   
rollers4 ,this map1 which is still      
preserved1 reveals a remarkable degree  
of skill and patience2 and the fact that
 a mere lad could conceive of and create

 such a map was a week's wonder in the  
little community4 ,that boy1 declared   
the teacher1 is beyond me4  ,at about   
this time he undertook to do a man's    
work in the reaping of the wheat1 and   
here he discovered that to swing a      
cradle against a field of grain under a 
hot summer sun was of all farming       
drudgeries the severest4 ,both his back 
and his brain rebelled against it4 ,one 
thing at least he could do1--he could   
make a smaller cradle1 that would be    
easier to swing2 and he did this1       
whittling away in the evening in the    
little log workshop4  ,cyrus was a      
natural mechanical genius1 said an old  
laborer who had worked on the           
,mc,cormick farm4 ,he was always trying 
to invent something4 ,he was a young man
 of great and superior talents1 said a  
neighbor4 ,at eighteen he studied the   
profession of surveying1 and made a     
quadrant for his own use4 ,this is still
 preserved1 and bears witness to his    
good workmanship4 ,from this time until 

his twenty-second year1 there is nothing
 of exceptional interest recorded of    
him4 ,he had grown to be a tall1        
muscular1 dignified young man4 ,the     
neighbors1 in later years1 remembered   
him mainly because he was so well       
dressed on ,sundays1 in broadcloth coat 
and beaver hat1 and because of his fine 
treble voice as he led the singing in   
the country church4  ,even as a youth he
 was absorbed in his inventions and     
business projects4 ,he had no time for  
gayeties4 ,in a letter written from     
,kentucky to a cousin1 ,adam            
,mc,chesney1 in #ahca1 he says3 ,mr4    
,hart has two fine daughters1 right     
pretty1 very smart1 and as rich probably
 as you would wish2 but alas6 ,i have   
other business to attend to4            
,illustration3 ,,new ,,providence       
,,church1 ,,rockbridge ,,county1        
,,virginia  ,ever since ,cyrus was a    
child of seven1 it had been the most    
ardent ambition of his father to invent 
a ,reaper4 ,he had made one and tried it

 in the harvest of #ahaf1 but it was a  
failure4 ,it was a fantastic machine1   
pushed from behind by two horses4 ,a row
 of short curved sickles were fastened  
to upright posts1 and the grain was     
whirled against them by revolving rods4 
,it was highly ingenious1 but the sinewy
 grain merely bunched and tangled around
 its futile sickles2 and the poor old   
,reaper that would not reap was hauled  
off the field1 to become one of the     
jokes of the neighborhood4  ,this       
failure did not dishearten ,robert      
,mc,cormick4 ,he persevered with        
,scotch-,irish tenacity1 but in secret4 
,hurt by the jests of the neighbors1 he 
worked thenceforward with the door of   
his workshop locked1 or at night4 ,he   
hid his ,reaper1 too1 upon a shelf      
inside the workshop4 ,he allowed no one 
to see what he was doing1 except his    
sons1 said ,davis ,mc,cormick1 who is   
now the only living person in the       
neighborhood with a memory that extends 
back to that early period4 ,yes1 said   

this lone octogenarian1 ,robert         
,mc,cormick was a good man1 a true      
,christian2 and he worked for years to  
make a ,reaper4 ,he always kept his     
plans to himself1 and he told his wife  
that if visitors came to the house1 she 
should send one of the children to fetch
 him1 and not allow the visitors to come
 to his workshop4  ,by the early ,summer
 of #ahca1 ,robert ,mc,cormick had so   
improved his ,reaper that he gave it a  
trial in a field of grain4 ,again it was
 a failure4 ,it did cut the grain fairly
 well1 but flung it in a tangled heap4  
,as much as this had been done before by
 other machines1 and it was not enough4 
,to cut the grain was only one-half of  
the problem2 the other half of the      
problem1 which up to this time no one   
had solved1 was how to properly handle  
and deliver the grain after it was cut4 
,illustration3 ,,facsimiles ,,from      
,,manuscript ,,by ,,mr4                 
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,giving ,,his ,,own  
,,account ,,of ,,the ,,origin ,,of ,,the

 ,,reaper  ,by this time ,cyrus had     
become as much of a ,reaper enthusiast  
as his father4 ,also1 he had been       
studying out the reasons for his        
father's failure1 and working out in his
 mind a new plan of construction4 ,how  
this new plan was slowly moulded into   
shape by his creative fancy is now told 
for the first time4 ,a manuscript1      
written by ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick       
himself1 and which has not hitherto been
 made public1 gives a complete          
description of the process of thought by
 which he became the inventor of the    
first practical ,reaper4 ,this account1 
it may be said in explanation1 was      
written by ,mr4 ,mc,cormick shortly     
before the ,chicago fire of #ahga4 ,it  
was to be published at that time1 and   
was in type when the fire came and left 
not a vestige of the printery4 ,the     
original manuscript was preserved2 but  
the labor of rebuilding his factory     
prevented him from carrying out his     
original design4 ,he wholly forgot his  

authorship in the troubles of his city2 
and so his own story of his invention   
lay untouched among the private papers  
of the family for thirty-eight years4   
,robert ,mc,cormick1 says this document1
 being satisfied that his principle of  
operation could not succeed1 laid aside 
and abandoned the further prosecution of
 his idea4 ,he had labored for fifteen  
years to make a ,reaper that would reap1
 and he had failed4  ,at this point     
,cyrus took up the work that his father 
had reluctantly abandoned4 ,he had never
 seen or heard of any ,reaper           
experiments except those of his father2 
but he believed he saw a better way1 and
 devoted himself most laboriously to the
 discovery of a new principle of        
operation4  ,he showed his originality  
at the outset by beginning where his    
father and all other ,reaper inventors  
had left off1--with the cutting of grain
 that lay in a fallen and tangled mass4 
,he faced the problem worst end first4  
,the ,reaper that would cut such grain1 

he believed1 must first separate the    
grain that is to be cut from the grain  
that is left standing4 ,it must have at 
the end of its knife a curved arm--a    
divider4 ,this idea was simple1 but in  
the long history of harvesting grain no 
one had thought of it before4  ,next1 in
 order to cut this snarled and prostrate
 grain without missing any of it1 the   
knife must have two motions3 its forward
 motion1 as drawn by the horses1 and    
also a slashing sideways motion of its  
own4 ,how was this to be done8          
,mc,cormick's first thought was to cut  
the grain with a whirling wheel-knife1  
but this plan presented too many new    
difficulties4 ,suddenly the idea came to
 him--why not have a straight blade1    
with a back and forward motion of its   
own8 ,this was the birth-idea of the    
reciprocating blade1 which has been used
 to this day on all grain-cutting       
machines4 ,it was not1 like the divider1
 a wholly new conception2 but ,cyrus    
,mc,cormick conceived it independently1 

and did more than any one else to       
establish it as the basic feature of the
 ,reaper4  ,the third problem was the   
supporting of the grain while it was    
being cut1 so that the knife would not  
merely flatten it to the ground4        
,mc,cormick solved this by placing a row
 of fingers at the edge of the blade4   
,these fingers projected a few inches1  
in such a way that the grain was caught 
and held in position to be cut4 ,the    
shape of these fingers was afterwards   
much improved1 to prevent wet grain from
 clogging the slit in which the knife   
slid back and forth4  ,a fourth device  
was still needed to lift up and         
straighten the grain that had fallen4   
,this was done by a simple revolving    
reel1 such as fishermen use for the     
drying of their nets4 ,several of the   
abortive ,reapers that had been tried   
elsewhere had possessed some sort of a  
reel2 but ,mc,cormick made his much     
larger than any other1 so that no grain 
was too low to escape it4  ,the fifth   

factor in this assembling of a ,reaper  
was the platform1 to catch the cut grain
 as it fell2 and from which the grain   
was to be raked off by a man who walked 
alongside of it4 ,the sixth was the idea
 of putting the shafts on the outside1  
or stubble side1 of the ,reaper1 making 
it a side-draught1 instead of a push    
machine4 ,and the seventh and final     
factor was the building of the whole    
,reaper upon one big driving-wheel1     
which carried the weight and operated   
the reel and cutting-blade4 ,the        
grain-side end of the blade was at first
 supported by a wooden runner1 and      
later--the following year--by a small   
wheel4  ,illustration3 ,,first          
,,practical ,,reaping ,,machine  ,built 
and used by ,cyrus ,hall ,mc,cormick on 
,walnut ,grove ,farm1 ,va41 in #ahca    
,such was the making of the first       
practical ,reaper in the history of the 
world4 ,it was as clumsy as a ,red      
,river ox-cart2 but it reaped4 ,it was  
made on right lines4 ,the new principle 

that the youth ,mc,cormick laboriously  
conceived in the little log workshop    
became the basic type of a wholly new   
machine4 ,it has never been displaced4  
,since then there have been #ab1jjj     
patents issued for reaper and mower     
inventions2 but not one of them has     
overthrown the type of the first        
,mc,cormick ,reaper4 ,not one of the    
seven factors that he assembled has been
 thrown aside2 and the most elaborate   
self-binder of to-day is a direct       
descendant of the crude machine that was
 thus created by a young ,virginian     
farmer in #ahca4  ,the young inventor   
toiled laboriously1 he says1 to complete
 his ,reaper in time for the harvest of 
#ahca4 ,he was very nearly too late1 but
 a small patch of wheat was left        
standing at his request2 and one day in 
,july1 with no spectators except his    
parents and his excited brothers and    
sisters1 ,cyrus put a horse between the 
shafts of his ,reaper1 and drove against
 the yellow grain4 ,the reel revolved   

and swept the gentle wheat downwards    
upon the knife4 ,click6 ,click6 ,click6 
,the white steel blade shot back and    
forth4 ,the grain was cut4 ,it fell upon
 the platform in a shimmering golden    
swath4 ,from here it was raked off by a 
young laborer named ,john ,cash4 ,it was
 a roughly done specimen of reaping1 no 
doubt4 ,the reel and the divider worked 
poorly4 ,but for a preliminary test it  
was a magnificent success4 ,here1 at    
last1 was a ,reaper that reaped1 the    
first that had ever been made in any    
country4  ,the scene of this first      
reaping by horse-power was then1 and is 
to-day1 one of unusual beauty4 ,the     
field is near by the farm-house1 rolling
 in several undulations to the rim of a 
winding little rivulet4 ,in the centre  
of the field is a single tree1 a        
wide-branched white oak1 which was      
probably born before the first colonists
 arrived at ,jamestown4 ,and in the     
background1 not more than two miles     
distant1 rise the tall and jagged crags 

of the ,blue ,ridge1 twelve sharp peaks 
flung high from deep ravines1 on which  
the lights and shades are incessantly   
changing1--a most impressive staging for
 the first act of the drama of the      
,reaper4  ,this ,mc,cormick farm1 having
 #fjj acres of land1 is now owned by the
 ,mc,cormick family4 ,the whole region  
has changed but little4 ,once1 and once 
only1 the great noisy outside world     
surged into this quiet valley1--when a  
,union army under ,general ,butler      
clattered through it1 burning and       
destroying1 and so close to the         
,mc,cormick homestead that the blue     
uniforms could be seen from its front   
windows4 ,doubtless1 when farmers have  
time to take a proper pride in the      
history of their own profession1 they   
will visit the ,mc,cormick farm as a    
spot of historic interest1--the place   
where the ,new ,agriculture was born4   
,it is no longer a difficult place to   
reach1 as it is now possible to lunch   
to-day in either ,chicago or ,new ,york 

and to-morrow in the same comfortable   
red brick farm-house that sheltered the 
,mc,cormicks in #ahca4  ,several days   
after the advent of the ,reaper on the  
home farm1 ,cyrus ,mc,cormick had       
improved its reel and divider1 and was  
ready for a public exhibition at the    
near-by village of ,steele's ,tavern4   
,here1 with two horses1 he cut six acres
 of oats in an afternoon1 a feat which  
was attested in court in #ahdh by his   
brothers ,william and ,leander1 and also
 by three of the villagers1 ,john       
,steele1 ,eliza ,steele1 and ,dr4 ,n4   
,m4 ,hitt4 ,such a thing at that time   
was incredible4 ,it was equal to the    
work of six laborers with scythes1 or   
twenty-four peasants with sickles4 ,it  
was as marvellous as though a man should
 walk down the street carrying a        
dray-horse on his back4  ,the next year1
 #ahcb1 ,cyrus ,mc,cormick came out with
 his ,reaper into what seemed to him the
 wide1 wide world4 ,he gave a public    
exhibition near the little town of      

,lexington1 which lay eighteen miles    
south of the farm4 ,fully one hundred   
people were present--several political  
leaders of local fame1 farmers1         
professors1 laborers1 and a group of    
negroes who frolicked and shouted in    
uncomprehending joy4  ,at the start1 it 
appeared as though this new contraption 
of a machine1 which was unlike anything 
else that human eyes had ever seen1 was 
to prove a grotesque failure4 ,the field
 was hilly1 and the ,reaper jolted and  
slewed so violently that ,john ,ruff1   
the owner of the field1 made a loud     
protest4  ,here6 ,this won't do1 he     
shouted4 ,stop your horses4 ,you are    
rattling the heads off my wheat4        
,illustration3 ,,the ,,field ,,on       
,,which ,,the ,,first ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k 
,,reaper ,,was ,,tried1 ,,walnut ,,grove
 ,,farm1 ,,virginia  ,this was a hard   
blow to the young farmer-inventor4      
,several laborers1 who were openly      
hostile to the machine as their rival in
 the labor market1 began to jeer with   

great satisfaction4 ,it's a humbug1 said
 one4 ,give me the old cradle yet1 boys1
 said another4 ,these men were hardened 
and bent and calloused with the drudgery
 of harvesting4 ,they worked twelve and 
fourteen hours a day for less than a    
nickel an hour4 ,but they were as       
resentful toward a ,reaper as the       
drivers of stage-coaches were to        
railroads1 or as the hackmen of to-day  
are towards automobiles4  ,at this      
moment of apparent defeat1 a man of     
striking appearance1 who had been       
watching the floundering of the ,reaper 
with great interest1 came to the rescue4
  ,i'll give you a fair chance1 young   
man1 he said4 ,that field of wheat on   
the other side of the fence belongs to  
me4 ,pull down the fence and cross over4
  ,this friend in need was the          
,honorable ,william ,taylor1 who was    
several years later a candidate for the 
governorship of ,virginia4 ,his offer   
was at once accepted by ,cyrus          
,mc,cormick1 and as the second field was

 fairly level1 he laid low six acres of 
wheat before sundown4 ,this was no more 
than he had done in #ahca1 but on this  
occasion he had conquered a larger and  
more incredulous audience4  ,after the  
sixth acre was cut1 the ,reaper was     
driven with great acclaim into the town 
of ,lexington and placed on view in the 
court-house square4 ,here it was        
carefully studied by a ,professor       
,bradshaw of the ,lexington ,female     
,academy1 who finally announced in a    
loud and emphatic voice1                
,this--machine--is worth--a             
hundred--thousand--dollars4 ,this       
praise1 from a scholar and a gentleman1 
as ,mc,cormick afterwards called him1   
was very encouraging4 ,and still more so
 was the quiet word of praise from      
,robert ,mc,cormick1 who said1 ,it makes
 me feel proud to have a son do what ,i 
could not do4  ,of all who were present 
on that memorable summer day1 not one is
 now alive4 ,neither in ,lexington nor  
in ,staunton--the towns that lay on     

either side of the ,mc,cormick farm--can
 we find any one who saw the ,reapers of
 #ahca and #ahcb4 ,but among those who  
testified at various lawsuits that they 
had seen the ,lexington ,reaper operate 
were ,colonel ,james ,mc,dowell1        
,colonel ,john ,bowyer1 ,colonel ,samuel
 ,reed1 ,colonel ,a4 ,t4 ,barclay1 ,dr4 
,taylor1 ,william ,taylor1 ,john ,ruff1 
,john ,w4 ,houghawout1 ,john ,steele1   
,james ,moore1 and ,andrew ,wallace4    
,there was an old lady1 also1 in #ahhe1 
,miss ,polly ,carson1 who told how she  
had seen the ,reaper hauled along the   
road by two horses1 which1 she said1 had
 to be led by a couple of darkies1      
because they were scared to death by the
 racket of the machine4 ,and she        
expressed the general unbelief of that  
day1 very likely1 by saying1 ,i thought 
it was a right smart curious sort of a  
thing1 but that it wouldn't come to     
much4  ,cyrus ,mc,cormick was far from  
being the first to secure a ,reaper     
patent4 ,he was the forty-seventh4      

,twenty-three others in ,europe and     
twenty-three in the ,united ,states had 
invented machines of varying            
inefficiency2 but there was not one of  
these which could have been improved    
into the proper shape4 ,without any     
exception1 the rival manufacturers who  
rose up in later years to fight         
,mc,cormick did him the homage of       
copying his ,reaper2 and certainly none 
of them attempted to offer for sale any 
type of machine that was invented prior 
to #ahca4  ,a careful study of the      
pre-,mc,cormick ,reapers reveals one    
fault common to all1--they were made by 
theorists1 to cut ideal grain in ideal  
fields4 ,some of them1 if grain always  
grew straight and was perfectly willing 
to be cut1 might have been fairly       
useful4 ,they assuredly might have      
succeeded if grain grew in a parlor4    
,but to cut actual grain in actual      
fields was another matter1 and quite    
beyond their power4 ,none of them1      
apparently1 knew the fundamental        

difference between a ,reaper and a      
mower4 ,they did not observe that grain 
is easy to cut but hard to handle1 while
 grass is hard to cut and easy to       
handle2 and they persisted in the       
assumption that grain could be reaped by
 a mower4  ,illustration3 ,,interior    
,,of ,,blacksmith ,,shop ,,in ,,which   
,c4 ,h4 ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,built ,,his 
,,first ,,reaper  ,these inventors who  
failed1 but who doubtless blazed the way
 by their failures to the final success 
of ,mc,cormick1 were not1 as he was1 a  
practical farmer on rough and hilly     
ground4 ,one was a clergyman1 who       
devised a six-wheel chariot1 with many  
pairs of scissors1 and which was to be  
pushed by horses and steered by a rudder
 that in rough ground would jerk a man's
 arm out of joint4 ,a second of these   
inventors was a sailor1 who experimented
 with a few stalks of straight grain    
stuck in gimlet holes in his workshop   
floor4 ,a third was an actor1 who had   
built a ,reaper that would cut          

artificial grain on the stage4 ,a fourth
 was a school-teacher1 a fifth a        
machinist1 and so on4 ,in no instance   
can we find that any one of these       
pre-,mc,cormick inventors was a farmer1 
who therefore knew what practical       
difficulties had to be overcome4  ,the  
farmers1 on the other hand1 thought     
first of these difficulties and scoffed 
at the parlor inventors4 ,the editor of 
the ,farmer's ,register spoke the       
opinion of most farmers of that time    
when he said that an insurmountable     
difficulty will sometimes be found to   
the use of reaping-machines in the state
 of the growing crops1 which may be     
twisted and laid flat in every possible 
direction4 ,a whole crop may be ravelled
 and beaten down by high winds and heavy
 rains in a single day4  ,one of the    
basic reasons1 therefore1 for the       
success of ,cyrus ,mc,cormick was the   
fact that he was not a parlor inventor4 
,he was primarily a farmer4 ,he knew    
what wheat was and how it grew4 ,and his

 first aim in making a reaper was not to
 produce a mechanical curiosity1 nor to 
derive a fortune from the sale of his   
patent1 but to cut the grain on his     
father's farm4  ,so far as the          
pre-,mc,cormick inventors are concerned1
 the whole truth about them seems to be 
that a few invented fractional mowers or
 reapers that were fairly good as far as
 they went1 and that most of them       
invented nothing that became of any     
lasting value4 ,nine-tenths of them were
 pathfinders in the sense that they     
showed what ought not to be done4  ,very
 little attention would have been given 
them had it not been for the persistent 
effort made by rival manufacturers to   
detract from ,mc,cormick's reputation as
 an inventor4 ,this they did in a wholly
 impersonal manner1 of course1 so that  
they should not be obliged to pay him   
royalties1 and because his prestige as  
the original inventor of the ,reaper    
enabled him to outsell them among the   
farmers4  ,but now that the competition 

of ,reaper manufacturers has been       
tempered by consolidation1 the time has 
arrived to do justice to ,cyrus         
,mc,cormick as the inventor of the      
,reaper4 ,the stock phrase1--,he was    
less of an inventor than a business man1
 which was so widely used against him   
during his lifetime1 ought now in all   
fairness to be laid aside4 ,the fact is1
 as we have seen1 that he was schooled  
as a boy into an inventive habit of     
mind2 and that before his invention of  
the ,reaper1 he had devised a new       
grain-cradle1 a hillside plow1 and a    
self-sharpening plow4 ,there is abundant
 corroborative evidence in the letters  
which he wrote to his father and        
brothers1 instructing them to make the  
divider and wheel post longer1 to put   
the crank one inch farther back1 and so 
forth4 ,also1 in the will of ,robert    
,mc,cormick1 there is a clause          
authorizing the executor to pay a       
royalty to ,cyrus of fifteen dollars    
apiece on whatever machines were sold by

 the family during that season1 showing 
that the father1 who of all men was in  
the best position to know1 regarded     
,cyrus as the inventor4  ,of all the    
manufacturers who fought ,mc,cormick in 
the patent suits of early days1 three   
only have survived to see the passing of
 the ,mc,cormick ,centenary--,ralph     
,emerson1 ,c4 ,w4 ,marsh1 and ,william  
,n4 ,whiteley4 ,in response to a        
question as to ,cyrus ,mc,cormick's     
place as an inventor1 ,mr4 ,whiteley    
said3 ,mc,cormick invented the divider  
and the practical reel2 and he was the  
first man to make the ,reaper a success 
in the field4 ,mr4 ,marsh said3 ,he was 
a meritorious inventor1 although he     
combined the ideas of other men with his
 own2 and he produced the first         
practical side-delivery machine in the  
market4 ,and ,mr4 ,emerson said3 ,the   
enemies of ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick have  
said that he was not an inventor1 but ,i
 say that he was an inventor of         
eminence4  ,thus it appears that the    

invention of the ,reaper was not in any 
sense unique2 it came about by an       
evolutionary process such as produced   
all other great discoveries and         
inventions4 ,first come the dreamers1   
the theorists1 the heroic innovators who
 awaken the world's brain upon a new    
line of thought4 ,then come the pioneers
 who solve certain parts of the problem 
and make suggestions that are of        
practical value4 ,and then1 in the      
fulness of time1 comes one masterful man
 who is more of a doer than a dreamer1  
who works out the exact combination of  
ideas to produce the result1 and        
establishes the new product as a        
necessary part of the equipment of the  
whole human family4  ,cyrus ,hall       
,mc,cormick invented the ,reaper4 ,he   
did more--he invented the business of   
making ,reapers and selling them to the 
farmers of ,america and foreign         
countries4 ,he held preminence in this  
line1 with scarcely a break1 until his  
death2 and the manufacturing plant that 

he founded is to-day the largest of its 
kind4 ,thus1 it is no more than an exact
 statement of the truth to say that he  
did more than any other member of the   
human race to abolish the famine of the 
cities and the drudgery of the farm--to 
feed the hungry and straighten the bent 
backs of the world4     ,,chapter ,,iv  
,,sixteen ,,years ,,of ,,pioneering     
,in #ahca ,cyrus ,mc,cormick had his    
,reaper1 but the great world knew       
nothing of it4 ,none of the #hej papers 
that were being printed at this time in 
the ,united ,states had given the notice
 of its birth4 ,there was the young     
inventor1 with the one machine that the 
human race most needed1 in a remote     
cleft of the ,virginian mountains1 four 
days' journey from ,richmond1 and wholly
 without any experience or money or     
influence that would enable him to      
announce what he had done4  ,he had such
 a problem to solve as no inventor of   
to-day or to-morrow can have4 ,he was   
not living1 as we are1 in an age of     

faith and optimism--when every new      
invention is welcomed with a shout of   
joy4 ,he confronted a sceptical and     
slow-moving little world1 so different  
from that of to-day that it requires a  
few lines of portrayal4  ,in general1 it
 was a non-inventive and hand-labor     
world4 ,there were few factories1 except
 for the weaving of cotton and woollen  
cloth4 ,there was no sewing-machine1 nor
 ,bessemer converter1 nor ,hoe press1   
nor telegraph1 nor photography4 ,it was 
still the age of the tallow candle and  
stage-coach and tinder-box4 ,practically
 no such thing was known as farm        
machinery4 ,jethro ,wood had invented   
his iron plow1 but he was at this time  
dying in poverty1 never having been able
 to persuade farmers to abandon their   
plows of wood4 ,as for steel plows1 no  
one in any country had conceived of such
 a thing4 ,james ,oliver was a          
bare-footed school-boy in ,scotland and 
,john ,deere was a young blacksmith in  
,vermont4 ,plows were pulled by oxen and

 horses1 not by slaves1 as in certain   
regions of ,asia2 but almost every other
 sort of farm work was done by hand4    
,railways were few and of little        
account4 ,eighty-two miles of flimsy    
track had been built in the ,united     
,states2 the ,baltimore and ,ohio was   
making a solemn experiment with         
locomotives1 horses1 and sails1 to      
ascertain which one of these three was  
the best method of propulsion4 ,the     
first really successful ,american       
locomotive was put on the rails in this 
year2 and ,professor ,joseph ,henry set 
up his trial telegraph wire and gave the
 electric current its first lesson in   
obedience4  ,there was no free library  
in the world in #ahca4 ,the first one   
was started in ,peterborough1 ,n4 ,h41  
two years later4 ,in ,england1 electoral
 reform had not begun1 a ,general ,fast 
had been ordered because of the         
prevalence of cholera1 and a four-pound 
loaf cost more than the day's pay of a  
laborer4 ,the ,united ,states was a     

twenty-four-,state republic1 with very  
little knowledge of two-thirds of its   
own territory4 ,the source of the       
,mississippi ,river1 for instance1 was  
unknown4 ,to send a letter from ,boston 
to ,new ,york cost the price of half a  
bushel of wheat4 ,there was no newspaper
 in ,wisconsin and no house in ,iowa4   
,the first sale of lots was announced in
 ,chicago1 but there was then no public 
building in that hamlet1 nothing but a  
few log cabins in a swampy waste that   
was populous only in wild ducks1 bears1 
and wolves4 ,forty of the latter were   
shot by the villagers in #ahcd4         
,illustration3 ,,reaping ,,with ,,crude 
,,knives ,,in ,,india  ,of the many     
eminent men who had the same birth-year 
as ,mc,cormick1 ,poe and ,mendelssohn   
had begun to be known as men of genius  
in #ahca4 ,but ,lincoln was then a sort 
of clerk in a village store4 ,darwin was
 setting out on ,h4 ,m4 ,s4 ,beagle upon
 his first voyage as a naturalist4      
,gladstone was a student at ,oxford4    

,proudhon was working at the case as a  
poor printer4 ,oliver ,wendell ,holmes  
was somewhat aimlessly studying law4    
,chopin was on his way to ,paris4       
,tennyson had left college1 without a   
degree1 to devote his life to the       
service of poetry4 ,three great men who 
had been born earlier1 ,garrison1       
,whittier1 and ,mazzini1 began their    
life-work in #ahca4 ,and science was a  
babe in the cradle4 ,herbert ,spencer1  
,virchow and ,pasteur were learning the 
multiplication table4 ,huxley was six   
and ,bertheiot four4  ,there was no     
,kansas1 ,minnesota1 ,nebraska1         
,california1 nor ,texas4 ,virginia was  
the main wheat ,state4 ,local famines   
were of yearly occurrence4 ,the period  
between #ahaf and #ahbj had been one of 
severe depression and was bitterly      
referred to as the                      
#ahjj-;and-starve-to-death period4      
,seventy-five thousand people had been  
imprisoned for debt in ,new ,york in a  
single year1 and a workingmen's party   

had sprung up as a protest against such 
intolerable conditions4 ,even as late as
 #ahcg there was a bread riot in the    
city of ,new ,york4 ,five thousand      
hungry rioters broke into the warehouse 
of ,eli ,hart  ,company1 and destroyed a
 great quantity of flour and wheat4     
,five hundred barrels of flour were     
thrown from the windows2 and women and  
children gathered it up greedily from   
the dirty gutter where it fell4  ,so the
 world that confronted ,cyrus           
,mc,cormick was not a friendly world of 
science and invention and prosperity4   
,it was slow and dull and largely       
hostile to whoever would teach it a     
better way of working4 ,and we shall now
 see by what means ,mc,cormick compelled
 it to accept his ,reaper1 and to give  
him the credit and pay for his          
invention4  ,he was resolved from the   
first not to be robbed and flung aside  
as most inventors had been4 ,whitney1   
the inventor of the cotton-gin1 had said
 in #ahab3 ,the whole amount ,i have    

received is not equal to the value of   
the labor saved in one hour by my       
machines now in use4 ,fulton had died at
 fifty1 plagued and plundered by        
imitators4 ,kay1 ,jacquard1 ,heathcoat1 
and ,hargreaves1 inventors of weaving   
machinery1 were mobbed4 ,arkwright's    
mill was burned by incendiaries4        
,gutenberg1 ,cort1 and ,jethro ,wood    
lost their fortunes4 ,palissy was thrown
 into the ,bastile4 ,and ,goodyear1 who 
gave us rubber1 ,bottgher1 who gave us  
,svres porcelain1 and ,sauvage1 who gave
 us the screw propeller1 died in poverty
 and neglect4  ,but ,cyrus ,mc,cormick  
was more than an inventor4 ,he was a    
business-builder4 ,in the same resolute1
 deliberate way in which he had made his
 ,reaper1 he now set to work to make a  
business4 ,he planned and figured and   
made experiments4 ,his whole soul was   
wrapped up in his ,reaper1 said one of  
the neighbors4 ,once while riding home  
on horseback in the ,summer of #ahcb1   
his horse stopped to drink in the centre

 of a stream1 and as he looked out upon 
the fields of yellow grain1 shimmering  
in the sunlight1 the dazzling thought   
flashed upon his brain1 ,perhaps ,i may 
make a million dollars from this        
,reaper4 ,as he said in a letter written
 in later years3 ,this thought was so   
enormous that it seemed like a          
dream-like dwelling in the clouds--so   
remote1 so unattainable1 so exalted1 so 
visionary4  ,his first step was         
seemingly a mistake1 though it must have
 contributed much toward the development
 of self-reliance and hardihood in his  
own character4 ,he received a tract of  
land from his father1 and proceeded with
 might and main to farm it alone4 ,there
 was a small log house on his land1 and 
here he lived with two aged negro       
servants and his ,reaper4  ,he needed   
money to buy iron--to advertise--to     
appoint agents4 ,and he had no means of 
earning money except by farming4  ,it is
 very evident that he had not set aside 
his purpose to make ,reapers1 for we    

find in the ,lexington ,union of        
,september #bh1 #ahcc1 the first        
advertisement of his machine4 ,he offers
 ,reapers for sale at #ej4jj apiece1 and
 gives four testimonials from farmers4  
,but nothing came of this advertisement4
 ,no farmer came forward to buy4 ,the   
four men who had given testimonials had 
only seen the ,reaper at work4 ,they    
were not purchasers4 ,mc,cormick was a  
voice crying in the wilderness for nine 
years before he found a farmer who had  
the money and the courage to buy one of 
his ,reapers4  ,after living for more   
than a year on his farm1 ,mc,cormick saw
 that as a means of raising money it was
 a failure4 ,it had given him a most    
valuable period of preparatory solitude1
 but it had not helped him to launch the
 ,reaper2 so he looked about him for    
some enterprise that would yield a      
larger profit4 ,there was a large       
deposit of iron ore near by1 and he     
resolved to build a furnace and make    
iron4 ,iron was the most expensive item 

in the making of a reaper4 ,at that time
 it was #ej4jj a ton--two and a half    
cents a pound4 ,so as he had been unable
 to establish the ,reaper business with 
a farm1 he now set out to do it with a  
furnace4 ,he persuaded his father and   
the school teacher to become his        
partners2 and they built the furnace and
 were making their first iron in        
#ahce--the same year1 by the way1 in    
which a babe named ,andrew ,carnegie was
 born in the little ,scotch town of     
,dunfermline4  ,illustration3 ,,reaping 
,,with ,,sickles ,,in ,,algeria  ,for   
several years the furnace did fairly    
well4 ,it swallowed the ore and charcoal
 and limestone1 and poured into the     
channelled sand little sputtering       
streams of fiery metal4 ,cyrus made the 
patterns for the moulds1 and1 because of
 his great strength1 did much of the    
heaviest labor4 ,but the work was so    
incessant that he had no time to build  
,reapers4 ,and in #ahci1 when the       
effects of the #ahcg panic were felt in 

the more remote regions of ,virginia1   
,cyrus ,mc,cormick realized to the full 
the aptness of that couplet of          
,hudibras--      ,ah1 me1 the perils    
that environ     ,the man who meddles   
with cold iron6  ,the price of iron     
fell2 debtors were unable to pay2 the   
school teacher signed over his property 
to his mother2 and the whole burden of  
the inevitable bankruptcy fell upon the 
,mc,cormicks4 ,cyrus gave up his farm to
 the creditors1 and whatever other      
property he had that was saleable4 ,he  
did not give up the ,reaper1 and nobody 
would have taken it if he had4 ,thus    
far1 he had made no progress towards the
 building of a ,reaper business4        
,instead of being the owner of a        
million1 or any part of a million1 he   
was eight years older than when he had  
begun to seek his fortune1 and          
penniless4  ,in this hour of debt and   
defeat ,cyrus became the leader of the  
family4 ,here for the first time he     
showed that indomitable spirit which    

was1 more than any other one thing1 the 
secret of his success4 ,at once he did  
what he had not felt was possible       
before--he began to make ,reapers4      
,without money1 without credit1 without 
customers1 he founded the first of the  
world's reaper factories in the little  
log workshop near his father's house4   
,in the year of the iron failure1 #ahci1
 he gave a public exhibition on the farm
 of ,joshua ,smith1 near the town of    
,staunton4 ,with two men and a team of  
horses he cut two acres of wheat an     
hour4 ,at this there was great applause1
 but no buyers4  ,the farmers of that   
day were not accustomed to the use of   
machinery4 ,their farm tools1 for the   
most part1 were so simple as to be made 
either by themselves or by the village  
blacksmith4 ,that the ,reaper did the   
work of ten men1 they could not deny4   
,but it was driven by an expert4 ,it's  
all very wonderful1 but ,i'm running a  
farm1 not a circus1 thought the average 
spectator at these exhibitions4 ,also1  

there was in all ,eastern ,states at    
that time a surplus of labor and a      
scarcity of money1 both of which tended 
to retard the adoption of the ,reaper4  
,neither did the business men of        
,staunton pay any serious attention to  
it4 ,there was a ,samson ,eager at that 
time who made wagons1 a ,david          
,gilkerson who made furniture1 a ,jacob 
,kurtz who made spinning wheels1 and an 
,absalom ,brooks who made harness4 ,but 
none of these men saw any fortune in the
 making of ,reapers1 and ,staunton lost 
its great opportunity to be a           
manufacturing centre4  ,failure was     
being heaped on failure1 yet ,cyrus     
,mc,cormick hung to his ,reaper as ,john
 ,knox had to his ,bible4 ,he went back 
to the little log workshop with a       
fighting hope in his heart1 and hammered
 away to make a still better machine4   
,this was the darkest period in the     
history of the ,mc,cormicks--from #ahcg 
to #ahdj4 ,once a constable named ,john 
,newton rode up to the farm-house door  

with a summons1 calling ,cyrus and his  
father before the ,county ,judge on     
account of a debt of #ai4ja4 ,a teamster
 named ,john ,brains had brought suit4  
,his bill had been #gb4jj and he had    
been paid more than three-fourths of the
 money4 ,but the constable was so       
impressed with the honesty and industry 
of the ,mc,cormicks1 that he rode back  
to town without having served the       
summons4 ,a little later1 ,mr4 ,john    
,brains received his money2 and it may  
be said that had he accepted1 instead1 a
 five per cent interest in the ,reaper1 
he would have become in twenty years or 
less one of the richest men in the      
county4  ,as it happened1 not one of    
,cyrus ,mc,cormick's creditors thought  
of such an idea as seizing the ,reaper1 
or the patent1 which had been secured in
 #ahcd4 ,if the queer-looking machine1  
which was regarded as part marvel and   
part freak1 had been put up to auction  
in that neighborhood of farmers1 very   
likely it would have found no bidders4  

,there appeared to be one man only1 a   
,william ,massie1 who appreciated the   
ability of ,cyrus ,mc,cormick and lent  
him sums of money on various urgent     
occasions4  ,but in #ahdj a stranger    
rode from the north and drew rein in    
front of the little log workshop4 ,in   
appearance he was a rough-looking man1  
but to ,cyrus he was an angel of light4 
,he had come to buy a ,reaper4 ,he had  
been one of the spectators at the       
,staunton exhibition1 and he had        
resolved to risk #ej on one of the new  
machines4 ,his name1 which deserves to  
be recorded in the annals of the        
,reaper1 was ,abraham ,smith4           
,illustration3 ,,reaping ,,with         
,,cradles ,,in ,,illinois  ,several     
weeks later came two other angels in    
disguise--farmers who had heard of the  
,reaper and who had ridden from their   
homes on the ,james ,river1 a forty-mile
 journey on horseback through the ,blue 
,ridge ,mountains4 ,these men had never 
seen a ,reaper1 but they had faith4     

,they were notable men4 ,both ordered   
machines1 and ,cyrus ,mc,cormick        
accepted one of the orders only1 as he  
was not satisfied with the way his      
,reaper worked in grain that was wet4   
,it was apt to clog in the grooves that 
held the blade4 ,even in this darkest   
and most debt-ridden period of his life1
 ,mc,cormick was much more intent1      
apparently1 upon making his ,reapers    
work well than upon winning a fortune4  
,almost breathlessly1 the young inventor
 waited for the next harvest4 ,this was 
the unique difficulty of his task1 that 
he had only a few weeks once a year to  
try out his machine and to improve it4  
,he had now sold two1 so that there were
 three ,reapers clicking through the    
grain-fields in the ,summer of #ahdj4   
,they failed to operate evenly4 ,where  
the grain was dry1 they cut well2 but   
where it was damp1 they clogged and at  
times refused to cut at all4  ,wet      
grain6 ,this1 after nine years of       
arduous labor1 still remained a stubborn

 obstacle to the success of the ,reaper4
 ,it was especially hard to overcome1   
because in that primitive neighborhood  
,mc,cormick could not secure the best   
workmanship in the making of the        
cutting-blade4 ,however1 this obstacle  
did not daunt him4 ,he gave his blade a 
more serrated edge1 and to his delight  
it cut down the wet grain very nearly as
 neatly as the dry4  ,this success had  
cost him another year1 for he sold no   
machines in #ahda4 ,but he had now1 at  
least1 a wholly satisfactory ,reaper4   
,fortified with a testimonial from      
,abraham ,smith1 he fixed the price at  
#ajj and became a salesman4 ,by great   
persistence he sold seven ,reapers in   
#ahdb1 twenty-nine in #ahdc1 and fifty  
in #ahdd4 ,at last1 after thirteen years
 of struggle and defeat1 ,cyrus         
,mc,cormick had succeeded2 and the home 
farm was transformed into a busy and    
triumphant ,reaper factory4  ,there were
 new obstacles1 of course4 ,a few buyers
 failed to pay4 ,four machines were held

 on loitering canal-boats until they    
were too late for the harvest4 ,there   
was strong opposition in several places 
by day laborers4 ,a trusted workman who 
was sent out to collect #cjj ran away   
with both horse and money4 ,but none of 
these trifles moved the victorious      
,mc,cormick4 ,the great stubborn world  
was about to surrender1 and he knew it4 
,by #ahdd he had done more than sell    
machines4 ,he had made converts4 ,one   
enthusiastic farmer named ,james ,m4    
,hite1 who had made a world's record in 
#ahdc by cutting #age acres of wheat in 
less than eight days1 was the first of  
these apostles of the ,reaper4 ,my      
,reaper has more than paid for itself in
 one harvest1 he said2 and he gave      
#a1ccc for the right to sell ,reapers in
 eight counties4 ,closely after this man
 came ,colonel ,tutwiler1 who agreed to 
pay #b1ejj for the right to sell in     
southern ,virginia4 ,and a manufacturer 
in ,richmond1 ,j4 ,parker1 bought an    
agency in five counties for #ejj2 and   

won the renown of being the first       
business man who appreciated the        
,reaper4 ,all this money was not paid in
 at once4 ,some of it was never paid4   
,but after thirteen years of struggle   
and debt1 this was ,big ,business4      
,best of all1 orders for seven ,reapers 
had come from the ,west4 ,two farmers in
 ,tennessee and one each in ,wisconsin1 
,missouri1 ,iowa1 ,illinois1 and ,ohio1 
had written to ,mc,cormick for ,virginia
 ,reapers1 as they were called in the   
farm papers of that day4 ,these seven   
letters1 as may be imagined1 brought    
great joy and satisfaction to the       
,mc,cormick family1 which was now1 under
 the leadership of ,cyrus1 devoting its 
best energies to the making of ,reapers4
 ,the ,reapers were made and then1 when 
the question of their transportation    
arose1 ,cyrus for the first time saw    
clearly that the ,virginia farm was not 
the best site for a factory4 ,to get the
 seven ,reapers to the ,west1 they had  
first to be carried in wagons to        

,scottsville1 then by canal to          
,richmond1 re-shipped down the ,james   
,river to the ,atlantic ,ocean and      
around ,florida to ,new ,orleans1       
transferred here to a river boat that   
went up the ,mississippi and ,ohio      
,rivers to ,cincinnati1 and from        
,cincinnati in various directions to the
 expectant farmers4 ,four of these      
,reapers arrived too late for the       
harvest of #ahdd1 and two of them were  
not paid for4 ,clearly1 something must  
be done to supply the ,western farmers  
more efficiently4  ,illustration3 ,,an  
,,early ,,advertisement ,,for           
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k',s ,,patent ,,virginia
 ,,reaper  ,at this time a friend said  
to him1 ,cyrus1 why don't you go ,west  
with your ,reaper1 where the land is    
level and labor is scarce8 ,his mind was
 ripe for this idea4 ,it was the call of
 the ,west4 ,so one morning he put #cjj 
into his belt and set off on a          
#c1jjj-mile journey to establish the    
empire of the ,reaper4 ,up through      

,pennsylvania he rode by stage to ,lake 
,ontario1 then westward through ,ohio1  
,michigan1 ,illinois1 ,wisconsin1 ,iowa1
 and ,missouri4  ,for the first time he 
saw the prairies4 ,so vast1 so flat1 so 
fertile1 these boundless plains amazed  
him4 ,and he was quick to see that this 
great land ocean was the natural home of
 the ,reaper4 ,virginia might1 but the  
,west must1 accept his new machine4     
,already the ,west was in desperate need
 of a quicker way to cut grain4 ,as     
,mc,cormick rode through ,illinois1 he  
saw the most convincing argument in     
favor of his ,reaper4 ,he saw hogs and  
cattle turned into fields of ripe wheat1
 for lack of laborers to gather it in4  
,the fertile soil had given ,illinois   
five million bushels of wheat1 and it   
was too much4 ,it was more than the     
sickle and the scythe could cut4 ,men   
toiled and sweltered to save the yellow 
affluence from destruction4 ,they worked
 by day and by night2 and their wives   
and children worked4 ,but the tragic    

aspect of the grain crop is this--it    
must be gathered quickly or it breaks   
down and decays4 ,it will not wait4 ,the
 harvest season lasts from four to ten  
days only4 ,and whoever cannot snatch   
his grain from the field during this    
short period must lose it4  ,truly1 the 
,west needed the ,reaper2 and           
,mc,cormick's first plan was to overcome
 the transportation obstacle by selling 
licenses to many manufacturers in many  
,states4 ,by #ahdf he had1 with         
herculean energy1 started ,fitch        
,company and ,seymour1 ,morgan  ,company
 in ,brockport1 ,n4 ,y41 ,henry ,bear in
 ,missouri1 ,gray  ,warner in ,illinois1
 and ,a4 ,c4 ,brown in ,cincinnati4     
,these manufacturers1 and the           
,mc,cormick family in ,virginia1 built  
#aij ,reapers for the harvest of #ahdf4 
,this was multiplying the business by   
four1 very nearly1 but the plan was not 
satisfactory4 ,some manufacturers used  
poor materials2 some had unskilled      
workmen2 and one became so absorbed in  

new experiments that when the harvest   
time arrived1 his machines were not     
completed4  ,the new difficulty was not 
to get manufacturers to make ,reapers1  
but to get them to make good ,reapers4  
,what was to be done8 ,the thought of   
having defective ,reapers scattered     
among the farmers was intolerable to    
,cyrus ,mc,cormick4 ,he pondered deeply 
over the whole situation4 ,he considered
 the fact that the supremacy in wheat   
was slowly passing from ,virginia to    
,ohio4 ,he took note of the railroads   
that were creeping westward4 ,he        
remembered the limitless prairies1 far  
out in the sunset country1 that were    
still uncultivated4 ,plainly1 he must   
make ,reapers in a factory of his own1  
so as to have them made well1 and he    
must locate that factory as near as     
possible to the prairies1 at some point 
along the ,great ,lakes4 ,with the most 
painstaking diligence he studied the map
 and finally he put his finger upon a   
town--a small new town1 which bore the  

strange name of ,chicago4     ,,chapter 
,v  ,,the ,,building ,,of ,,the ,,reaper
 ,,business   ,of all the cities that   
,cyrus ,mc,cormick had seen in his      
#c1jjj-mile journey1 ,chicago was       
unquestionably the youngest1 the        
ugliest1 and the most forlorn4 ,it      
lacked the comforts of ordinary life1   
and many of the necessities4 ,for the   
most part1 it was the residuum of a     
broken land boom2 and most of its       
citizens were remaining in the hope that
 they might persuade some incoming      
stranger to buy them out4  ,the little  
community1 which had absurdly been      
called a city ten years before1 had at  
this time barely ten thousand people--as
 many as are now employed by a couple of
 its department stores4 ,it was         
exhausted by a desperate struggle with  
mud1 dust1 floods1 droughts1 cholera1   
debt1 panics1 broken banks1 and a slump 
in land values4 ,other cities ridiculed 
its ambitions and called it a mudhole4  
,its harbor1 into which six small       

schooners ventured in #ahdg1 was        
obstructed by a sand-bar4 ,and the      
entire region1 for miles back from the  
lake1 was a dismal swamp--the natural   
home of frogs1 wild ducks1 and beavers4 
,the six years between #ahcg and #ahdc  
had been to ,illinois a period of the   
deepest discouragement4 ,there was      
little or no money that any one could   
accept with confidence4 ,trade was on a 
barter basis4 ,the ,state was hopelessly
 in debt4 ,it had borrowed #ad1jjj1jjj  
in the enthusiasm of its first land     
boom1 and now had no money to pay the   
interest4 ,even as late as #ahdf there  
was only #i1jjj in the ,state treasury4 
,buffalo was at this time the chief     
grain market of the ,united ,states4 ,we
 were selling a little wheat to foreign 
countries--much less than is grown      
to-day in ,oklahoma4 ,hulled corn was   
the staff of life in ,iowa4 ,the        
,mormons had just started from ,illinois
 on their #a1ejj-mile pilgrimage to the 
,west1 through a country that had not a 

road1 a village1 a bridge1 nor a well4  
,the sewing-machine had recently been   
invented by ,howe1 and the use of ether 
had been announced by ,dr4 ,morton2 but 
there was no ,hoe press1 nor ,bessemer  
steel1 nor even so much as a postage    
stamp4 ,and in the ,old ,world the two  
most impressive figures1 perhaps1 were  
,livingstone1 the missionary1 who was   
groping his way to the heart of the     
,dark ,continent1 and ,de,lesseps1 the  
master-builder of canals1 who was now   
cutting a channel through the hot sand  
at ,suez4  ,in ,chicago1 there was at   
this time no ,board of ,trade4 ,the     
first wheat had been exported nine years
 before--as much as would load an       
ordinary wagon4 ,there was no paved     
street1 except one short block of wooden
 paving4 ,the houses were rickety1      
unpainted frame shanties1 which had not 
even the dignity of being numbered4     
,there was a school1 a jail1 a police   
force of six1 a theatre1 and a          
fire-engine4 ,but there was no railroad1

 nor telegraph1 nor gas1 nor sewer1 nor 
stock-yards4 ,the only post-office was a
 little frame shack on ,clark ,street1  
with one window and one clerk2 and one  
of the lesser hardships of the citizens 
was to stand in line here on rainy days4
  ,illustration3 ,,the ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k
 ,,reaper ,,of #ahdg1 ,,on ,,which      
,,seats ,,were ,,placed ,,for ,,the     
,,driver ,,and ,,the ,,raker            
,prosperity was still an elusive hope in
 #ahdg1 but the spirit of depression was
 being overcome4 ,the ,federal bankrupt 
law of #ahdb had broken the deadlock1   
and the ,legislature had passed several 
,hard ,times measures for the relief of 
debtors4 ,to such an extent had the     
little community recovered its          
confidence that it opened a new theatre1
 welcomed its first circus1 founded a   
law-school1 launched a new daily paper  
called the ,tribune1 and organized a    
regiment for the ,mexican ,war4  ,there 
were two ,chicago events in this year   
which must have deeply impressed ,cyrus 

,mc,cormick4 ,the first was the arrival 
of a horde of hunger-driven immigrants  
from ,ireland4 ,the famine of #ahdf1    
which had caused #baj1jjj deaths in that
 unfortunate island1 was driving the    
survivors to ,america2 and the people of
 ,chicago showed the warmest sympathy   
towards these gaunt1 sad-faced          
newcomers4 ,even in the depth of her own
 depression1 ,chicago called a special  
meeting to consider what could be done  
to alleviate the suffering of the       
,irish1 and gave several thousand       
dollars for their relief4  ,the second  
event was the holding of the great      
,river and ,harbor ,convention in       
,chicago4 ,this was the first formal    
recognition of ,chicago by ,congress1   
and gave the greatest possible amount of
 delight and reassurance to its         
citizens4 ,abraham ,lincoln1 who had    
just been elected to ,congress1 was     
there2 and ,horace ,greeley and ,thurlow
 ,weed4 ,there was a grand procession in
 the muddy little main street4 ,a ship  

under full sail was hauled through the  
city on wheels4 ,the newly organized    
firemen1 in the glory of red shirts and 
leather hats1 threw a stream of water   
over the flag-staff in the public       
square1 and ,thurlow ,weed1 in a        
peroration that aroused the utmost      
enthusiasm1 prophesied that on the      
shores of these lakes is a vast country 
that will in fifty years support        
one-quarter of a million people4 ,it is 
interesting to notice that had ,thurlow 
,weed lived fifty years after the       
delivery of that optimistic prophecy1 he
 would have seen one-quarter of a       
million school children in the city of  
,chicago alone4  ,as a matter of        
history1 the arrival of ,mc,cormick was 
a much more important event for ,chicago
 than the ,river and ,harbor            
,convention4 ,he was the first of its   
big manufacturers4 ,his factory was the 
largest and the busiest2 and the        
,reapers that it produced were a most   
important factor in the growth of       

,chicago4 ,every ,reaper shipped to the 
,west was a feeder of the city4 ,it     
brought back more wheat4 ,it opened up  
new territory4 ,the ,reaper gave the    
farmers of the ,middle ,west an ideal   
weapon with which to win wealth from the
 prairies4 ,and it established the      
primary greatness of ,chicago as the    
principal wheat market of the world4    
,this incoming flood of wheat gave      
,chicago its start as a railway and     
shipping centre4 ,chicago was never     
obliged to give money1 or to lend it1 to
 railroad companies4 ,the railroads came
 into ,chicago without the inducement of
 subsidies1 because they wanted to carry
 its wheat4 ,and ships1 too1 came more  
and more readily to ,chicago when they  
found that they could be sure of a      
return cargo4  ,the choice of ,chicago  
as his centre of operations was one of  
the master-strokes of ,mc,cormick's     
career4 ,at that time1 ,cleveland1      
,milwaukee1 and ,st4 ,louis were more   
prosperous cities2 but ,mc,cormick      

considered one thing only--the making   
and selling of his ,reaper1 and he saw  
that ,chicago1 with all its mud and     
shabbiness1 was the link between the    
,great ,lakes and the ,great ,west4     
,here he could best assemble his        
materials--steel from ,sheffield1 pig   
iron from ,scotland and ,pittsburg1 and 
white ash from ,michigan4 ,and here he  
could best ship his finished machines to
 both ,east and ,west4  ,chicago1 in    
fact1 and the ,mc,cormick ,reaper1 had  
many characteristics in common4 ,both   
were born at very nearly the same time4 
,both were cradled in adversity4 ,both  
were unsightly to the artistic eye4     
,both were linked closely with the      
development of the ,west4 ,and both     
inevitably achieved success1 because    
they were fundamentally right--,chicago 
in location and the ,reaper in design4  
,at the time that he began to build his 
,chicago factory1 ,cyrus ,mc,cormick was
 no longer a country youth4 ,he was     
thirty-eight years of age1 and a tall   

powerful ,titan of a man1 with a massive
 head and broad shoulders4 ,his upper   
lip was clean-shaven1 but he had a      
thick1 well-trimmed beard1 and dark1    
wavy hair1 worn fairly long4 ,his nose  
was straight and well-shaped1 his mouth 
firm1 and his eyes brown-gray and       
piercing4 ,in manner he was resolute and
 prompt1 with a rigid insistence that   
could not be turned aside4 ,he had won  
the prize in the contest of             
reaper-inventors2 and he was now about  
to enter a second contest1 against      
overwhelming odds1 with a number of     
aggressive and competent business men   
who had determined that1 by right or by 
might1 they would manufacture           
,mc,cormick ,reapers and sell them to   
the farmers4  ,as ,mc,cormick had       
neither money nor credit1 it was evident
 to him that his first step in          
business-building must be to secure a   
partner who had both of these4 ,he      
looked about him and selected the man   
who was unquestionably the first citizen

 of ,chicago--,william ,b4 ,ogden4      
,ogden had been the first mayor of the  
little city4 ,he had been from the      
beginning its natural leader4 ,he had   
built the first handsome house1 promoted
 the first canal1 and was now busy in   
the building of the first railroad from 
,chicago to ,galena4  ,william ,butler  
,ogden had been born in the little ,new 
,york hamlet of ,walton1 four years     
earlier than the birth of ,mc,cormick4  
,to use his own picturesque words1 he   
was born close to a saw-mill1 was early 
left an orphan1 christened in a         
mill-pond1 taught at a log school-house1
 and at fourteen fancied that nothing   
was impossible1 which ever since1 and   
with some success1 ,i have been trying  
to prove4 ,once in ,chicago he quickly  
made a fortune in real estate1 and was  
generally looked to as the leader in any
 large enterprise that promised to help 
,chicago4  ,illustration3 ,,cyrus ,,hall
 ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k  ,from a             
,daguerreotype1 taken about #ahci  ,he  

was a tall man of striking appearance4  
,at that time he wore no beard1 and with
 his keen eyes1 high forehead1 long     
straight nose1 and masterful under-lip1 
he would attract attention in any       
assemblage4 ,by his hospitality and     
courtly manners he made many friends for
 the city4 ,among his guests were       
,webster1 ,van ,buren1 ,bryant1 ,tilden1
 and ,miss ,martineau4 ,and when ,cyrus 
,mc,cormick came to him and proposed the
 building of a ,reaper factory1 ,ogden  
was as quick as a flash to see its value
 to ,chicago4 ,you are the man we want1 
said he to ,mc,cormick4 ,i'll give you  
#be1jjj for a half interest1 and we'll  
start to build the factory at once4     
,this partnership helped ,mc,cormick    
greatly4 ,it gave him at once capital1  
credit1 prestige1 and a factory4 ,it    
enabled him to escape from the tyranny  
of small anxieties4 ,it set him free    
from contract-breaking manufacturers1   
who looked upon the making of ,reapers  
merely as business1 and not1 as         

,mc,cormick did1 as a mission4 ,he now  
had his chance to manufacture on a large
 scale2 and he immediately made plans to
 sell #ejj ,reapers for the harvest of  
#ahdh4 ,he built the largest factory in 
,chicago1 on the spot where ,john       
,kinzie had built the first house in    
#ahjd1 and thus once for all was solved 
the problem of where and how his        
,reapers should be made4  ,for two years
 it was one of the sights of ,chicago to
 see ,mc,cormick and ,ogden walking     
together to their factory4 ,they were   
both tall1 powerful1 dominating men1 and
 were easily the chief citizens--the    
,romulus and ,remus of a city that was  
destined to be more populous than ,rome4
  ,but they were not suited as          
co-workers4 ,each was too strong-willed 
for co-operative action4 ,also1 ,ogden  
was a man of many interests1 while      
,mc,cormick was absorbed in his ,reaper4
 ,there was no open quarrel1 but in     
#ahdi ,mc,cormick said3 ,i will pay you 
back the #be1jjj that you invested1 and 

give you #be1jjj for profits and        
interest4 ,ogden accepted1 well pleased 
to have doubled his money in two years2 
and from that time onward ,mc,cormick   
had no partners except the members of   
his own family4  ,moving at once from   
one obstacle to another1 as ,mc,cormick 
did throughout the whole course of his  
life1 he now began to create the best   
possible system of selling his ,reapers 
to the farmers4 ,this he had to do1 for 
the reason that there was no means at   
that time whereby he could offer them   
for sale4 ,the village blacksmith was   
too busy at his anvil to become an      
agent4 ,the village storekeeper was not 
a mechanic1 and was too careful of his  
reputation among the farmers to offer   
for sale a machine that he did not      
understand4 ,therefore1 ,mc,cormick bent
 all his energies to this new task of   
devising a mode of action4 ,he began to 
develop what he was apt to call the     
finger-ends of the business4 ,and he    
created a new species of commercial     

organization which is by many thought to
 be fully as remarkable as his invention
 of the ,reaper4  ,first1 he gave a     
,written ,guarantee with every machine4 
,he had conceived of this inducement as 
early as #ahdb4 ,he warranted the       
performance of the ,reaper in every     
respect1 and by this means made seven   
sales in that year4 ,in #ahdh he had his
 guarantee printed like an              
advertisement1 with a picture of the    
,reaper at the top1 and blank spaces for
 the farmer1 the agent1 and two         
witnesses to sign4 ,the price of the    
machine was to be #abj4 ,the farmer was 
to pay #cj cash1 and the balance in six 
months1 on condition that the ,reaper   
would cut one and a half acres an hour1 
that it would scatter less grain than   
the grain-cradle1 that it was well made1
 and that the raking off could easily be
 done from a raker's seat4 ,if the      
,reaper failed to fulfil these promises1
 it was to be brought back and the #cj  
was to be refunded4  ,this idea of      

giving a free trial1 and returning the  
money to any dissatisfied customer1 was 
at that time new and revolutionary4     
,to-day it is the code of the department
 store1 and even the mail-order         
establishments are in many instances    
adopting it4 ,it has become one of the  
higher laws of the business world4 ,it  
has driven that discreditable maxim1    
,let the buyer beware1 out of all decent
 commercialism4 ,to ,mc,cormick1 who had
 never studied the selfish economic     
theories of his day1 there was no reason
 for any antagonism between buyer and   
seller4 ,he trusted his ,reaper and he  
trusted the farmers4 ,and he built his  
business foursquare on this confidence4 
,second1 he sold his ,reapers at a      
,known ,price4 ,he announced the price  
in newspapers and posters4 ,this1 too1  
has since become an established rule in 
business2 but it was not so sixty years 
ago4 ,the ,oriental method of chaffering
 and bargaining was largely in vogue4   
,the buyer got as high a price as he    

could in each case4 ,among merchants1   
,a4 ,t4 ,stewart was probably the first 
to abolish this practice of haggling1   
and to mark his goods in plain figures4 
,and in the selling of farm machinery1  
it was ,mc,cormick who laid down the    
principle of equal prices to all and    
special rebates to none--a principle    
which has been very generally followed  
ever since1 except during periods of    
over-strenuous competition4  ,third1 he 
was one of the first ,american business 
men who believed heartily in a policy of
 ,publicity4 ,as early as ,september    
#bh1 #ahcc1 he began to advertise his   
,reaper2 and his advertisement was      
nearly a column in length4 ,also1 in the
 same paper1 he had a half-column       
advertisement of his hillside plow4     
,this was publicity on a large scale1   
according to the ideas of advertising   
that were then prevalent4 ,even ,george 
,washington1 when advertising an        
extensive land scheme in #aggc1 had not 
thought of using more than half a column

 of a ,baltimore paper4  ,mc,cormick was
 an efficient advertiser1 too1 as well  
as an enterprising one4 ,when he talked 
to farmers1 he knew what to say4 ,he    
told the story of what one of his       
,reapers had done1 and named the time   
and the farm and the farmers4 ,he made  
great use of the argument that the      
,reaper pays for itself1 and showed that
 it would cost the farmer less to buy it
 than not to buy it4  ,among the many   
testimonials that he got from farmers   
the one that pleased him most1 and which
 he scattered broadcast1 was one in     
which a farmer said3 ,my ,reaper has    
more than paid for itself in one        
harvest4  ,illustration3 ,,panoramic    
,,view ,,showing ,,the ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k
 ,,reaper ,,works ,,before ,,the        
,,chicago ,,fire ,,of #ahga1 ,,on       
,,chicago ,,river1 ,,east ,,of ,,rush   
,,street ,,bridge  ,in #ahdi1 when the  
rush to the new gold mines of           
,california began1 he was quick to see  
his opportunity4 ,this sudden exodus of 

a hundred thousand men to the ,pacific  
coast meant much to him1 and he knew it4
 ,it meant a decrease in the number of  
farm laborers and an increase in the    
amount of money in circulation4 ,more   
than this1 it meant that ,chicago was no
 longer a city of the ,far ,west4 ,it   
was central4 ,it was the link between   
the banks and factories of the ,east and
 the gold mines and prairies of the     
,west4 ,so ,mc,cormick quickly prepared 
an elaborate advertisement1 warning the 
farmers that labor would now become     
scarce and expensive1 that the coming   
grain crop promised to be a large one1  
and giving the names and addresses of   
ninety-two farmers who were now using   
his machines4  ,the fourth factor in the
 ,mc,cormick ,system was the appointment
 of a ,responsible ,agent and the       
building of a storage warehouse at every
 competitive point4 ,he did not wait for
 the business to grow4 ,he pushed it4   
,he thrust it forward by sending an     
agent to every danger-spot on the       

firing-line4 ,as one of his competitors 
complained1 in an #ahdh lawsuit1        
,mc,cormick flooded the country with his
 machines4 ,he knew that many farmers   
would be undecided until the very hour  
of harvest1 when there would be no time 
to get a ,reaper from ,chicago2 and     
therefore he had supplies of machines   
stored in various parts of the country4 
,by #ahdi he had nineteen of these      
agencies4  ,his plan1 with regard to    
these agents1 was to fasten them to him 
by exclusive contracts1 which forbade   
them to sell ,reapers made by any other 
manufacturers4 ,each agent was given    
free scope4 ,he was not worried by      
detail instructions4 ,he was picked out 
for his aggressive1 self-reliant        
qualities1 and the whole responsibility 
of a certain territory was put upon him4
 ,once a month he made a report2 but he 
stood or fell by the final showing for  
the year1 which he made in ,october4    
,this plan of leaving his men free and  
putting them upon their mettle1         

developed their mental muscle to the    
utmost4 ,also1 it made them intensely   
loyal and combative--a regiment1 not of 
private soldiers1 but generals1 each one
 in charge of his own province1 blamed  
for his defeats and rewarded for his    
victories4  ,the fifth factor in the    
,mc,cormick ,system was the ,customers' 
,good-,will4 ,for the good-will of other
 capitalists or for the applause of the 
public in general1 no men cared less    
than ,mc,cormick4 ,but he always stood  
well with the farmers4 ,i have never yet
 sued a farmer for the price of a       
,reaper1 he said in #ahdh4 ,this heroic 
policy he pursued as long as possible1  
knowing the fear that all farmers have  
of contracts that may lead them into    
litigation4 ,more than this1 he freely  
gave them credit1 without being         
safeguarded by any ,dun or ,bradstreet4 
,he allowed them to pay with the money  
that was saved during the harvest4 ,it  
is better that ,i should wait for the   
money1 he said1 than that you should    

wait for the machine that you need4 ,so 
he borrowed money in ,chicago to build  
the ,reapers1 borrowed more money to pay
 the freight1 and then sold them on time
 to the farmers4  ,in some cases he lost
 heavily1 as in ,kansas and ,north      
,dakota1 where the first settlers were  
driven off by drought4 ,but as a rule he
 lost little by bad debts4 ,immigrants  
of twenty nationalities swarmed westward
 upon the free land offered to them by  
the ,united ,states ,government1 and    
usually each man found waiting for him  
at the nearest town one of the          
,mc,cormick agents1 ready to supply him 
with a ,reaper1 whether he had the money
 to pay for it or not4 ,as may be       
imagined1 the effect of this policy upon
 the settlement and welfare of the ,west
 was magical4 ,there are to-day tens of 
thousands of ,western farmers who date  
the era of their prosperity from the day
 when a ,mc,cormick ,reaper arrived in  
all the glory of its red paint and      
shining blade1 and held its first       

reception in the barn-yard4  ,one       
instance of this deserves to be embodied
 in the history of the ,reaper4 ,in     
#ahee a poor tenant farmer1 who had been
 evicted from his rented land in        
,ayrshire1 ,scotland1 arrived with his  
family at the banks of the ,mississippi4
 ,there was then no railroad nor        
stage-coach1 so the whole family walked 
to a quarter section of land farther    
west1 not far from where the city of    
,des ,moines stands to-day4 ,the first  
year they cut the wheat with the cradle 
and the scythe1 and the following year  
they bought a ,mc,cormick ,reaper4 ,they
 prospered4 ,the father went back for a 
visit to ,ayrshire and paid all his     
creditors4 ,and the eldest son1 ,james1 
became first ,speaker of the ,iowa      
,legislature1 then a professor in an    
agricultural college1 and finally the   
founder of the ,department of           
,agriculture in all its present         
completeness4 ,to-day we know him as the
 ,honorable ,james ,wilson1 the first   

official farmer of the ,united ,states4 
,there was one other method in the      
marketing of farm machinery1 which seems
 to have been originated by             
,mc,cormick--the ,field ,test4 ,as a    
means of stirring up interest in an     
indifferent community1 this was the most
 electrical in its effects of any plan  
that has ever been devised4 ,as a       
pioneering advertisement1 it was        
unsurpassed4 ,it was nothing less than a
 contest in a field of ripe grain       
between several machines that belonged  
to rival manufacturers4 ,sometimes there
 were only two machines1 and in one     
grand tournament there were forty4 ,and 
all the farmers in the county were      
invited to come and witness the battle  
free of charge4  ,the first of these    
field tests occurred near ,richmond in  
#ahdd4 ,mc,cormick had challenged ,obed 
,hussey1 a ,baltimore sailor who had    
invented a practical mowing-machine1 and
 who was offering it for sale to cut    
grain as well as grass4 ,in this        

instance ,mc,cormick won easily4 ,the   
judges said that while the ,hussey      
machine was stronger and simpler1 having
 no reel nor divider1 the ,mc,cormick   
,reaper was lighter1 cheaper1 scattered 
less grain1 and was better at cutting   
grain that was wet and in its method of 
delivering the grain4  ,meet ,hussey    
whenever you can and put him down1      
,cyrus ,mc,cormick wrote to his         
brothers4 ,in one letter1 written the   
following year1 he is so                
enthusiastically aggressive in the      
pursuit of ,hussey that he proposes to  
his brothers a grand final contest4     
,hussey is to be dared to sign an       
agreement that in case of defeat1 he    
will pay ,mc,cormick #aj1jjj and become 
the ,maryland agent for the ,mc,cormick 
,reaper4 ,mc,cormick1 on his part1 is to
 agree that if he is beaten he will pay 
,hussey #aj1jjj and become the ,virginia
 agent for the ,hussey machine4 ,nothing
 came of this confident proposal1 either
 because it was not put into effect by  

,mc,cormick1 because ,hussey refused to 
accept it4  ,but the field test         
flourished for more than forty years4   
,it did more in the earlier days than   
any other one thing to make talk about  
the ,reaper and to move the farmers out 
of the old-fashioned ruts4 ,it provided 
the vaudeville element which is         
necessary in salesmanship where people  
are not interested in the commodity     
itself4 ,as often happens1 it was in the
 end carried too far4 ,it became the    
most costly weapon of competition4 ,it  
introduced all manner of unfairness and 
often violence4 ,the most absurd tests  
were frequently agreed to4 ,mowers would
 be chained back to back and then       
forcibly torn apart4 ,reapers were      
driven into groves of saplings4         
,machines of special strength were made 
secretly4 ,and so the warfare raged1    
until by general consent the field test 
was abandoned4  ,these six factors of   
the ,mc,cormick ,system became the six  
commandments of the farm machinery      

business4 ,they were largely adopted by 
his competitors1 and exist to-day1 with 
the exception of the exclusive contract 
and the field test4  ,by #ahej          
,mc,cormick had not only solved the     
problem of the ,reaper2 he had worked   
out a method of distribution4 ,he had   
established a new business4 ,but even   
this was not enough4 ,he was now beset  
by a swarm of manufacturers who sought  
to deprive him of his patents and of a  
business which he naturally regarded as 
his own4 ,it remained to be seen whether
 he could stand his ground when opposed 
by several hundred rivals2 and whether  
he could duplicate in the courts the    
victories that he had won in the fields4
     ,,chapter ,,vi  ,,the ,,struggle   
,,to ,,protect ,,patents   ,in #ahdh    
,cyrus ,mc,cormick's original patent    
expired4 ,he applied to have it         
extended1 and at once there began one of
 the most extraordinary legal wars ever 
known in the history of the ,patent     
,office4 ,it continued with very little 

cessation until #ahfe4 ,it enlisted on  
one side or the other the ablest lawyers
 of that period--such giants of the bar 
as ,lincoln1 ,stanton1 ,seward1         
,douglas1 ,harding1 ,watson1 ,dickerson1
 and ,reverdy ,johnson4 ,the tide of    
battle rolled from court to court until 
the final clash came in the chamber of  
the ,supreme ,court and the halls of    
,congress4 ,it was perhaps the most     
,titanic effort that any ,american      
inventor has ever made to protect his   
rights and to carry out the purpose of  
the ,patent ,law4  ,mc,cormick had      
strong reasons for believing that his   
patent should be extended4 ,he was      
asking for no more than the ,patent     
,office1 on other occasions1 had granted
 to other inventors4 ,a patent was      
supposed to protect an inventor for     
fourteen years1 and he had lost half of 
this time in making a better machine1   
and in finding out the best way to carry
 on the business4 ,he had received from 
all sources nearly #bd1jjj1 and most of 

it had been swallowed up in expenses4   
,he was still a poor man in #ahdh4 ,he  
was no more than on the threshold of    
prosperity4 ,and his peculiar           
difficulty1 which gave him a special    
claim upon the ,patent ,commissioners1  
was the shortness of the harvest season4
 ,he had only three or four weeks in    
each year in which he could make        
experiments4  ,for eight years          
,mc,cormick's claim was tossed back and 
forth like a tennis ball between the    
,patent ,office and ,congress4 ,this    
delay threw the door wide open to       
competition4 ,a score of manufacturers  
built factories and began to make       
,mc,cormick ,reapers1 with trifling     
variations and under other names4 ,if   
,mc,cormick had won his case1 they would
 have had to pay him a royalty of #be on
 each machine4 ,consequently1 they      
combined against him4 ,they hired       
lawyers and lobbyists1 secured petitions
 from farmers1 and raised a hue and cry 
that one man was trying to impose a tax 

of #ejj1jjj a year upon the starving    
millions of the world4  ,one firm of    
lawyers in ,cincinnati sent a letter to 
these manufacturers in #ahej1 saying    
that1 ,mc,cormick can be beaten in the  
,patent ,office1 and must be beaten now 
or never4 ,if funds are furnished us1 we
 shall surely beat him2 but if they are 
not furnished us1 he will as certainly  
beat us4 ,please1 therefore1 take hold  
and help us to beat the common enemy4   
,the subscriptions have ranged from #ajj
 to #a1jjj4444 ,send in also to ,patent 
,office hundreds of remonstrances like  
this3 ,we oppose the extension of ,c4   
,h4 ,mc,cormick's patent4 ,he has made  
money enough off of the farmer4         
,towards the end of this famous case1   
the anti-,mc,cormick lobby at the       
,capitol became so rabid that ,senator  
,brown1 of ,mississippi1 made an        
indignant protest on the floor of the   
,senate4 ,he said3 ,why1 ,mr4           
,president1 if it were not for the      
people out of doors1 people without     

inventive genius1 people without the    
genius to invent a mouse-trap or a      
fly-killer1 who are pirating on the     
great invention of ,mc,cormick1 there   
would never have been an hour's delay in
 granting all that he asks4 ,i know1 and
 ,i state here1 in the face of the      
,american ,senate and the world1 that   
these men have beset me at every corner 
of the street with their papers and     
their affidavits--men who have no claim 
to the ear of the country1 men who have 
rendered it no service1 but who have    
invested their paltry dollars in the    
production of a machine which sprang    
from the mind of another man2 and who   
now1 for their own gain1 employ lawyers 
to draw cunning affidavits1 to devise   
cunning schemes1 and to put on foot all 
sorts of machinery to defeat            
,mc,cormick4  ,what worried ,mc,cormick 
most was not this consolidation of      
competitors1 but the fact that a few    
farmers had signed petitions of protest 
against his claim4 ,this was the most   

unkindest cut of all4 ,but he made no   
attack upon them4 ,manufacturers he     
would fight1 and inventors and lawyers  
and judges--any one and every one1 if   
need be1 except farmers4 ,how can the   
farmers be against me8 he asked in      
amazement4 ,they save the price of the  
,reaper in a single harvest4            
,mc,cormick lost his suit1 as he did a  
second time in #ahei1 and a third time  
in #ahfa4 ,not one of his patents was at
 any time renewed4 ,up to #aheh he had  
received #dj1jjj in royalties1 but it   
had cost him #ij1jjj in litigation4     
,from first to last he did not get one  
dollar of net profit from the protection
 of the ,patent ,office4  ,many other   
inventors were fairly treated by        
,congress4 ,fulton1 for example1 was    
presented with a bonus of #gf1cjj4      
,willmoth1 who improved the turret of a 
battleship1 received #ej1jjj4 ,professor
 ,page1 for making an electric engine1  
was given #bj1jjj4 ,morse was awarded   
#ch1jjj4 ,the patents of ,goodyear1     

,kelly1 ,howe1 ,morse1 ,hyatt1          
,woodworth1 and ,blanchard were         
extended4 ,the protection of inventors  
had been a national policy--an ,american
 tradition4 ,in the phrasing of ,daniel 
,webster3 ,the right of an inventor to  
his invention is a natural right1 which 
existed before the ,constitution was    
written and which is above the          
,constitution4  ,the benefit of the     
,reaper to the nation1 and the fact that
 ,mc,cormick was its inventor1 were     
admitted freely enough4 ,senator        
,johnson1 of ,maryland1 estimated in    
#aheh that the ,reaper was then worth to
 the ,united ,states #ee1jjj1jjj a year4
 ,d4 ,p4 ,holloway1 the ,commissioner of
 ,patents1 sang an anthem of eloquent   
praise to ,mc,cormick in #ahfa4 ,he is  
an inventor whose fame1 while he is yet 
living1 has spread through the world1 he
 said4 ,his genius has done honor to his
 own country1 and has been the          
admiration of foreign nations4 ,he will 
live in the grateful recollection of    

mankind as long as the reaping-machine  
is employed in gathering the harvest4   
,then1 in an abrupt postscript to so    
fine a eulogy1 this extraordinary       
,commissioner adds3 ,but the ,reaper is 
of too great value to the public to be  
controlled by any individual1 and the   
extension of his patent is refused4     
,illustration3 ,,painting ,,by ,c4      
,,schussele1 ,,philadelphia1 #ahfa      
,,engraved ,,on ,,steel ,,by ,,john     
,,sartain1 ,,philadelphia1 #ahfb  ,,men 
,,of ,,progress  ,,standing1 ,,left ,,to
 ,,right3 #a1 ,dr4 ,w4 ,t4 ,g4 ,morton1 
first man to administer ether to a      
patient2 #b1 ,j4 ,bogardus1 invented    
ring spinner 7for cotton spinning71 an  
engraving machine1 and dry gas meter2   
#c1 ,s4 ,colt1 revolver2 #d1 ,cyrus     
,hall ,mc,cormick1 reaper2 #e1 ,joseph  
,saxton1 locomotive differential pulley 
and deep sea thermometer2 #f1 ,peter    
,cooper1 founder of ,cooper ,union and  
inventor machine for mortising hubs for 
carriage wheels2 #g1 ,prof4 ,j4 ,henry1 

inventor of communication by            
electricity2 #h1 ,e4 ,b4 ,bigelow1 power
 loom for spinning jenny4  ,,sitting1   
,,left ,,to ,,right3 #a1 ,c4 ,goodyear1 
vulcanizer of rubber2 #b1 ,j4 ,l4 ,mott1
 iron manufacturer and inventor2 #c4    
,dr4 ,e4 ,nott1 base burner for stoves3 
#d1 ,f4 ,e4 ,sickles1 inventor of       
cut-off of steam in engine2 #e1 ,s4 ,f4 
,b4 ,morse1 telegraph2 #f1 ,h4 ,burden1 
cultivator1 and machine for making      
horseshoes2 #g1 ,r4 ,m4 ,hoe1 printing  
press2 #h1 ,i4 ,jennings2 #i1 ,t4       
,blanchard1 machine for cutting and     
heading tacks1 and lathe for turning    
irregular forms3 #aj1 ,e4 ,howe1 sewing 
machine4  ,the truth seems to be that   
,mc,cormick was too strong1 too         
aggressive1 to receive fair play at the 
hands of any legislative body4 ,the note
 of sympathy could never be struck in   
his favor4 ,he personally directed his  
own cases4 ,he dominated his own        
lawyers4 ,and he fought always in an    
old-fashioned1                          

straight-from-the-shoulder way that put 
him at a great disadvantage in a legal  
conflict4 ,also1 he was supposed to be  
much richer than in reality he was4 ,he 
had made money by the rise in ,chicago  
real estate4 ,by #ahff he had become a  
millionaire4 ,and his entire fortune was
 assumed by opposing lawyers to be the  
product of the ,reaper business4  ,it is
 to be said1 to the lasting honor of    
,south ,carolina1 that she gave a grant 
of money to ,whitney1 out of the public 
treasury1 as a token of gratitude for   
the invention of the cotton gin4 ,but no
 wheat ,state ever gave1 or proposed to 
give1 any grant or vote of thanks to    
,cyrus ,mc,cormick for the invention of 
the ,reaper4 ,the business that he      
established was never at any time       
favored by a tariff1 or franchise1 or   
patent extension1 or tax exemption1 or  
land grant1 or monopoly4 ,single-handed 
he built it up1 and single-handed he    
held it against all comers4 ,if1 as     
,emerson has said1 an institution is no 

more than the lengthened shadow of one  
man1 we may fairly say that the immense 
,mc,cormick ,company of to-day is no    
more than the lengthened shadow of this 
farm-bred ,virginian4  ,by #ahee        
,mc,cormick realized that the ,federal  
,government was not the impartial       
tribunal that he had believed it to be4 
,he saw that he could not depend upon it
 for protection1 so he made a           
characteristic decision--he resolved to 
protect himself4 ,he1 too1 would hire a 
battery of lawyers and charge down upon 
these manufacturers who were            
unrighteously making his ,reaper and    
depriving him of his patents4 ,he       
engaged three of the master lawyers of  
the ,american bar1 ,william ,h4 ,seward1
 ,e4 ,n4 ,dickerson1 and ,senator       
,reverdy ,johnson1 and brought suit     
against ,manny and ,emerson1 of         
,rockford1 ,illinois1 for making        
,mc,cormick ,reapers without a license4 
,then came a three-year struggle that   
shook the country and did much to shape 

the history of the ,american people4    
,manny and ,emerson1 who were shrewd and
 forceful men1 hired twice as many      
lawyers as ,mc,cormick and prepared to  
defend themselves4 ,they selected as the
 members of this legal bodyguard1       
,abraham ,lincoln1 ,stephen ,a4         
,douglas1 ,edwin ,m4 ,stanton1 ,peter   
,h4 ,watson1 ,george ,harding1 and      
,congressman ,h4 ,winter ,davis4  ,it   
was a battle of giants4 ,greek met      
,greek with weapons of eloquence4 ,but  
,stanton out-classed his great          
co-debaters in a speech of unanswerable 
power which unfortunately was not       
reported4 ,the speech so vividly        
impressed ,mc,cormick that in his next  
lawsuit he at once engaged ,stanton4 ,it
 awoke the brain of ,lincoln1 as he     
afterwards admitted2 and drove him back 
to a more comprehensive study of the    
law4 ,it gave ,lincoln so high an       
opinion of ,stanton's ability that1 when
 he became ,president several years     
later1 he chose ,stanton to be his      

,secretary of ,war4 ,and it gripped     
judge and jury with such effect that    
,mc,cormick lost his case4 ,it was a    
wonderful speech4  ,abraham ,lincoln1   
who made no speech at all1 was the one  
who derived the most benefit in the end 
from this lawsuit4 ,it not only aroused 
his ambitions1 but gave him his first   
big fee--#a1jjj4 ,this money came to him
 at the precise moment when he needed it
 most1 to enable him to enter into the  
famous debate with ,douglas--the debate 
that made him the inevitable candidate  
of the ,republican party4 ,it is        
interesting to note how closely the     
destinies of ,lincoln and ,mc,cormick   
were interwoven4 ,both were born in     
#ahji1 on farms in the ,south4 ,both    
struggled through a youth of adversity  
and first came into prominence in       
,illinois4 ,both labored to preserve the
 ,union1 and when the ,war of ,secession
 came it was the ,reaper that enabled   
,lincoln to feed his armies4 ,both men  
were emancipators1 the one from slavery 

and the other from famine2 and both     
to-day sleep under the soil of          
,illinois4 ,no other two ,americans had 
heavier tasks than they1 and none worked
 more mightily for the common good4  ,of
 all ,mc,cormick's lawsuits1 and they   
were many1 the most extraordinary was   
the famous ,baggage ,case1 which lasted 
for twenty-three years--from #ahfb to   
#ahhe4 ,it was probably the best single 
instance of the man's dogged tenacity in
 defence of a principle4 ,the original  
cause of this trial was a comedy of     
mishaps4 ,a ,mc,cormick family party of 
six1 with nine trunks1 boarded a train  
at ,philadelphia for ,chicago4 ,the     
train was about to start1 when the      
baggage-master demanded pay for #bjj    
pounds of surplus baggage4 ,the amount  
was only #h4gj1 but ,mc,cormick refused 
to pay it4 ,he called his family out of 
the train and ordered that his trunks be
 taken off4 ,the conductor refused to   
hold the train1 and the trunks were     
carried away4 ,mr4 ,mc,cormick at once  

saw the president of the railroad1 ,j4  
,edgar ,thompson1 who telegraphed an    
order for the trunks to be put off at   
,pittsburg4 ,the ,mc,cormicks set out   
for ,chicago by the next train4 ,at     
,pittsburg they learned that the trunks 
had been carried through to ,chicago4   
,and the next day1 in ,chicago1 when    
,mc,cormick went to the ,fort ,wayne    
depot1 he found it a mass of smoking    
cinders4 ,it had caught fire in the     
night1 and the nine trunks had been     
destroyed4  ,mc,cormick sued the        
railroad for #g1aic--the value of the   
trunks and their contents4 ,repeatedly  
he won and repeatedly the railroad      
appealed to higher courts4 ,after twenty
 years the worn and battered case was   
carried up to the nine ,justices of the 
,united ,states ,supreme ,court4 ,they  
decided for ,mc,cormick4 ,but even then 
the railroad evaded payment for three   
years1 until after ,mc,cormick's death4 
,then the president of the road signed a
 check for #ah1jfj4gi1 which was the    

original value of the nine trunks plus  
twenty-three years' interest4           
,mc,cormick did not for a moment regard 
this case as trivial4 ,it involved a    
principle4 ,once when a friend bantered 
him for fighting so hard over a small   
matter1 he replied1 ,my conscience1 sir6
 ,i don't know what would become of the 
,american people if there were not some 
one to stand up for fair dealing4 ,his  
victory did much to teach the railroads 
better manners and a finer consideration
 of the travelling public4 ,soon after  
the conclusion of the case1 a trunk     
belonging to a relative of the          
,mc,cormicks was destroyed on the ,new  
,york ,central4 ,it value was #a1cjj1   
and one of the railroad's lawyers       
promptly sent a check1 saying1 ,we don't
 want to have a lawsuit with the        
,mc,cormicks4  ,for these numerous      
lawsuits ,mc,cormick paid a terrible    
price1 both in money and friendship4 ,he
 acquired a reputation as a man who     
would law you to death4 ,he brought down

 upon himself to a remarkable degree the
 hostility of his competitors1 and      
prevented himself from receiving the    
full credit and prestige that he        
deserved4 ,instead of being revered as  
the father of the ,reaper business1 he  
was feared as an industrial ,bismarck--a
 man of unyielding will and indomitable 
purpose1 who regarded his competitors as
 a pack of trespassers in an empire that
 belonged by right to him4  ,the truth  
is that this situation did not arise    
because of the natural perversity of    
either ,mc,cormick or his competitors4  
,in his later life1 ,mc,cormick proved  
that he could co-operate with his equals
 in the most harmonious way1 in a new   
business enterprise4 ,his competitors1  
too1 were for the most part men of      
ability and uprightness4 ,neither in    
their public nor private lives1 was     
there any stain upon the honor of such  
men as ,wood1 ,osborne1 ,adriance1      
,manny1 ,emerson1 ,huntley1 ,warder4    
,bushnell1 ,glessner1 ,jones1 and ,lewis

 ,miller4 ,but these men were all       
newcomers4 ,they were beardless         
striplings compared to ,mc,cormick4 ,he 
had made and exhibited a successful     
,reaper twenty years before the first of
 them began4 ,his father had grappled   
with the problem of the ,reaper before  
most of them were born4 ,it was         
inevitable1 therefore1 that there should
 have been an unspanable gap between the
 two points of view4 ,mc,cormick stood  
alone because he was alone4 ,he and the 
,reaper had grown up together in long   
hazardous years of pioneering1 through  
ridicule and poverty and failure4 ,it   
was his dream come true4 ,and in the    
same spirit with which he had fought to 
create it1 he also fought to hold it1   
and to protect it from men to whom it   
was not a dream and a life-mission1 but 
a mere machine4     ,,chapter ,,vii     
,,the ,,evolution ,,of ,,the ,,reaper   
,of all the varieties of difficulties   
that confronted ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick  
during his strenuous life1 the most     

baffling and disconcerting difficulty   
was when his ,reaper began to grow4 ,for
 fifteen years--from #ahde to #ahfj--;it
 had remained unchanged except that     
seats had been added for the raker and  
the driver4 ,it did no more than cut the
 grain and leave it on the ground in    
loose bundles4 ,it had abolished the    
sickler and the cradler2 but there yet  
remained the raker and the binder4      
,might it not be possible1 thought the  
restless ,american brain1 to abolish    
these also and leave no one but the     
driver8  ,this at once became a most    
popular and fascinating problem for     
inventors4 ,there was by this time      
everything to gain and nothing to lose  
by improving the ,reaper4 ,there was no 
opposition and no ridicule4 ,to cut     
grain by horse-power had become1 of     
course1 the only proper way of cutting  
it4 ,as many as #bj1jjj ,reapers of all 
kinds were made in #ahfj2 and           
,mc,cormick's factory had grown to be   
the pride of ,chicago4 ,it was #ij by   

#aej feet in size1 two stories high1 and
 gave work to about a hundred and twenty
 men4  ,as early as #aheb a fantastic   
self-rake ,reaper had been invented by a
 mechanical genius named ,jearum        
,atkins4 ,this man was a bed-ridden     
cripple1 who1 to while away the tiresome
 hours of his confinement1 bought a     
,mc,cormick ,reaper1 had it placed      
outside his window1 and actually devised
 an attachment to it which automatically
 raked off the cut grain in bundles4 ,it
 was a grotesque contrivance4 ,the      
farmers nicknamed it the ,iron ,man4 ,it
 consisted of an upright post1 with two 
revolving iron arms4 ,these arms whirled
 stiffly around1 windmill fashion1 and  
scraped the grain from the platform to  
the ground4  ,an amusing anecdote of    
this machine was told by ,henry         
,wallace1 known to all farmers of the   
,middle ,west as the founder of         
,wallace's ,farmer4 ,the first ,reaper  
that my father bought1 said ,mr4        
,wallace1 was a ,mc,cormick machine that

 had an ',iron ,man' on it4 ,the first  
day that it was driven into the grain it
 made such a clatter that the horses ran
 away4 ,it was certainly a terrifying   
sight as it rattled through the wheat1  
with its long1 rake-fingered arms flying
 and hurling the cut grain in the       
wildest disorder4 ,it was as good as a  
chariot race in a circus to the crowd of
 farmers1 who had come to see how the   
new machine would operate4 ,the next day
 my father tried again4 ,there had been 
rain during the night1 and the heavy    
machine stuck fast in the mud4 ,it had  
cost #cjj1 but my father took the ',iron
 ,man' off1 and during the remainder of 
that harvest we raked off the grain by  
hand4  ,a great variety of self-rake    
,reapers soon appeared1 and after #ahfj 
the farmers would buy no other kind4    
,thus a part of the problem had been    
solved4 ,the raker was abolished4 ,there
 now remained the much more difficult   
work of supplanting the binder--the man1
 or sometimes woman1 who gathered up the

 bundles of cut grain1 and1 making a    
crude rope of the grain itself1 bound it
 tightly around the middle1 making what 
was called a sheaf4 ,this was hard1     
back-breaking work1 intolerable when the
 sun was hot1 except to men of the      
strongest physique4 ,it required not    
strength only1 but skill4 ,ninety-nine  
farmers out of a hundred believed that  
it would always have to be done by hand4
 ,how can it be possible1 they asked1   
that a machine which is being dragged by
 horses over a rough field can at the   
same time be picking up grain and tying 
knots8  ,just then two young farmers    
near ,de ,kalb came to the rescue by    
inventing a new species of machine4 ,it 
was neither a ,reaper nor a self-binder4
 ,it was half-way between the two4 ,it  
was the missing link4 ,it appeared that 
an inventor named ,mann had taken a     
,mc,cormick ,reaper and built a moving  
platform upon it1 in such a way that the
 grain was carried up to a wagon which  
was drawn alongside4 ,these two young   

farmers had bought a ,mann machine1 and 
one of them1 when he saw it in          
operation1 originated a brilliant idea4 
,why should the grain be carried up to a
 wagon8 he asked4 ,why can't we put a   
foot-board on the machine1 for two of us
 to stand on1 and then bind the grain as
 fast as it is carried up8  ,this was   
the origin of the ,marsh ,harvester1    
which held the field for ten years or   
longer4 ,it did not abolish the man who 
bound1 but it gave him a chance to work 
twice as fast4 ,it compelled him to be  
quick4 ,it saved him the trouble of     
walking from bundle to bundle4 ,it      
enabled him to stand erect4 ,and best of
 all1 it put half a dozen inventors on  
the right line of thought4 ,plainly1    
what was needed now was to teach a      
,marsh ,harvester to tie knots4  ,one   
evening in #ahgd a tall man1 with a box 
under his arm1 walked diffidently up the
 steps of the ,mc,cormick home in       
,chicago1 and rang the bell4 ,he asked  
to see ,mr4 ,mc,cormick1 and was shown  

into the parlor1 where he found ,mr4    
,mc,cormick1 sitting as usual in a large
 and comfortable chair4  ,my name is    
,withington1 said the stranger4 ,i live 
in ,janesville1 ,wisconsin4 ,i have here
 a model of a machine that will         
automatically bind grain4 ,now1 it so   
happened that ,mc,cormick had been kept 
awake nearly the whole of the previous  
night by a stubborn business problem4   
,he could scarcely hold his eyelids     
apart4 ,and when ,withington was in the 
midst of his explanation1 with the      
intentness of a born inventor1          
,mc,cormick fell fast asleep4  ,at such 
a reception to his cherished machine1   
,withington lost heart4 ,he was a       
gentle1 sensitive man1 easily rebuffed1 
and so1 when ,mc,cormick aroused from   
his nap1 ,withington had departed and   
was on his way back to ,wisconsin4 ,for 
a few seconds ,mc,cormick was uncertain 
as to whether his visitor had been a    
reality or a dream4 ,then he awoke with 
a start into instant action4 ,a great   

opportunity had come to him and he had  
let it slip4 ,he was at this time making
 self-rake ,reapers and ,marsh          
,harvesters2 but what he wanted--what   
every ,reaper manufacturer wanted in    
#ahgd--was a self-binder4 ,he at once   
called to him one of his trusted        
workmen4  ,i want you to go to          
,janesville1 he said4 ,find a man named 
,withington1 and bring him to me by the 
first train that comes back to ,chicago4
  ,the next day ,withington was brought 
back and treated with the utmost        
courtesy4 ,mc,cormick studied his       
invention and found it to be a most     
remarkable mechanism4 ,two steel arms   
caught each bundle of grain1 whirled a  
wire tightly around it1 fastened the two
 ends together with a twist1 cut it     
loose and tossed it to the ground4 ,this
 self-binder was perfect in all its     
details--as neat and effective a machine
 as could be imagined4 ,mc,cormick was  
delighted4 ,at last1 here was a machine 
that would abolish the binding of grain 

by hand4  ,a bargain was made with      
,withington on the spot2 and the        
following ,july a self-binder was tried 
on the ,sherwood farm1 near ,elgin1     
,illinois4 ,it cut fifty acres of wheat 
and bound every bundle without a slip4  
,from this time onwards no one was      
needed but a man1 a boy1 a girl1        
anybody1 who could hold the reins and   
drive a team of horses4 ,of the ten or  
twelve sweating drudges who toiled in   
the harvest-field1 all were now to be   
set free--the sicklers1 cradlers1       
rakers1 binders--every one except the   
driver1 and he 7or she7 was to have the 
glory of riding on the triumphal chariot
 of a machine that did all the work     
itself4  ,there were ten men working in 
my wheat-field in the old days1 said an 
,illinois farmer4 ,but to-day our hired 
girl climbs upon the spring seat of a   
self-binder and does the whole business4
  ,mc,cormick was not the first to make 
one of these magical machines4 ,there   
was an able and enterprising            

manufacturer in ,new ,york ,state1      
,walter ,a4 ,wood1 who in #ahgc had made
 three ,withington binders1 under the   
supervision of ,sylvanus ,d4 ,locke1 who
 had been a co-worker with ,withington4 
,mc,cormick had given ,wood his start1  
as early as #ahec1 by selling him a     
license to make ,reapers2 and ,wood1 by 
his high personal qualities1 had built  
up a most extensive business4 ,but      
,mc,cormick was the first to make       
self-binders upon a large scale4 ,he    
made #ej1jjj of the ,withington         
machines1 and pushed them with          
irresistible energy4  ,illustration3    
,,the ,,first ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k         
,,self-,,rake ,,reaping ,,machine  ,he  
originated a new method of advertising  
the self-binders among the farmers4     
,special flat-cars were provided for him
 by the railroads4 ,upon each one of    
these cars a binder was placed1 in the  
charge of an expert4 ,these cars1 during
 the harvest season1 were attached to   
ordinary freight trains2 and whenever   

the train came to a busy wheat-field it 
was stopped for an hour or more1 the    
self-binder was rushed from the car to  
the field1 and an exhibition of its     
skill given to the wondering farmers4   
,then it was put back on its car1 and   
the train resumed its leisurely course  
until it arrived at the next scene of   
harvesting4  ,the sensitive-natured     
inventor1 ,charles ,b4 ,withington1 who 
gave such timely aid to ,mc,cormick1 was
 one of the most romantic knights-errant
 of industry in his generation4 ,born   
near ,akron a year before ,mc,cormick   
invented his ,reaper1 he was trained by 
his father to be a watchmaker4 ,at      
fifteen1 to earn some pocket-money1 he  
went into the harvest field to bind     
grain4 ,he was not robust1 and the hard1
 stooping labor under a hot sun would   
sometimes bring the blood to his head in
 a hemorrhage4 ,there were times after  
the day's work was done when he was too 
weary to walk home1 and would throw     
himself upon the stubble to rest4  ,at  

eighteen he set out to find his fortune 
in the far ,west1 became a ,forty-niner1
 drifted to ,australia1 and in #ahee    
came back to ,janesville1 ,wisconsin1   
with three thousand dollars or more in  
his belt4 ,all this money he proceeded  
to fritter away on the invention of a   
self-rake ,reaper--a crazy scheme1 as   
the townspeople called it4 ,as it       
happened1 the whole southern region of  
,wisconsin was being stirred up at that 
time by the speeches of an inventive    
,madison editor1 who went by the name of
 ,pump ,carpenter4 ,carpenter's hobby   
was that the binding of grain must be   
done by machinery4 ,he was eloquent and 
popular1 and his arguments were         
substantiated by a little model which he
 was accustomed to carry about with him4
 ,withington heard him speak and was    
converted4 ,he dropped his self-rake    
reaper and went to work upon a          
self-binder4 ,he completed his first    
machine in #ahgb1 and was thrust from   
one discouragement to another until two 

years later he met ,mc,cormick4  ,it is 
a most interesting fact1 and certainly  
not an accidental one1 that the group of
 noted inventors who together produced  
the self-binder all appeared from the   
region south of ,madison1 which had been
 so aroused by the eloquence of ,pump   
,carpenter4 ,besides ,c4 ,b4            
,withington1 there were ,sylvanus ,d4   
,locke1 also of ,janesville1 ,h4 ,a4    
,holmes1 of ,beloit1 ,john ,f4 ,appleby1
 of ,mazomanie1 ,w4 ,w4 ,burson1 ,jacob 
,behel1 ,george ,h4 ,spaulding1 and     
,marquis ,l4 ,gorham1 of ,rockford4     
,until #ahhj1 all went well with        
,mc,cormick and the ,withington         
self-binder4 ,apparently1 the process of
 invention had ceased4 ,the ,reaper had 
become of age4 ,this miraculous         
wire-twisting machine was working       
everywhere with clock-like precision1   
and was believed to be the best that    
human ingenuity could devise4 ,then1    
like a bolt of lightning from a blue    
sky1 came the news that ,william        

,deering had made and sold #c1jjj twine 
self-binders1 and that the farmers had  
all at once become prejudiced against   
the use of wire4 ,wire1 they said1 got  
mixed with the straw and killed their   
cattle4 ,wire fell in the wheat and made
 trouble in the flour-mills4 ,wire cut  
their hands4 ,wire cluttered up their   
barn-yards4 ,they would have no more to 
do with wire4 ,what they wanted and must
 have was twine4  ,william ,deering1 the
 newcomer who had caused this           
disturbance1 became in a flash          
,mc,cormick's ablest competitor4 ,he had
 entered the business eight years before
 with a running start1 having been a    
successful dry goods merchant in ,maine4
 ,his geneology in the harvester        
industry shows that he had become an    
active partner of ,e4 ,h4 ,gammon in    
#ahgb4 ,gammon1 who had formerly been a 
,methodist preacher in ,maine1 had      
started as an agent for ,seymour and    
,morgan of ,brockport1 which firm had   
been licensed by ,mc,cormick in #ahde4  

,deering was the first highly skilled   
business man to enter the harvester     
trade4 ,he was not a farmer's son1 like 
,mc,cormick4 ,he was city-bred and      
factory trained4 ,and in #ahhj he staked
 practically his whole fortune upon the 
making of #c1jjj twine self-binders1 and
 won4  ,cyrus ,mc,cormick saw at a      
glance that the wire self-binder must   
go4 ,it was his policy to give the      
farmers what they wanted1 rather than to
 force upon them an unpopular machine4  
,so he called to his aid a mechanical   
genius named ,marquis ,l4 ,gorham--one  
of those who had been lured into the    
quest of a self-binder by the insistence
 of ,pump ,carpenter4 ,gorham's most    
valuable contribution was a self-sizing 
device1 by which all bound sheaves were 
made to be the same size4 ,by the time  
that the grain stood ripe and yellow the
 following season1 ,gorham had prepared 
a twine self-binder that worked well1   
and ,mc,cormick1 yielding to this sudden
 hostility against wire1 pushed the     

,gorham machine with the full force of  
his great organization4  ,this evolution
 of the ,reaper into the twine          
self-binder was a momentous event4 ,it  
tremendously increased the sales4 ,there
 were #fj1jjj machines of all kinds sold
 in #ahhj1 and #bej1jjj in #ahhe4 ,and  
it strikingly decreased the number of   
manufacturers4 ,there were a hundred or 
more until the appearance of the twine  
binder3 and all but twenty-two fell out 
of the race4 ,some of these were driven 
out by the expensive war of patents that
 now ensued4 ,but most of them gave up  
the contest for lack of capital4 ,the   
era of big production had arrived1 and  
the little hand-labor shops could not   
produce an intricate self-binder for the
 low price at which they were being     
sold4  ,even ,mc,cormick lost heavily at
 first1 before a truce was called in    
this battle of the binders4 ,one lawsuit
 cost him more than #bbe1jjj and one    
experiment1 with what was called a      
low-down binder1 cost him #hj1jjj4 ,he  

was as determined as ever not to be     
beaten2 and although he was at this time
 over seventy years of age1 and sorely  
crippled by rheumatism1 he straightway  
entered into a trade war with ,deering1 
which was not ended until #aijb4 ,many  
of the older workmen who are now        
employed in the ,mc,cormick works can   
remember the stress and strain of those 
battling years1 and how their           
indomitable old leader1 at times when he
 was unable to walk1 would have himself 
pushed in a wheeled chair through the   
various buildings of his immense plant1 
to make sure that every part of the     
great mechanism was working smoothly4   
,of all the competitors who had fought  
him in the early days1 before the ,civil
 ,war1 there were few now remaining4    
,hussey1 his first antagonist1 had sold 
out to a mowing machine syndicate in    
#ahfa4 ,emerson1 ,seymour1 and ,morgan  
had decided not to make self-binders4   
,jerome ,fassler1 of ,springfield1      
,ohio1 took his fortune of two million  

dollars and went to ,new ,york ,city in 
#ahhb with a scheme to build a subway4  
,manny was dead1 and very few were      
living of those who had seen the ,reaper
 of #ahca4  ,john ,p4 ,adriance1 of     
,poughkeepsie1 had survived4 ,he was a  
gentle-natured man1 who was content with
 a small and safe percentage of the     
business4 ,byron ,e4 ,huntley1 of       
,batavia1 had also built up a small1 but
 solidly based1 enterprise4 ,he had been
 the office-boy1 in #ahde1 in the       
factory where the first hundred         
,mc,cormick ,reapers were made2 and he  
had been a manufacturer on his own      
account since #ahej4 ,he1 too1 was a    
quiet1 dignified man1 very highly       
esteemed in both the ,united ,states and
 ,europe4 ,lewis ,miller1 who deserves  
most credit as the creator of the mower1
 continued to do business at ,akron4    
,mr4 ,miller was almost equally famous  
as a ,methodist and the originator of   
the ,chautauqua idea4 ,at ,auburn1 ,n4  
,y41 ,david ,m4 ,osborne was fighting   

manfully to keep in the race4 ,he had   
built seven ,reapers as early as #ahef2 
and had made many friends by his ability
 and uprightness4 ,at ,hoosick ,falls1  
,n4 ,y41 there was ,walter ,a4 ,wood--a 
most competent and enterprising man2 at 
,plano1 ,illinois1 there was ,william   
,h4 ,jones--self-made and as honest as  
the soil2 and at ,springfield1 ,ohio1   
were the picturesque ,william ,n4       
,whiteley and the powerful company of   
,warder1 ,bushnell1 and ,glessner4      
,whiteley was an inventor who had       
changed a ,mc,cormick ,reaper into what 
he called a combined machine--a combined
 ,reaper and mower4 ,and ,warder1       
,bushnell1 and ,glessner had begun to   
make ,mc,cormick ,reapers1 by means of a
 license from ,seymour and ,morgan1 in  
#aheb4  ,illustration3 ,,cyrus ,,hall   
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k1 #aheh  ,such were the
 most notable men who1 together with    
,mc,cormick and ,deering1 began in #ahhj
 or soon afterwards to manufacture the  
new knot-tying device that had become   

necessary to the ,reaper4 ,as for ,cyrus
 ,h4 ,mc,cormick himself1 he lived to   
see it the universal grain-cutter of all
 civilized countries4 ,he lived to see  
it perfected into one of the most       
astonishing mechanisms known to man--an 
almost rational machine that cuts the   
grain1 carries it on a canvas escalator 
up to steel hands that shape it into    
bundles1 tie a cord around it as neatly 
as could be done by a sailor1 and cut   
the cord2 after which the bound sheaf is
 pushed into a basket and held until    
five of them have been collected1       
whereupon they are dropped carefully    
upon the ground4  ,since #ahhd there has
 been no essential change in the fashion
 of the self-binder4 ,it is the same    
to-day as when ,mc,cormick was alive4   
,in the span of his single life the     
,reaper was born and grew to its full   
maturity4 ,he saw its ,alpha and its    
,omega4 ,best of all1 he saw not only   
its humble arrival1 in a remote         
,virginia settlement1 but1 as we shall  

see1 he saw it become the plaything of  
,emperors1 the marvel of ,siberian      
plainsmen1 the liberator of the         
land-serf in twenty countries1 and the  
bread-machine of one-half of the human  
race4     ,,chapter ,,viii  ,,the       
,,conquest ,,of ,,europe   ,by #ahej    
,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick was ready for new
 business4 ,he now had a factory of his 
own1 and the assistance of his brothers1
 ,william and ,leander4 ,he had a score 
of busy agents and a few thousand       
dollars in the bank4 ,he had fought down
 the ridicule of the farm-hands4 ,it was
 only six years since he had set out    
from his ,virginian farm with #cjj in   
his belt and the ,idea of the ,reaper in
 his brain2 but in those six years he   
had worked mightily and succeeded4 ,his 
,reapers were now clicking merrily in   
more than three thousand ,american      
wheat-fields4 ,so1 it was a natural     
thing that in the first flush of        
victory1 he should look across the sea  
for more worlds to conquer4  ,there was 

at that time no general demand for      
,reapers in any ,european country4      
,labor was plentiful and cheap--forty   
cents a day in ,great ,britain and about
 half as much in ,germany and ,france4  
,in ,austria and ,russia the farm       
laborers received no wages at all4 ,they
 were serfs4 ,there was no economic     
reason why serfs should be replaced by  
machinery4 ,they had first to become    
free and expensive to employ1 before    
this ,reaper1 this product of a free    
republic1 could set them free from the  
drudgery of the harvest4  ,england had  
been the first ,european country to     
abolish this serfdom4 ,several centuries
 before1 the ravages of the ,black      
,death had made farm laborers so scarce 
that their rights had begun to be       
respected4 ,also1 the upgrowth of the   
factory system and the development of   
,english shipping had called thousands  
of men away from the fields1 and raised 
the wages of those who were left behind4
 ,and the falling off in profits was    

compelling many ,english land-owners to 
study better methods of farming1 and to 
favor the introduction of farm          
machinery4  ,fortunately for            
,mc,cormick1 he had no sooner begun to  
think of foreign trade than there came  
the famous ,london ,exposition of #ahea4
 ,this mammoth ,exhibition was to ,great
 ,britain what the ,chicago ,world's    
,fair of #ahic was to the ,united       
,states--magnificent evidence of        
industrial progress4 ,its main promoter 
had been ,prince ,albert1 the husband of
 ,queen ,victoria1 and its success gave 
the keenest pleasure to the young       
,queen4 ,in a letter written to the     
,king of the ,belgians1 she thus        
describes her impressions upon the      
opening day3  ,my dearest ,uncle1 she   
writes1 ,i wish you could have witnessed
 the #ast ,may1 #ahea1 the greatest day 
in our history1 the most beautiful and  
imposing and touching spectacle ever    
seen1 and the triumph of my beloved     
,albert4 ,truly it was astonishing1 a   

fairy scene4 ,many cried1 and all felt  
touched and impressed with devotional   
feelings4 ,it was the happiest1 proudest
 day in my life1 and ,i can think of    
nothing else4 ,you will be astounded at 
this great work when you see it4 ,the   
beauty of the building and the vastness 
of it all6  ,the crowning jewel of this 
,exposition was the priceless           
,koh-i-noor diamond1 which the ,queen   
had received from ,india the previous   
year1 and had loaned to the ,exposition 
managers4 ,for five thousand years1 so  
the legend ran1 this diamond had been   
one of the most precious treasures of   
,asia4 ,it had been worn by the hero    
,karna4 ,and it had been so often the   
most coveted prize in war that there was
 a ,hindoo saying--,whoever possesses   
the ,koh-i-noor has conquered his       
enemies4  ,most of the courts of ,europe
 had sent some dazzling treasure4 ,there
 were tapestries from the ,viceroy of   
,egypt1 and rugs from the ,sultan of    
,turkey1 and silks from the ,king of    

,spain4 ,there were marbles from ,paris1
 and paintings from ,dresden1 and       
embroideries from ,vienna4 ,and in the  
midst of this resplendent ,exposition1  
surrounded and outshone by the exhibits 
of ,russia1 ,austria1 and ,france1 lay a
 shabby collection of odds and ends from
 the ,united ,states4  ,for three weeks 
the ,american department was the joke of
 the ,exposition4 ,it was nicknamed the 
,prairie ,ground4 ,it had no jewels1 nor
 silks1 nor golden candelabra4 ,there   
were only such preposterous things as   
,dick's ,press1 ,borden's ,meat         
,biscuit1 ,st4 ,john's ,soap1 and       
,mc,cormick's ,reaper4 ,this last       
contraption was the most preposterous of
 all4 ,it was said to be a cross between
 an ,astley chariot1 a wheelbarrow1 and 
a flying-machine4 ,it was unlike        
anything else that ,english eyes had    
ever seen1 and by all odds the queerest 
and most ungainly thing that lay under  
the glass roof of the ,crystal ,palace4 
,undeniably it was the ,ugly ,duckling  

of the ,american exhibit4  ,but one day 
there came to the ,reaper booth a       
remarkable ,anglo-,italian named ,john  
,j4 ,mechi4 ,his father had been the    
barber of ,george ,,iii41 and he        
himself1 by the invention of a ,magic   
,razor ,strop1 had made a fortune4 ,his 
hobby was scientific farming1 and he was
 hungry for new methods and new ideas4  
,at the time of the ,exposition1 his    
farm1 which lay not far from ,london1   
had become the most famous experimental 
ground in ,england4 ,therefore1 when he 
spied this new contrivance called a     
,reaper1 he proposed that it be taken   
out to his farm and put to the test4    
,this was done on ,july twenty-fourth4  
,in spite of a pouring rain1 there were 
present a group of judges and two       
hundred farmers4 ,lord ,ebrington was   
there1 and ,prince ,frederick of        
,holstein1 and several other titled     
agriculturists4 ,one other machine was  
to be tested1 besides ,mc,cormick's4 ,it
 was put into the grain first and was at

 once seen to be a failure4 ,it broke   
down the grain instead of cutting it4   
,seeing this mishap1 several of the     
farmers said to ,mr4 ,mechi1 ,you had   
better stop this trial1 because it is   
destroying your grain4 ,whereupon ,mr4  
,mechi made one of the noblest replies  
that can be found in the annals of      
progress4 ,gentlemen1 he said1 this is a
 great experiment for the benefit of my 
country4 ,when a new principle is about 
to be established1 individual interests 
must always give way4 ,if it is         
necessary for the success of this test1 
you may take my seventy acres of wheat4 
,then came the ,mc,cormick ,reaper1     
driven by an expert named ,mackenzie4   
,it swept down the field like a chariot 
of war1 with whirling reel and          
clattering blade--seventy-four yards in 
seventy seconds4 ,it was a miracle4     
,such a thing had never before been seen
 by ,europeans4 ,this is a triumph for  
the ,american ,reaper1 said the         
delighted ,mechi4 ,it has done its work 

completely2 and the day will come when  
this machine will cut all the grain in  
,england4 ,now1 he continued1 swinging  
his hat1 let us1 as ,englishmen1 show   
our appreciation by giving three hearty 
,english cheers4  ,horace ,greeley1 who 
was present on this occasion1 described 
the victory of the ,mc,cormick ,reaper  
as follows3--,it came into the field to 
confront a tribunal already prepared for
 its condemnation4 ,before it stood     
,john ,bull--burly1 dogged1 and         
determined not to be humbugged1--his    
judgment made up and his sentence ready 
to be recorded4 ,there was a moment1 and
 but a moment1 of suspense2 then human  
prejudice could hold out no longer2 and 
burst after burst of involuntary cheers 
from the whole crowd proclaimed the     
triumph of the ,yankee ,reaper4 ,in     
seventy seconds ,mc,cormick had become  
famous4 ,he was the lion of the hour2   
and had he brought five hundred ,reapers
 with him1 he could have sold them all4 
,suddenly the ,ugly ,duckling had become

 a swan4 ,the glory of the ,reaper began
 to rival that of the ,koh-i-noor4      
,mc,cormick was given not only a ,first 
,prize but a ,council ,medal1 such as   
was usually awarded only to ,kings and  
,governments4 ,the ,london ,times1 which
 had led the jeering1 became now the    
loudest in the chorus of approval4 ,the 
,reaping machine from the ,united       
,states1 said the ,times editor1 is the 
most valuable contribution from abroad1 
to the stock of our previous knowledge1 
that we have yet discovered4 ,it is     
worth the whole cost of the ,exposition4
 ,also1 speaking on behalf of the       
,english people1 ,sir ,henry ,lytton    
,bulwer said1 ,for all manly and        
practical purposes1 the place of the    
,united ,states is at the head of the   
poll4 ,where1 out of ,america1 shall we 
get a pistol like ,mr4 ,colt's1 to kill 
our eight enemies in a second1 or a     
reaping machine like ,mr4 ,mc,cormick's1
 to clear out twenty acres of wheat in a
 day8  ,on the whole1 this ,exposition  

gave the ,united ,states its first      
opportunity to answer the unpleasant    
questions that ,sidney ,smith had asked 
in #ahbj4 ,what have the ,americans     
done1 he had asked1 for the arts and    
sciences8 ,where are their ,arkwrights1 
their ,watts1 their ,davys8 ,here he was
 answered by the ,mc,cormick ,reaper1   
the ,colt revolver1 the ,hobbs lock1 the
 ,morse telegraph1 the ,howe            
sewing-machine1 the ,deere plow1 and the
 ,hoe press4 ,and1 as if to make the    
triumph of ,american invention complete1
 it was in this year that the yacht     
,america easily out-classed the famous  
yachts of ,england in a great race at   
,cowes1 and that the ,american steamer  
,baltic1 of the ,collins ,line1 broke   
all the ocean records and became the    
speediest vessel on the high seas4      
,this ,exposition did much for          
,mc,cormick4 ,it was the first          
appreciation of his work1 in a large    
way1 that he had received4 ,it was a    
welcome change after twenty strenuous   

years4 ,it gave him the distinction that
 a naturally strong nature craved1 and  
secured the friendship of such eminent  
men as ,junius ,morgan1 ,george         
,peabody1 ,j4 ,j4 ,mechi1 and ,lord     
,granville4 ,from a business point of   
view1 also1 the ,exposition was of great
 service to ,mc,cormick4 ,it enabled him
 to draw up a new plan of campaign for  
the foreign trade4  ,in the ,united     
,states1 he had made his appeal directly
 to the mass of the farmers4 ,in ,europe
 he could not do this4 ,the vast bulk of
 the farmers here were tenants or serfs4
 ,but it was also true1 he observed1    
that the ,kings of ,europe1 and the     
members of the nobility1 were           
land-owners4 ,here was his chance4 ,he  
would begin at the top4 ,he would sell  
his ,reapers to the kings4  ,he noticed 
that kings and queens were not the      
remote and inaccessible personages that 
he had believed them to be4 ,prince     
,albert was plainly more interested in  
farm machinery than in the ,koh-i-noor4 

,the one prize which was awarded to him 
personally was for a model cottage1 in  
which a workingman's family might live  
with greater comfort4 ,and one morning1 
while ,mc,cormick was giving attention  
to his ,reaper1 the ,queen and her      
ten-year-old son 7now the ,king of      
,england7 walked past and had a view of 
the ,american ,reaping machine that had 
been so widely ridiculed and praised4   
,mc,cormick had to hurry back to the    
,united ,states1 on account of a patent 
suit that was then in full swing2 but   
before he left ,england he established  
an agency in ,london1 and started a     
vigorous campaign among the titled      
land-owners4 ,he prepared a statement1  
showing that even at the low rate of    
wages that were paid on ,english farms a
 ,reaper would mean a handsome saving to
 ,english wheat-growers4 ,but he did not
 depend upon the argument of economy4   
,he placed his reliance also upon the   
fact that the ,reaper had become the    
playtoy of kings1 and that their fancy  

would presently make it the fashion4    
,four years later he went with another  
,reaper to an ,exposition at ,paris1 won
 the ,gold ,medal1 and sold his machine 
to the ,emperor4 ,then1 in #ahfb1 with  
his wife and young son and daughter1 he 
made his headquarters in ,london1 and   
opened up a two-years' campaign in      
,great ,britain1 ,germany1 and ,france4 
,up to this time the foreign trade had  
grown but slowly4 ,all ,european        
countries combined were not buying more 
than half a million dollars' worth of   
farm machinery a year from              
,americans--less than we sell them now  
in five days4 ,so ,mc,cormick exerted   
himself to the utmost4  ,he held field  
tests to awaken the farmers4 ,he        
advertised and organized4 ,there were   
now several dozen other manufacturers in
 the field1 all making ,reapers more or 
less like ,mc,cormick's2 and he gave    
battle to them at ,london1 ,lille1 and  
,hamburg4 ,after the ,hamburg contest1  
,joseph ,a4 ,wright1 the ,united ,states

 ,commissioner1 cabled to ,new ,york3   
,mc,cormick has thrashed all nations and
 walked off with the ,gold ,medal4      
,again1 in #ahfg1 ,mc,cormick had a     
notable time at ,paris4 ,the ,emperor   
,napoleon ,,iii41 then in the last days 
of his inherited glory1 permitted       
,mc,cormick to give a sort of ,reaper   
matine on the royal estate at ,chlons4  
,the ,emperor was present1 at first on  
horseback1 and then on foot4 ,the sun   
was hot1 and presently he said to       
,mc,cormick1 ,if you will allow me1     
,i'll come under your umbrella4 ,so the 
two men1 dramatically different in the  
tendencies they represented1 walked arm 
in arm behind the ,reaper1 and watched  
it automatically cut and rake off the   
grain4 ,the ,emperor was delighted4 ,he 
forgot for the moment his impending     
troubles1 and at once offered           
,mc,cormick the ,cross of the ,legion of
 ,honor4 ,this was1 in all probability1 
the last time that the coveted ,cross   
was conferred in ,france by the hand of 

a sovereign2 and the meeting of the two 
men was a highly impressive event1 the  
one man typifying a falling dynasty that
 had risen to greatness by the sword1   
and the other the founder of a new      
industry that was destined to bring     
peace and plenty to all nations alike4  
,two years later1 because of the clamor 
of ,mc,cormick's competitors1 a grand   
,field ,test was arranged by the ,german
 ,government at ,altenberg4             
,thirty-eight contestants entered the   
lists1 and after a most exciting        
tournament the judges awarded the ,gold 
,medal and a special prize of sixty     
ducats to ,mc,cormick4 ,such contests1  
from this time onward1 came thick and   
fast4 ,several days later ,mc,cormick   
swept the field at ,altona4 ,in #ahgc he
 was decorated by the ,austrian         
,emperor4 ,and in #ahgh the ,french     
,academy of ,science elected him a      
member1 for the reason that he had done 
more for the cause of agriculture than  
any other living man4  ,illustration3   

,,cyrus ,,hall ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k1 #ahfg 
,from ,painting by ,cabanel  ,from that 
time to the present day the making of   
,reapers and ,harvesters has remained an
 ,american business4 ,an ,american      
machine must pay twenty dollars to enter
 ,france1 and twenty-five to enter      
,hungary4 ,but try as they may1 other   
nations cannot learn the secret of the  
,reaper4 ,they cannot produce a machine 
that is at once so complex1 so hardy1   
and so efficient4 ,when ,bismarck1 at   
the close of his life1 was inspecting   
several ,american self-binders which he 
had bought for his farm at              
,fredericksruhe1 he asked1 ,why do they 
not make these machines in ,germany8 ,as
 we have seen1 had he wished a complete 
answer he would have had to read the    
history of the ,united ,states4 ,he     
would have seen that the ,reaper can be 
produced only in countries where labor  
receives a high reward1 where farmers   
own their own acres without fear of     
being despoiled by invading armies1 and 

where the average of intelligence and   
enterprise is as high in the country as 
in the city4  ,in #ahih ,europe had     
become so dependent upon ,america for   
its reaping machinery that #bb1jjj      
machines were shipped from the          
,mc,cormick plant alone--so many that a 
fleet of twelve vessels had to be       
chartered to carry them4 ,there are now 
as many ,american ,reapers and          
,harvesters in ,europe as can do the    
work of #ab1jjj1jjj men4 ,of all        
,american machines exported1 the ,reaper
 is at the head of the list4 ,it has    
been the chief pathfinder for our       
foreign trade4 ,four-fifths of all the  
harvesting machinery in the world is    
made in the ,united ,states2 and        
one-third1 perhaps more1 in the immense 
factory-city that ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick
 founded in ,chicago in #ahdg4  ,it was 
,mc,cormick's most solid satisfaction1  
in his later life1 to see foreign       
nations1 one by one1 adopt his invention
 and move up out of the ,famine ,zone4  

,no news was at any time more welcome to
 him than the tidings that a new        
territory had been entered4 ,and        
although the foreign trade has been     
vastly multiplied in the past five or   
six years1 he lived long enough to see  
his catalogue printed in twenty         
languages1 and to know that as long as  
the human race continued to eat bread1  
the sun would never set upon the empire 
of the ,reaper4     ,,chapter ,,ix      
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,as ,a ,,manufacturer
   ,if ,i had given up business1 ,i     
would have been dead long ago1 said     
,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick in #ahhd1 only a 
few weeks before his death2 and this    
statement was by no means an            
exaggeration4 ,his business was his     
life4 ,it was not a definite1 walled-off
 fraction of his life1 as with most men4
 ,it was the whole of it4 ,his business 
was his work1 his play1 his religion1   
his grand opera1 his education4 ,there  
was business even in his love-letters   
and his dreams4  ,mc,cormick believed in

 business4 ,he had the sturdy pride of a
 ,john ,halifax1 ,gentleman4 ,he never  
wanted to be anything else but a worker4
 ,he never wasted a breath in wishing   
for an easier life4 ,he worked hard for 
twenty-five years after he had made his 
fortune1 because he believed in work and
 commerce and the reciprocities of      
trade4 ,he was never dazzled nor        
deflected for a moment by the pomps and 
pageantries of the world1 and for the   
glory that springs from war he had very 
little respect4 ,in #ahdg1 when offering
 a place in his factory to his brother  
,leander1 he writes1 ,this will be as   
honorable an enterprise as to go to     
,mexico to be shot at4 ,and in later    
life1 in a conversation with ,general   
,lilley1 of ,virginia1 he said1 ,i      
expect to die in the harness1 because   
this is not the world for rest4 ,this is
 the world for work4 ,in the next world 
we will have the rest4  ,in the vast    
mass of letters1 papers1 etc41 left by  
,mr4 ,mc,cormick1 there is one mention1 

and only one1 of recreation4 ,after his 
first visit to the ,west1 in #ahdd1 he  
wrote to one of his brothers and        
described a hunting trip in which he    
shot three prairie chickens near        
,beloit4 ,but during the rest of his    
life1 he was too busy for sport4 ,his   
energy was the wonder of his friends and
 the despair of his employees4 ,his     
brain was not quick4 ,it was not        
marvellously keen nor marvellously      
intuitive4 ,but it was at work every    
waking moment1 like a great engine that 
never tires4  ,he was the most laborious
 worker ,i ever saw1 said one of his    
secretaries4 ,one of the words that     
annoyed him most was to-morrow4 ,he     
wanted things done to-day4 ,with regard 
to every important piece of work1 it was
 his instinct to do it now4 ,he abhorred
 delay and dawdling4 ,even as a boy1    
when sent on an errand1 he would set off
 upon a run4 ,walking was too slow4 ,and
 although he was in ,france on many     
occasions1 the ,french phrase that he   

knew best was ,depechez-vous4  ,his plan
 of work1 so far as he could be said to 
have a plan1 was this--,one ,thing at a 
,time1 and the ,hardest ,thing ,first4  
,he followed the line of most           
resistance4 ,if the hardest thing can be
 done1 he reasoned1 all the rest will   
follow4 ,and as for all work that was   
merely routine1 he left as much as      
possible of it to others4  ,he was not  
an organizer so much as a creator and a 
pioneer4 ,his problem was not like that 
which troubles the business men of      
to-day4 ,he was not grappling with the  
evils of competition1 nor with the      
higher questions of efficiency and      
community of interest4 ,he was making a 
business that had not existed4 ,he was  
clearing away obstacles that are now    
wholly forgotten4 ,consequently1 as each
 new difficulty appeared1 he had to     
consider it in all its details4 ,he     
could not pass it over to ,lieutenant   
,number ,one or ,lieutenant ,number     
,two4  ,mc,cormick was like a general   

who was leading an army into an unknown 
country rather than like the business   
man of the twentieth century1 who can   
travel by time-table and schedule4 ,when
 an obstacle blocked his path1 it had to
 be removed2 and until it was out of the
 way1 nothing else mattered4 ,thus it   
was impossible for ,mc,cormick to have  
business hours4 ,once his mind had      
applied itself to a problem1 he cared   
nothing for clocks and watches4         
,sometimes he would work on through the 
night1 hour after hour1 until the gray  
light of another day shone in the       
window4 ,on all these arduous occasions1
 he had no idea of time1 and he would   
allow no distractions nor interruptions4
 ,so rigid was this grasp of his mind   
that if his body rebelled and he fell   
asleep1 he would invariably when he woke
 take up the matter in hand at the exact
 point at which it had been left4 ,not  
even sleep could detach his mind from a 
task that was unfinished4  ,when        
anything was going well1 he let it      

alone4 ,as soon as his factory was in   
good running order1 he gave it little   
attention4 ,it was managed first by his 
brothers1 ,william and ,leander1 and    
afterwards by such thoroughly competent 
men as ,charles ,spring and ,e4 ,k4     
,butler4 ,the work that he chose to do  
himself was invariably new business4 ,he
 cared little for the mere making of    
money4 ,the success always pleased him  
much more than the profit4 ,he was at   
heart a builder1 and therefore when he  
had finished one structure1 he moved off
 and began another4  ,it is a remarkable
 fact that as an investor1 also1 he had 
no interest in businesses that were     
already established4 ,stocks were       
offered to him1 stocks that were safe   
and sure1 but he bought none of them4   
,the money that he invested outside of  
his own business was put into pioneering
 enterprises4 ,he bought land in        
,chicago and ,arizona4 ,he opened up    
gold mines in ,south ,carolina and      
,montana4 ,he supplied the capital for a

 company which set out to bring mahogany
 from ,san ,domingo4 ,he invested       
#ee1jjj in the ,tehuantepec             
,inter-,ocean ,railroad1 an ambitious   
attempt to join the ,atlantic and       
,pacific oceans by rail1 which was begun
 in #ahgi and came to an inglorious end 
several years later4 ,and he was one of 
that daring group of ,americans who     
planned and financed the ,union ,pacific
 ,railway--the first road that really   
joined sea to sea and reached to the    
farthest acre in the ,west4             
,illustration3 ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k        
,,reaper ,,cutting ,,on ,a ,,side ,,hill
 ,,in ,,pennsylvania  ,in all these     
undertakings he lost money1 except in   
the instances of ,chicago real estate   
and the ,union ,pacific4 ,by #ahhc he   
had several hundred thousand dollars    
invested in gold mines1 and yet had not 
received one dollar of profit4 ,it was  
the fascination of pioneering that had  
lured him4 ,he saw no charm1 as the     
gambler does1 in the risk itself4 ,the  

,wall ,street game he regarded as       
child's play4 ,the thing that gripped   
him was the developing of new material  
resources--the colonization of new      
lands--the mastery of whatever is       
hostile to the welfare of the human     
race4  ,another ,mc,cormick trait1 which
 is not usually found in men who have   
the pioneering instinct1 was            
,thoroughness4 ,he never said1 ,this is 
good enough1 or ,half a loaf is better  
than no bread4 ,he wanted what was right
 whether it came to him or went from    
him4 ,he never believed in a ninety per 
cent success4 ,he wanted par4 ,once his 
mind was fully aroused upon a subject1  
there was no detail too petty for him to
 consider4 ,he labored hard to be       
correct in matters that appeared        
trifling to other men4 ,even in his     
letters to members of his family1 the   
sentences were carefully formed1 and    
there were no misspelled words4 ,once he
 gave advice to a younger brother on the
 importance of spelling words correctly4

 ,you should carry a dictionary1 as ,i  
do1 he said4  ,all slovenliness1 whether
 of mind or body1 he abhorred4 ,to take 
thought about a matter and to do it as  
it ought to be done1 was to him a matter
 of character as well as of business4   
,when a telegram was submitted to him   
for approval1 it was his custom to draw 
a circle around the superfluous words4  
,this was a little lesson to his        
managers on the importance of brevity   
and exactness4 ,he insisted that clocks 
and watches should be correct1 and in   
his later life carried a fine repeater  
which could strike the hour in the night
 and in which he took an almost boyish  
pride4 ,once1 when he had been given the
 management of a political campaign in  
,chicago1 he created consternation among
 the politicians by the rigid way in    
which he supervised the expense         
accounts4 ,this will never do1 he said4 
,things are at loose ends4 ,if a bill   
was ten cents too much it went back4    
,one bill for #ae was held up for a week

 because it was not properly drawn4 ,the
 amazed politicians could not understand
 such a man1--who would readily sign a  
check for #aj1jjj1 and put it in the    
campaign treasury1 and yet make trouble 
about the misplacing of a dime of other 
people's money4  ,mc,cormick demanded   
absolute honesty from his employees4    
,one young man lost his chance of       
promotion because he was seen to place a
 two-cent stamp1 belonging to the firm1 
on one of his personal letters4 ,but    
once he had tested a man1 and found him 
to be pure gold1 he trusted him         
completely4 ,a new employee would be    
pelted with questions and complete      
answers insisted upon4 ,this was often a
 harsh ordeal4 ,it was irritating to a  
man of independent spirit1 until he     
realized that it was a sort of          
discipline and examination4  ,mc,cormick
 was always an optimist4 ,he was not one
 of those who said1 ,let well enough    
alone4  ,he never endured unsatisfactory
 business conditions4 ,when he found    

that the freight charges on ,reapers    
from ,virginia to ,cincinnati were too  
high1 he arranged to have ,reapers built
 in ,cincinnati4 ,when he found that    
other manufacturers were apt to be      
careless as to the quality of their     
materials1 he built a factory of his    
own4 ,again and again in the course of  
his life1 came the temptation to be     
satisfied with what he had already      
achieved4 ,but he could not endure the  
thought of being beaten4 ,instead of    
being content and complacent1 he was far
 more likely to be planning a wholly new
 policy1 on larger lines4  ,a daring    
proposition from a competent man always 
caught his attention4 ,once1 when he was
 sitting in his office1 he heard ,e4 ,k4
 ,butler1 who was at that time the head 
of his sales department1 protest that   
the factory was not making as many      
machines as it should4 ,it is sheer     
nonsense1 said ,butler1 to say that the 
factory is producing as much as it can4 
,if ,i were at the head of it1 ,i could 

double the output with very little extra
 expense4 ,most employers would have    
regarded this sort of talk as mere      
boastfulness1 but not so ,mc,cormick4   
,he knew that ,butler was a most        
adaptable and competent man1 so he      
called him into the office and          
straightway appointed him to be the     
superintendent of the factory4 ,butler  
was thus put upon his mettle4 ,he went  
out to the factory resolved that        
,mc,cormick's confidence in him should  
not be overthrown4 ,he routed the wastes
 and inefficiencies1 and keyed the whole
 plant up to such a pitch that1 in a    
remarkably short period1 he had made    
good his boast and doubled the output   
without hiring an extra man4  ,but the  
preminent quality in the character of   
,cyrus ,mc,cormick was not his power of 
concentration1 nor his spirit of        
pioneering1 nor his thoroughness4 ,it   
was his strength of will--his ,tenacity4
 ,this was the motif of his life4  ,he  
was not at all a shrewd accumulator of  

millions1 as many have imagined him4 ,he
 had not an iota of craft and cunning4  
,neither was he a financier1 in the     
modern sense4 ,it would be nearer the   
truth to say that he was a              
farmer-manufacturer1 of simple nature   
but tremendous resolution1 whose one    
overmastering life-purpose was to teach 
the wheat nations of the world to use   
his harvesting machinery4  ,the         
exhibition of his powerful will was at  
times actually terrible1 said one of his
 lawyers4 ,if any other man on this     
earth ever had such a will1 certainly ,i
 have not heard of it4  ,a drizzle of   
little annoyances and little matters    
always irritated him1 but he could stand
 up alone against a sea of adversity    
without a whimper4 ,in fact1 he would   
sooner be asked for a thousand dollars  
than for fifty cents4 ,he would storm   
over the loss of a carpet slipper and   
smile blandly at the loss of a lawsuit4 
,he made more fuss over a pin-prick1    
said one of his valets1 than he did over

 a surgical operation4 ,he disliked the 
petty odds and ends of life4 ,his mind  
was too massive to adapt itself readily 
to small matters4 ,but when a great     
difficulty came in view1 he rose and    
went at it with a sort of stern         
satisfaction and religious zeal4 ,he was
 so confident of his own strength1 and  
of the justice of his cause1 that it was
 almost a joy to him to--      ,breast  
the blows of circumstance1     ,and     
grasp the skirts of happy chance1       
,and grapple with his evil star4  ,a    
defeat never meant anything more to     
,mc,cormick than a delay4 ,often1 the   
harder he was thrown down the higher he 
would rebound4 ,again and again he was  
thwarted and blocked4 ,in the race of   
competition1 there was a time when he   
was beaten by ,whiteley1 and there was a
 time when he was beaten by ,deering4   
,most of his lawsuits were decided      
against him4 ,but no one ever saw him   
crushed or really disheartened4 ,in     
#ahgg1 after he had made a long hard    

struggle to become a ,united ,states    
,senator1 the news came to him that he  
was defeated4 ,well1 he said1 that's    
over4 ,what next8  ,illustration3       
,,reaper ,,drawn ,,by ,,oxen ,,in       
,,algeria  ,usually1 ,mc,cormick was at 
his best when the situation was at its  
worst4 ,his ,titanic work immediately   
after the great ,chicago ,fire of #ahga 
is the most striking evidence of this4  
,he had been living at the corner of    
,tenth ,street and ,fifth ,avenue1 in   
,new ,york ,city1 for four years before 
the ,fire2 but he was in ,chicago during
 the greatest of all ,illinois          
disasters4 ,in one day of fire and      
terror he saw his city reduced to a     
waste of ashes4 ,it was no longer a     
city4 ,it was two thousand acres of     
desolation4 ,he was himself in the midst
 of the fire-fighting4 ,when his wife1  
in response to his telegraphic message1 
came to him in ,chicago two days later1 
he met her wearing a half-burned hat and
 a half-burned overcoat4 ,his big       

factory1 which was at that time making  
about #aj1jjj harvesters a year1 was    
wholly destroyed4 ,in a flash he found  
himself without a city and without a    
business4  ,but ,mc,cormick never       
flinched4 ,the arrival of a great       
difficulty was always his cue4 ,first he
 ascertained his wife's wishes4 ,did she
 wish the factory to be rebuilt1 or did 
she want him to retire from active      
business life8 ,she1 thinking of her    
son1 said--,rebuild4 ,at once           
,mc,cormick became the most buoyant and 
confident citizen in the ruined city4   
,his great spirit was aroused4 ,he      
called up one of his attorneys and sent 
him in haste to the docks to buy lumber4
 ,he telegraphed to his agents to rush  
in as much money as they could collect4 
,every bank in the city had been burned1
 so for a time this money was kept by   
the cashier in a market basket1 and     
carried at night to a private house4    
,there was one day as much as #bd1jjj in
 the basket4 ,before the cinders were   

cool1 ,mc,cormick had given orders to   
build a new factory1 larger than the one
 that had been burned down4 ,more than  
this1 he had also given orders that his 
house in ,new ,york should be sold1 and 
that a home should be established in    
,chicago4 ,chicago was his city4 ,he had
 seen it grow from #aj1jjj to #cbe1jjj4 
,and in this hour of its distress he    
tossed aside all other plans and gave   
,chicago all he had4  ,his              
unconquerableness gave heart to others4 
,several of the wealthiest citizens1 who
 had lost courage1 rallied to the help  
of the city4 ,one merchant1 who had lost
 his store1 borrowed #ajj1jjj from      
,mc,cormick and started again4 ,and so  
,mc,cormick became not only one of the  
main builders of the first ,chicago1 but
 also of the second ,chicago1 which in  
less than three years had become larger 
and finer than the city that was4  ,it  
was this steel-fibred tenacity that was 
the main factor in the success of       
,mc,cormick1 whether we consider him as 

a manufacturer or as a great ,american4 
,it enabled him to establish the        
perilous industry of making harvesting  
machines--a business so complex and     
many-sided that out of every twenty     
manufacturers who set out to emulate    
,mc,cormick1 only one survives to-day4  
,it enabled ,mc,cormick to hold his own 
in spite of adverse litigation1 the     
hostility of ,congress1 the rivalry of  
other inventors1 and the calamity of the
 ,great ,fire4 ,it was so remarkable1   
and so productive of good to his country
 and to himself1 that he will always    
remain one of the creative and heroic   
figures in the early industrial history 
of the ,united ,states4     ,,chapter ,x
  ,,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,as ,a 
,,man   ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick was a    
great commercial ,thor4 ,he was six feet
 tall1 weighed two hundred pounds1 and  
had the massive shoulders of a wrestler4
 ,his body was well proportioned1 with  
small hands and feet4 ,his hair1 even in
 old age1 was very dark and waving4 ,his

 bearing was erect1 his manner often    
imperious1 and his general appearance   
that of a man built on large lines and  
for large affairs4  ,men of lesser      
caliber regarded him with fear1 not for 
any definite reason1 but because1 as    
,seneca has said--,in him that has      
power1 all men consider not what he has 
done1 but what he may do4 ,he was so    
strong1 so dominating1 so ready to crash
 through obstacles by sheer bulk of     
will-power1 that smaller men could never
 quite subdue a feeling of alarm while  
they were in his presence4 ,he was      
impatient of small talk and small       
criticisms and small objections4 ,he had
 no tact at retail1 and he saw no       
differences in little-minded people4    
,all his life he had been plagued and   
obstructed by the ,liliputians of the   
world1 and he had no patience to listen 
to their chattering4 ,he was often as   
rude as ,carlyle to those who tied their
 little threads of pessimism across his 
path4  ,at fashionable gatherings he    

would now and then be seen--a dignified 
figure2 but his mind was almost too     
ponderous an engine to do good service  
in a light conversation4 ,if a subject  
did not interest him1 he had nothing to 
say4 ,what gave him1 perhaps1 the       
highest degree of social pleasure1 was  
the entertaining1 at his house1 of such 
men as ,horace ,greeley1 ,william ,h4   
,seward1 ,peter ,cooper1 ,abram ,s4     
,hewitt1 ,george ,peabody1 ,junius      
,morgan1 ,cyrus ,w4 ,field1 or some old 
friend from ,virginia4  ,his long years 
of pioneering had made him a            
self-sufficient man1 and a man who lived
 from within4 ,he did not pick up his   
opinions on the streets4 ,his mind was  
not open to any chance idea4 ,he had    
certain clear1 definite convictions1    
logical and consistent4 ,what he knew1  
he knew4 ,there were no hazy imaginings 
in his mind4 ,the main secret of his    
power lay in his ability to focus all   
his energies upon a few subjects4 ,once1
 in #ahdh1 he mentioned the ,french     

,revolution in one of his letters4 ,it  
is a mighty affair1 he wrote1 and will  
be likely to stand4 ,but usually he paid
 little attention to the world-dramas   
that were being enacted4 ,he was too    
busy--too devoted to affairs which1 if  
he did not attend to them1 would not be 
attended to at all4  ,mc,cormick was a  
product of the ,protestant ,reformation1
 and of the capitalistic development    
that came with it4 ,the whole structure 
of his character was based upon the two 
great dogmas of the ,reformation--the   
sovereignty of ,god and the direct      
responsibility of the individual4       
,whoever would know the springs at which
 his life was fed must read the story of
 ,luther1 ,calvin1 and ,knox4 ,they must
 call to mind the attitude of ,luther at
 the ,diet of ,worms1 when he faced the 
men who had the power to take his life  
and said1 ,here ,i stand4 ,i can do no  
other4 ,they must recollect how these   
three men1 who were leaders of nations1 
not sects1 stood out alone against the  

kings and ecclesiasticisms of ,europe1  
without wealth1 without armies1 without 
anything except a higher ,moral ,idea1  
and succeeded so mightily they actually 
changed the course of empires and became
 the pathfinders of the human race4     
,mc,cormick was so essentially a result 
of this religio-economic movement that  
it is impossible to separate his        
religion and his business life4 ,he was 
an individualist through and through--as
 well marked a type of the ,covenanter  
in commerce as the ,united ,states has  
ever produced4 ,he believed in          
presbyters in religion1 private         
capitalists in business1 and elected    
representatives in government4 ,he was  
opposed to feudalism and bureaucracy in 
all their myriad forms4 ,he held the    
middle ground1 the via media1 between   
the over-organization of the fourteenth 
century1 when the rights of the         
individual were forgotten1 and the lax  
liberalism of to-day1 when too much is  
left to individual whim and caprice1 and

 when duties and responsibilities are   
too apt to be ignored4  ,above all      
constituted authorities stood a man's   
own conscience4 ,this was ,mc,cormick's 
faith1 and it was this that made him the
 fighter that he was4 ,it gave him      
courage and the fortitude that is rarer 
than courage4 ,it compelled him to      
oppose his own political party at the   
,baltimore ,convention of #ahfa4 ,it    
made him stand single-handed against his
 fellow-manufacturers1 in defence of his
 rights as an inventor4 ,it enabled him 
to beat down the ,pennsylvania          
,railroad1 after a twenty-three year    
contest1 and to prove that a great      
corporation cannot lawfully do an       
injustice to an individual4  ,mc,cormick
 was nourished on this virile           
,calvinistic faith from the time when he
 first learned to read out of the       
,shorter ,catechism and the ,bible4 ,it 
had been the faith of his fathers for   
generations1 and it was bred into him   
from boyhood4 ,nevertheless1 according  

to the practice of the ,presbyterians1  
there had to come a time when he himself
 openly made his choice4 ,this occasion 
came in #ahcd1 when ,mc,cormick was     
twenty-five years of age4 ,a four-day   
meeting was being held in the little    
stone church on his grandfather's farm4 
,three ministers were in charge4 ,as was
 the custom1 there was constant         
preaching from morning until sundown1   
with an hour's respite for dinner4 ,at  
the close of the fourth day1 all who    
wished to become avowed ,christians were
 requested to stand up4 ,cyrus          
,mc,cormick was there1 and he was not a 
member of the church2 yet he did not    
stand up4 ,that night his father went to
 his bedside and gently reproached him4 
,my son1 he said1 don't you know that   
your silence is a public rejection of   
your ,saviour8 ,cyrus was               
conscience-stricken4 ,he leapt from his 
bed and began to dress himself4 ,i'll go
 and see old ,billy ,mc,clung1 he said4 
,half an hour later1 old ,billy         

,mc,clung1 who was a universally        
respected religious leader in the       
community1 was amazed to be called out  
of his sleep by a greatly troubled young
 man1 who wanted to know by what means  
he might make his peace with his ,maker4
 ,the next ,sunday this young man stood 
up in the church1 and became in name    
what he already was by nature and       
inheritance--a ,christian of the        
,presbyterian faith4  ,after he left    
home his letters to the members of his  
family are strewn with scraps of        
religious reflection4 ,in #ahde1 for    
instance1 he writes1 ,business is not   
inconsistent with ,christianity2 but the
 latter ought to be a help to the       
former1 giving a confidence and         
resignation1 after using all proper     
means2 and yet ,i have sometimes felt   
that ,i came so far short of the right  
feeling1 so worldly-minded1 that ,i     
could wish myself out of the world4 ,on 
another occasion1 when he was struggling
 with manufacturers who had broken their

 contracts1 he wrote1 ,if it were not   
for the fact that ,providence has seemed
 to assist me in our business1 it has at
 times seemed that ,i would almost sink 
under the weight of responsibility      
hanging upon me2 but ,i believe the     
,lord will help us out4 ,and after his  
first visit to ,new ,york ,city1 he     
summed up his impressions of the        
metropolis in the following sentence1   
,it is a desirable place and people1    
with regular and good ,presbyterian     
preaching4  ,mc,cormick enjoyed with all
 his heart the logical1 doctrinal       
sermon4 ,his favorite ,bible passage was
 the eighth chapter of ,romans1 that    
indomitable victorious chapter that ends
 like the blast of a trumpet3  ,who     
shall separate us from the love of      
,christ8 ,shall tribulation1 or         
distress1 or persecution1 or famine1 or 
nakedness1 or peril1 or sword8 ,as it is
 written1 'for ,thy sake we are killed  
all the day long2 we are accounted as   
sheep for the slaughter4' ,nay1 in all  

these things we are more than conquerors
 through ,him that loved us2 for ,i am  
persuaded that neither death1 nor life1 
nor angels1 nor principalities1 nor     
powers1 nor things present1 nor things  
to come1 nor height1 nor depth1 nor any 
other creature1 shall be able to        
separate us from the love of ,god1 which
 is in ,christ ,jesus1 our ,lord4  ,his 
favorite hymn1 which he sang often and  
with the deepest fervor1 was that       
melodious prayer that begins--      ,o  
,thou in whose presence my soul takes   
delight1     ,on whom in affliction ,i  
call1     ,my comfort by day1 and my    
song in the night1     ,my hope1 my     
salvation1 my all4  ,in his earlier     
journeys through the ,middle ,west1     
,mc,cormick was distressed at the rough 
immorality of the new settlements4 ,i   
see a great deal of profanity and       
infidelity in this country1 enough to   
make the heart sick1 he wrote in #ahde4 
,these towns and villages needed more   
preachers1 and better preachers1 he     

thought4 ,consequently1 soon after he   
had acquired his first million dollars1 
he determined to establish the best     
possible college for the education of   
ministers4 ,he almost stunned with joy  
the ,western friends of higher education
 for ministers1 by offering them        
#ajj1jjj with which to establish a      
school of theology in ,chicago4 ,this   
offer was made in #ahei--;half a century
 ago1 and resulted in the removal of a  
moneyless and decaying ,seminary at ,new
 ,albany1 ,indiana1 to ,chicago4 ,thus  
was founded the ,northwestern           
,theological ,seminary1 afterwards named
 the ,mc,cormick ,theological ,seminary1
 which1 in its fifty years of life1 has 
given a ,christian education to         
thousands of young men4  ,thirteen years
 later he bought ,the ,interior and made
 it what it has remained ever since--a  
religious weekly of the highest rank4   
,these two--the college and the         
paper--were his pride and delight4 ,he  
fathered them in the most affectionate  

way4 ,no matter what crisis might be    
impending in the war of business1 he    
always had time to talk to his editors  
and his professors4 ,so1 though         
,mc,cormick had received much from his  
religious inheritance1 it is also true  
that he gave back much4 ,his last public
 speech1 which was read for him by his  
son ,cyrus because he was too weak to   
deliver it himself1 was given at the    
laying of the corner-stone of a new     
building which he had given to the      
college4 ,its last sentence was typical 
of ,mc,cormick--full of hope and        
optimism3 ,i never doubted that success 
would ultimately reward our efforts1 he 
said2 and now1 on this occasion1 we may 
fairly say that the night has given     
place to the dawn of a brighter day than
 any which has hitherto shone upon us4  
,mc,cormick went into politics1 too1    
with the same conscientious abandon with
 which he plunged into business and     
religion4 ,he was a ,democrat of the    
,jeffersonian type4 ,one of his keenest 

pleasures was to go to the ,senate and  
listen to its debates4 ,he was not a    
fluent speaker himself1 but he delighted
 in the orations of ,clay1 ,calhoun1 and
 ,webster4 ,he believed in politics4 ,he
 thought it a public danger that the    
strong and competent men of the republic
 should willingly permit men of little  
ability and low character to manage     
public affairs4 ,in fact1 he was almost 
as much a pathfinder and pioneer in this
 matter as he had been in matters of    
business1 but without the same measure  
of success4 ,politics1 he found1 was not
 like business4 ,its successes depended 
not upon your own efforts1 but upon the 
votes of the majority4  ,what           
,mc,cormick tried to do as a citizen and
 a patriot was the one heroic failure of
 his life4 ,he ran for office on several
 occasions1 but he was never elected4   
,he was not the sort of man who gets    
elected4 ,he stood for his whole party  
at a time when the average politician   
was standing only for himself4 ,he      

talked of fundamental principles while  
the other leaders1 for the most part1   
were thinking of salaries4 ,he gave up  
his time and his money as freely for    
politics as he did for religion2 but he 
was out of his element4 ,he was too     
sincere1 too simple1 too intent upon a  
larger view of public questions4 ,he    
could never talk the flexible language  
of diplomacy nor suit his theme to the  
prejudice of his listeners4 ,usually1 to
 the political managers and delegates   
with whom he felt it his duty to        
co-operate1 he was like a man from      
another world4 ,they could never        
understand him1 and tolerated his       
leadership mainly because of his        
generous contributions4 ,again and again
 he astonished them by developing a     
party speech into a sermon on national  
righteousness1 or by speaking nobly of a
 political opponent4 ,on one memorable  
occasion1 for instance1 in the white-hot
 passion of the ,hayes-,tilden          
controversy1 and after he had lavished  

time and money in support of ,tilden1 he
 sprang to his feet in a ,democratic    
convention and amazed the delegates by  
saying3 ,mr4 ,hayes is not a ,democrat1 
but he is too patriotic and honest to   
suit his party managers and we must     
sustain him so far as he is right4  ,he 
was one of the first ,americans who rose
 above sectional interests and party    
loyalties1 and surveyed his country as a
 whole4 ,no other man of his day1 either
 in or out of public office1 was so free
 from local prejudices and so intensely 
national in his beliefs and sympathies4 
,he refused to stamp himself with the   
label of the ,north or of the ,south4   
,he had been reared in the one and      
matured in the other4 ,and in the       
ominous days before the ,civil ,war he  
strove like a beneficent giant to make  
the wrangling partisans listen to the   
voice of reason and arbitration4        
,illustration3 ,,the ,,reaper ,,in      
,,heavy ,,grain  ,he went to the        
,democratic ,convention at ,baltimore1  

just before the war1 and set before the 
,southerners the standpoint of the      
,north4 ,then he bought a daily         
paper--,the ,times--to explain to       
,chicago the standpoint of the ,south4  
,he wrote editorials4 ,he made speeches4
 ,he poured into the newspapers1 day    
after day for two years1 a large share  
of the profits that he derived from his 
,reaper4 ,he was no more popular as an  
editor than as a political candidate4   
,he was a maker1 not a collector1 of    
public opinion2 and instead of pandering
 to the war frenzy1 he opposed it1--put 
his newspaper squarely in its path1 and 
held it there until the feet of the     
crowd had trampled it into an impossible
 wreck4  ,he was so strong1 so          
indomitable1 this heir of the           
,covenanters1 that when the war had     
openly begun1 he strode between the     
,north and ,south and labored like a    
,titan to bring them to a               
reconciliation4 ,he actually believed   
that he could establish peace4 ,he      

proposed a plan4 ,horace ,greeley       
indorsed it1 and the two men1 who were  
throughout life the closest of comrades1
 undertook to bring the severed nation  
back to union and the paths of law4     
,the ,mc,cormick ,plan1 in a word was to
 call immediately two conventions--one  
to represent the ,democrats of the      
,north and the other the ,democrats of  
the ,south4 ,these conventions would    
elect delegates to a board of           
arbitration1 which would consider the   
various causes of the war and arrange a 
just basis upon which both sides could  
agree to disband their armies and       
restablish peace4  ,after the war1 too1 
almost before the nation had finished   
counting its dead1 it was ,cyrus ,h4    
,mc,cormick whose voice was first heard 
in favor of church unity4 ,among the    
many speeches and letters of his which  
have been preserved1 the most           
beautifully phrased paragraph is the    
ending of an article that he published  
in #ahfi1 protesting against the        

invasion of political partisanism into  
the religious life4  ,when are we to    
look for the return of brotherly love   
and ,christian fellowship1 he asked1 so 
long as those who aspire to fill the    
high places of the church indulge in    
such wrath and bitterness8 ,now that the
 great conflict of the ,civil ,war is   
past1 and its issues settled1 religion  
and patriotism alike require the        
exercise of mutual forbearance1 and the 
pursuit of those things which tend to   
peace4  ,for the mere game of party     
politics ,mr4 ,mc,cormick cared little  
or nothing4 ,it was all as irksome to   
him as the task of governing ,geneva was
 to ,john ,calvin2 but he could not help
 himself4 ,his political convictions    
were bone of his bone and flesh of his  
flesh4 ,they were racial traits which   
his forefathers and foremothers had     
spent at least three centuries in       
developing4  ,on one occasion ,dr4 ,john
 ,hall of ,new ,york1 seeing how ,mr4   
,mc,cormick was worried by political    

obligations1 said to him3  ,why do you  
plague yourself with these uncongenial  
things8 ,what glory can you hope to get 
from politics that will add to what you 
now possess as the inventor of the      
,reaper8  ,dr4 ,hall1 replied ,mr4      
,mc,cormick1 ,i am in politics because  
,i cannot help it4 ,there are certain   
principles that ,i have got to stand by1
 and ,i am obliged to go into politics  
to defend them4  ,the form of ,mr4      
,mc,cormick's religious faith had been  
forged by such preacher-patriots as     
,john ,knox and ,andrew ,melville2 and  
he1 like them1 found it as imperative   
upon his conscience to fight for both   
civil and religious liberty4 ,with his  
whole heart he believed in ,american    
institutions as they had been           
established by the nation-builders of   
#aggf4 ,he did not want the             
,constitution to be ignored by ,federal 
reformers1 nor the ,union to be broken  
by secession4 ,he was by temperament and
 tradition a conservative1 and opposed  

especially to all extreme measures and  
sectional innovations4 ,as he had       
adapted his ,reaper so that it would cut
 grain in all ,states1 he could never   
see why political policies1 too1 should 
not be lifted above the limitations of  
geography and made to conserve the      
welfare of the whole people4 ,as he said
 on one strenuous occasion when laboring
 mightily to beat back the extremists in
 his own party3 ,is not every government
 on the face of the earth established   
upon the principle of compromise8  ,to  
special privileges of every sort he was 
unalterably opposed4 ,he asked for none 
for himself--no favoring tariff or grant
 of public land or monopolistic         
franchise4 ,i have been throughout my   
life1 he said1 opposed to all measures  
which tend to raise one class of the    
,american people upon the ruin of       
others1 or one section of our common    
country at the expense of another4 ,the 
country is the common property of all   
parties1 and all are interested in its  

prosperity4  ,all this shows the heroic 
side of ,mc,cormick2 but he was not     
always heroic4 ,he was a giant1 but a   
most human and simple-natured giant4    
,strange as it may sound to those who   
knew him only with his armor on1 it is  
true that he could be tender or         
humorous4 ,there were tears and laughter
 in him4 ,there was no cruelty in his   
strength and no revenge in his          
aggressiveness4 ,he was a big1          
red-blooded1 great-hearted man1 who     
might to-day be threatening to cane a   
politician who had deceived him1 and    
to-morrow be playing with his younger   
children and letting their two pet      
squirrels1 ,zip and ,zoe1 chase each    
other around his shoulders4  ,he was    
fond of power1 not because of its       
privileges and exemptions1 but because  
it furthered the work that he had in    
hand4 ,he was often surrounded by       
sycophants--by men who said yes to his  
yes and no to his no2 and while he      
accepted this homage with a certain     

degree of satisfaction1 he was not      
deceived by it4 ,on one occasion1 when  
he was attending the ,democratic        
,convention at ,cincinnati--the         
convention that nominated ,hancock as   
candidate for ,president1--he was beset 
by a court of flatterers and            
lip-servers4 ,after it was over1 he     
remarked simply to his valet1 ,well1    
,charlie1 there is a lot of farce and   
humbug about this4  ,dr4 ,francis ,l4   
,patton1 who was for years the president
 of ,princeton ,university and also at  
one time editor of ,the ,interior1 was  
especially impressed with this direct   
naturalness of ,mc,cormick4 ,one meets  
with all sorts of men in the course of a
 lifetime1 said ,dr4 ,patton4 ,there are
 patronizing men1 pompous men1 men who  
habitually wear a mask of seriousness1  
men who clothe themselves with dignity  
as with a coat of mail lest you should  
presume too much or go too far1 men     
whose position is never defined1 and    
double-minded men with whom you never   

feel yourself safe4 ,but ,mr4           
,mc,cormick was not like one of these4  
,there is that in the possession of     
power which always tends to make men    
imperious4 ,i do not mean to imply that 
he was altogether free from this        
tendency1 for he was not4 ,but he was   
approachable1 companionable1 and ready  
to hear what ,i had to say4 ,he was not 
one of those men who are so             
uninterestingly self-controlled as to be
 always the same4 ,there were times when
 his mirth was contagious and times when
 his wrath was kindled a little4 ,we did
 not always agree1 and sometimes we both
 grew hot in argument2 but at the end   
his cheery laugh proclaimed the fact    
that our differences had only been the  
free and easy give-and-take of          
friendship4  ,to see ,mc,cormick laugh  
was a spectacle4 ,there was first a     
mellowing of his usual ,jovian manner4  
,his gray-brown eyes twinkled4 ,the     
tense lines of his face relaxed4 ,then  
came a smile and soon a burst of        

laughter1 shaking his powerful body and 
putting the whole company for the time  
into an uproar of merriment4 ,it was the
 triumph of the genial and magnetic side
 of his nature--the side that was       
ordinarily repressed by the pressure of 
his big affairs4  ,mc,cormick had humor1
 but not wit4 ,his jokes were simple and
 old-fashioned1 such as ,luther and     
,cromwell would have laughed at4 ,there 
was no innuendo and no cynicism4 ,on one
 occasion two small urchins knocked at  
the door and asked for food4 ,mc,cormick
 heard their voices and had them brought
 into the sitting-room1 where he        
happened to be in consultation with his 
lawyer4 ,now1 said he to the youngsters1
 we are going to put both of you on     
trial4 ,i will be the judge and this    
gentleman will be the prosecutor4 ,each 
boy in turn was placed on the           
witness-stand1 and plied with questions4
 ,it was soon clear that neither of them
 was telling the truth1 so ,judge       
,mc,cormick took them in hand and gave  

them a serious talk on the folly and    
wickedness of lying4 ,then he gave them 
twenty-five cents apiece1 and sent them 
down to the kitchen to eat as much      
supper as they could hold4              
,illustration3 ,,harvesting ,,near      
,,spokane1 ,,washington  ,at another    
time a very dignified and self-centred  
military officer was taking supper with 
the ,mc,cormick family4 ,the first      
course1 as usual1 was corn-meal mush and
 milk4 ,this was served in ,scotch      
fashion1 with the hot mush in one bowl  
and the cold milk in another1 and the   
practice was to so co-ordinate the      
eating of these that both were finished 
at the same time4 ,the officer planned  
his spoonfuls badly1 and was soon out of
 milk4 ,have some more milk to finish   
your mush1 ,colonel1 said ,mc,cormick4  
,several minutes later the ,colonel's   
mush bowl was empty1 at which           
,mc,cormick said1 ,have some more mush  
to finish your milk4 ,and so it went1   
with milk for the mush and mush for the 

milk1 until the unfortunate ,colonel was
 hopelessly incapacitated for the four  
or five courses that came afterwards4   
,mc,cormick was not by any means a      
teller of stories1 but he had a few     
simple and well-worn anecdotes that     
appealed so strongly to his sense of    
humor that he told and re-told them many
 times4 ,there was the story of the man 
who stole the pound of butter and hid it
 in his hat1 and how the grocer saw him 
and kept talking in the store1 beside a 
hot stove1 until the butter melted and  
exposed the man's thievery4 ,another    
favorite story was about the pig that   
found its way into a garden by walking  
through a hollow log1 and how the       
gardener fooled the pig by placing the  
hollow log in such a way that both ends 
of it were on the outside of the garden4
  ,even ,mc,cormick's jokes had a       
certain moral tang--a flavor of the     
first ,psalm and the eighth chapter of  
,romans4 ,they were apt to deal with the
 troubles of the ungodly who had been   

caught in their wickedness4 ,there were 
times1 too1 when his sense of humor and 
his sense of justice would co-operate in
 odd ways4 ,once1 when a roast game     
bird1 which had been sent to him as a   
gift from the hunter1 was left over from
 supper1 he ordered that his dainty be  
kept and served for the next day's      
luncheon4 ,at luncheon the next day it  
did not appear4 ,on asking for the game 
bird1 a roast chicken was set before    
him1 and he at once noticed that it was 
not the same bird which he had ordered  
to be kept4 ,he questioned the butler1  
who protested that it was the same4     
,after the meal ,mc,cormick ordered that
 the servants involved should be called 
into the dining-room4 ,from them1 by a  
series of questions1 he soon obtained   
the truth and proved the butler to be   
the culprit4 ,the one thing that he     
would tolerate least was a lie4 ,as he  
would say at times1 ,a thief you can    
watch1 but ,i detest a liar4  ,there    
were very few who had the temerity to   

play a practical joke upon the great    
inventor himself4 ,his two youngest     
sons1 ,harold and ,stanley1 would hide  
in the hallway when they saw him        
approaching1 and pounce out upon him    
with wild yells in small-boy fashion1   
but they were both privileged people4   
,mc,cormick was a most hearty and       
hospitable man4 ,he was an ideal person 
for such a life-work--the abolition of  
famine4 ,he was fond of food and plenty 
of it4 ,he loved to see a big table     
heaped with food4 ,the idea of hunger   
was intolerable to him4 ,he might well  
have been posing for a statue of the    
deity of ,plenty1 as he squared himself 
around to the long1 family dinner-table1
 with his napkin worn high and caught at
 his shoulders by a white silk band that
 went around his neck1 and with a       
complacent1 ,now1 then1 plunged the     
carving-fork into a crisp and fragrant  
fowl that lay on the platter in front of
 him4  ,the fact that ,mc,cormick seldom
 made a social call was not due to his  

own choosing1 but because of the many   
worries and compulsions of his life4    
,once1 when confiding in an intimate    
friend1 he said1 ,it pains me very much 
to think how little ,i am known by my   
neighbors1 but ,i seem to be always too 
busy to meet them4 ,he was not at all1  
as many have thought because of his     
strenuous life1 a man of harsh and rough
 exterior4 ,there was nothing rough     
about him except his strength4 ,he was  
irreproachable in dress and personal    
appearance4 ,he did not drink1 smoke1   
nor swear4 ,and his manners and         
language1 on formal occasions1 were     
those of a dignified gentleman of the   
old school--a ,calhoun1 or a ,van       
,buren4  ,he was not a hard-natured man1
 except when he was battling for his    
rights and his principles4 ,he would    
often turn from an overwhelming mass of 
business to play with one of his        
children4 ,he was as ready to forgive as
 he was to fight4 ,he never cherished   
resentments or personal grudges4 ,he    

knew that life was a conflict of        
interests and policies2 and when he     
forgave1 his forgiveness was free and   
full1 and not a formal ceremony4 ,it was
 as honest and as spontaneous as his    
wrath4 ,he was one of the few men who   
could freely pray1 ,forgive us our      
trespasses as we forgive those who      
trespass against us4  ,his fame and     
honors and intimacies with people of    
rank never made him less democratic in  
his sympathies4 ,he always had a        
profound respect for the man or woman   
who did useful work1 if the work was    
done well4 ,once1 when a poor woman went
 to him for advice about some trifling  
thing that she had invented1 he turned  
from his work and explained to her1 with
 the utmost patience and courtesy1 the  
things that she wished to know4 ,with   
his trusted employees1 too1 he was      
usually kindly and sometimes jovial4 ,i 
had only one brush with him in          
thirty-five years1 said one of his      
cashiers4 ,the last time that ,i saw    

him1 he met me on the street and said1  
',hello1 ,sellick1 have you got lots of 
money8 ,can you give me a hundred       
thousand dollars to-day8' ',yes1 sir1'  
,i answered4 ',well1 ,i'm glad ,i don't 
need it1' he said with a laugh4  ,the   
loyalty of his workmen and his agents   
was always a source of pride to         
,mc,cormick4 ,it was one of the favorite
 topics of his conversation4 ,he would  
mention his men by name and tell of     
their exploits with the deepest         
satisfaction4 ,on one occasion1 when a  
body of agents made a united demand for 
higher salaries1 there was one agent in 
,minnesota who refused to take part in  
the movement4 ,i don't want to force    
,mr4 ,mc,cormick1 he said4 ,i have      
worked for him for nearly thirty years1 
and ,i know that he is a just man1 and  
that he will do what is right4 ,not long
 afterwards1 ,mc,cormick was told of    
this man's action1 and he immediately   
showed his appreciation by making the   
agent a present of a carriage and fine  

team of horses4  ,there was one man who 
was wholly in ,mc,cormick's power--a    
negro named ,joe1 who1 by the custom    
that prevailed in the ,south before the 
,civil ,war1 was a slave and the        
property of ,mc,cormick4 ,they were of  
the same age1 and had played together as
 boys4 ,joe grew up to be a tall1       
straight1 intelligent negro1 and his    
master was very fond of him4 ,he is     
mentioned frequently in ,mc,cormick's   
letters1 usually in a considerate way4  
,years before the ,civil ,war           
,mc,cormick gave ,joe his freedom1 and  
some land and a good cabin4 ,now and    
then1 even in the stress and strain of  
his business-building1 he would stop to 
write ,joe a short letter of good wishes
 and advice4 ,there was no other one    
thing1 perhaps1 which proved so         
convincingly the essential kindliness of
 his nature as his treatment of ,joe4   
,in his family relations1 too1          
,mc,cormick was a man of tenderness and 
devotion4 ,when his father died1 in     

#ahdf1 he was struck down by sorrow4    
,many a sore cry have ,i had as ,i have 
gone around this place and found no     
father1 he wrote to his brother         
,william4 ,and as soon as he was solidly
 established in ,chicago1 his first act 
was to send for his mother1 and to give 
her such a royal welcome that she could 
hardly believe her eyes4 ,i feel like   
the ,queen of ,sheba1 she said to her   
neighbors when she returned to          
,virginia2 the half was never told4     
,mc,cormick helped his younger          
brothers--,william and ,leander1 by     
making them his partners4 ,william died 
in #ahfe--;a great and irreparable loss4
 ,he was a man of careful mind and rare 
excellence of character1 especially able
 in matters of detail--a point in which 
,cyrus ,mc,cormick was not proficient4  
,the two men were well suited as        
partners4 ,cyrus planned the work in    
large outlines1 and broke down the      
obstacles that stood in the way2 while  
,william added the details and          

supervised the carrying out of the plan4
 ,leander1 who also held a high place in
 the business in its earlier days1      
withdrew from it later1 and died in     
#aijj4  ,illustration3 ,,cyrus ,,hall   
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k1 #ahhc  ,his ,last    
,portrait  ,until #aheh ,mc,cormick had 
thought himself too busy to be married4 
,but in that year he met ,miss ,nettie  
,fowler1 of ,new ,york1 and changed his 
mind4 ,it was soon apparent that his    
marriage was not to be in any sense a   
hindrance to his success1 but rather the
 wisest act of his life4 ,mrs4          
,mc,cormick was a woman of rare charm1  
and with a comprehension of business    
affairs that was of the greatest        
possible value to her husband4 ,she was 
at all times in the closest touch with  
his purposes4 ,by her advice he         
introduced many economies at the        
factory1 and rebuilt the works after the
 ,great ,fire of #ahga4 ,the precision  
of her memory1 and the grasp of her mind
 upon the multifarious details of human 

nature and manufacturing1 made her an   
ideal wife for such a man as ,cyrus ,h4 
,mc,cormick4 ,as he grew older1 he      
depended upon her judgment more and     
more2 and as ,mrs4 ,mc,cormick is still 
in the possession of health and         
strength1 it may truly be said that for 
more than half a century she has been a 
most influential factor in the          
industrial and philanthropic development
 of the ,united ,states4  ,four sons    
were born1 and two daughters--,cyrus    
,hall1 who is now ,president of the     
,international ,harvester ,company2     
,robert1 who died in infancy2 ,harold1  
,treasurer of the ,international        
,harvester ,company2 ,stanley1          
,comptroller of the ,company2 ,virginia2
 and ,anita1 now known as ,mrs4 ,emmons 
,blame4  ,mr4 ,mc,cormick was a most    
affectionate husband and father4 ,he    
took the utmost delight in his home and 
its hospitalities2 and invariably       
brought his whole household with him    
whenever the growth of his business     

obliged him to visit foreign countries4 
,in the last few years of his life it   
gave him the most profound satisfaction 
to know that his oldest son would pick  
up the ,mc,cormick burden and carry it  
forward4 ,cyrus is a great comfort to   
me1 he said to an intimate friend4 ,he  
has excellent judgment in business      
matters1 and ,i find myself leaning on  
him more and more4  ,the truth is that  
there was a tender side to ,mc,cormick's
 strong nature1 which was not seen by   
those who met him only upon ordinary    
occasions4 ,he was in reality a great   
dynamo of sentiment4 ,he was deeply     
moved by music1 especially by the       
playing of ,ole ,bull and the singing of
 ,jenny ,lind1 who were his favorites4  
,he was as fond of flowers as a child4  
,i love best the old-fashioned pinks1 he
 said1 because they grew in my mother's 
garden in ,virginia4 ,often the tears   
would come to his eyes at the sight of  
mountains1 for they reminded him of his 
,virginian home4 ,oh1 ,charlie1 he said 

once to his valet1 as he sat crippled in
 a wheel-chair in a ,southern hotel1 how
 ,i wish ,i could get on a horse and    
ride on through those mountains once    
again6  ,mc,cormick was not in any sense
 a ,gradgrind of commercialism--a man   
who enriched his coffers by the         
impoverishment of his soul4 ,he made    
money--ten millions or more2 but he did 
so incidentally1 just as a man makes    
muscle by doing hard work4 ,several of  
his fellow ,chicagoans had swept past   
him in the million-making race4 ,no     
matter how much money came to him1 he   
was the same man1 with the same         
friendships and the same purposes4 ,and 
it is inconceivable that1 for any amount
 of wealth1 he would have changed the   
ground-plan of his life4  ,it is        
strictly true to say that he was a      
practical idealist4 ,he idealized the   
,american ,constitution1 the ,patent    
,office1 the ,courts1 the ,democratic   
,party1 and the ,presbyterian ,church4  
,he was an ,oliver ,cromwell of         

industry4 ,all his beliefs and acts     
sprang from a few simple principles and 
fitted together like a picture puzzle4  
,there was religion in his business and 
business in his religion4 ,he was made  
such as he was by the ,religious        
,reformation of ,europe and the         
,industrial ,revolution of the ,united  
,states4 ,he was all of one             
piece--sincere and self-consistent--a   
type of the nineteenth-century ,american
 at his best4 ,he was not sordid4 ,he   
was not cynical4 ,he was not scientific4
 ,he was a man of faith and works--one  
of the old-fashioned kind who laid the  
foundations and built the walls of this 
republic4  ,he felt that he was born    
into the world with certain things to   
do4 ,some of these things were          
profitable and some of them were not1   
but he gave as much energy and attention
 to the one as to the other4 ,in #ahei1 
for instance1 he had a factory that was 
profitable1 and a daily paper and a     
college that were expensive4 ,he was    

struggling to extend his trade at home  
and in ,europe1 to protect his patents1 
to prevent the war between the ,north   
and ,south1 and to maintain the         
simplicity of the ,presbyterian faith4  
,to contend for these interests and     
principles was his life4 ,he could not  
have done anything else4 ,it was as     
natural for him to do so as for a fish  
to swim or a bird to fly4 ,once1 towards
 the end of his life1 when he was       
sitting in his great arm-chair1         
reflecting1 he said to his wife1        
,nettie1 life is a battle4 ,he made this
 announcement as though it were the     
discovery of a new fact4 ,all his life  
he had been much less conscious of the  
battle itself than of the cause for     
which he fought4  ,in #ahhd ,mc,cormick 
died1 at that time of the year when     
wheat is being sown in ,spain and reaped
 in ,mexico4 ,the earth-life of the     
strong personality before whom obstacles
 went down as swiftly and inevitably as 
grain before the knife of his machines1 

was ended4 ,his last words1 spoken in a 
moment's awakening from the             
death-stupor1 were--,work1 work6 ,not   
even the dissolution of his body could  
relax the fixity of his will4 ,and when 
he lay in state1 in his ,chicago home1  
there was a ,reaper1 modelled in white  
flowers1 at his feet2 and upon his      
breast a sheaf of the ripe1 yellow      
wheat1 surmounted by a crown of lilies4 
,these were the emblems of the work that
 had been given him to do1 and the      
evidence of its completion4             
,,chapter ,,xi  ,,the ,,reaper ,,and    
,,the ,,nation   ,when ,cyrus ,h4       
,mc,cormick died in #ahhd he had        
provided hunger-insurance for the       
,united ,states and the greater part of 
the civilized world4 ,in that year his  
own factory made #ej1jjj harvesting     
machines1 and there were in use1 in all 
countries1 more than #ejj1jjj           
,mc,cormick machines1 doing the work of 
#e1jjj1jjj men in the harvest fields4   
,the ,united ,states was producing wheat

 at the rate of ten bushels per capita1 
instead of four1 as it had been in      
#ahdg1 when ,mc,cormick built his first 
factory in ,chicago4 ,and the total     
production of wheat in all lands was    
#b1bdj1jjj1jjj bushels--enough to give  
an abundance of food to #cbe1jjj1jjj    
people4  ,chicago1 in #ahhd1 was a      
powerful city of six hundred thousand   
population4 ,it had grown sixty-fold    
since ,mc,cormick rode into it by stage 
in #ahde4 ,it had #c1eai manufacturing  
establishments1 giving work to #hj1jjj  
men and women and producing commodities 
at the rate of #e1jjj1jjj worth in a    
week4 ,it was then what it is           
to-day--the chief ,reaper ,city and     
principal granary of the world4 ,the    
wheat and flour that were sent out from 
its ports and depots in the year that   
the inventor of the ,reaper died were   
enough to make ten thousand million     
loaves of bread1 which1 if they were    
fairly distributed1 would have given    
about forty loaves apiece to the        

families of the human race4  ,the       
,united ,states1 in #ahhd1 had been for 
six years the foremost of the           
wheat-producing nations4 ,it had also   
grown to be first in mining1 railroads1 
telegraphs1 steel1 and agriculture4 ,it 
was the land of the highest wages and   
cheapest bread--an anomaly that foreign 
countries could not understand4 ,in the 
bulk of its manufacturing1 it had forged
 ahead of all other nations1 even of    
,great ,britain2 and yet1 although a    
vast army of men had been drawn from its
 farms to its factories1 it had produced
 in that year more than half a billion  
bushels of wheat--six times as much as  
its crop had been in the best year of   
the sickle and the scythe4  ,so1 in the 
span of his business life--from #ahca to
 #ahhd1--,mc,cormick had seen his       
country rise from insignificance to     
greatness1 and he had the supreme       
satisfaction of knowing that his ,reaper
 had done much1 if not most1 to         
accelerate this marvellous progress4 ,as

 we shall see1 the invention of the     
,reaper was the right starting-point for
 the up-building of a republic4 ,it made
 all other progress possible1 by        
removing the fear of famine and the     
drudgery of farm labor4 ,it enabled even
 the laborer of the harvest-field to be 
free and intelligent1 because it gave   
him the power of ten men4               
,illustration3 ,,the ,,works ,,of ,,the 
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,harvesting ,,machine
 ,,co4  ,the ,united ,states as a whole1
 had paid no attention to the ,reaper   
until the opening of the ,california    
gold mines in #ahdi4 ,then the sudden   
scarcity of laborers created a panic    
among the farmers1 and boomed the sale  
of all manner of farm machinery4 ,two   
years later the triumph of the          
,mc,cormick ,reaper at the ,london      
,exposition was a topic of the day and a
 source of national pride4 ,and in #aheb
 the ,crimean ,war sent the price of    
wheat skywards1 providing an ,english   
market for as much wheat as ,american   

farmers could sell4  ,but it was not    
until the outbreak of the ,civil ,war   
that the ,united ,states learned to     
really appreciate the ,reaper4 ,by the  
time that ,president ,lincoln had made  
his ninth call for soldiers1 by the time
 that he had taken every third man for  
the ,northern armies1 the value of the  
,reaper was beyond dispute4 ,by a       
strange coincidence1 in this duel       
between wheat ,states on the one side1  
and cotton ,states on the other1 it was 
a ,northerner1 ,eli ,whitney1 who had   
invented the cotton-gin1 which made     
slavery profitable2 and it was a        
,southerner1 ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick1 who
 had invented the ,reaper1 which made   
the ,northern ,states wealthy and       
powerful4  ,it was the ,reaper-power of 
the ,north that off set the slave-power 
of the ,south4 ,there were as many      
,reapers in the wheat-fields of #ahfa as
 could do the work of a million slaves4 
,as the war went on1 the crops in the   
,northern ,states increased4 ,europe    

refused to believe such a miracle2 but  
it was true4 ,fifty million bushels of  
,american grain went to ,europe in      
#ahfa1 and fifty-six million bushels in 
the following year4 ,more than two      
hundred million bushels were exported   
during the four years of the war4 ,thus 
the ,reaper not only released men to    
fight for the preservation of the       
,union4 ,it not only fed them while they
 were in the field4 ,it did more4 ,it   
saved us from bankruptcy as well as     
famine1 and kept our credit good among  
foreign nations at the most critical    
period in our history4  ,after the      
,civil ,war came the settling of the    
,west2 and here again the ,reaper was   
indispensable4 ,in most cases it went   
ahead of the railroad4 ,the first       
,reaper arrived in ,chicago three years 
before the first locomotive4 ,we had a  
,mc,cormick ,reaper in #ahef1 said      
,james ,wilson2 and at that time there  
was no railroad within seventy-five     
miles of our ,iowa farm4 ,the ,reaper   

worked a great revolution1 enabling one 
man to do the work that many men had    
been doing1 and do it better4 ,by means 
of it the ,west became a thickly settled
 country1 able to feed the nation and to
 spare bread and meat for the outside   
world4  ,when ,mc,cormick was a boy1    
more wheat was raised in ,virginia than 
in any other ,state4 ,but by #ahfj      
,illinois was ahead1 and by degrees the 
sceptre of the wheat empire passed      
westwards1 until to-day it is held by   
,minnesota4 ,what with the ,homestead   
,act of #ahfb1 and the offer of         
,mc,cormick and the other ,reaper       
manufacturers to sell machines to the   
farmers on credit1 it was possible for  
poor men1 without capital1 to become    
each the owner of #afj acres of land1   
and to harvest its grain without        
spending a penny in wages4 ,thus the    
immense area of the ,west became a      
populous country1 with cities and       
railways and ,state ,governments1 and   
producing one-tenth of the wheat of the 

world4  ,the enterprise of these        
,western farmers brought in the present 
era of farm machinery4 ,it replaced the 
man with the hoe by the man with the    
self-binder and steel plow and steam    
thresher4 ,it wiped out the old-time    
drudge of the soil from ,american farms1
 and put in his stead the new farmer1   
the business farmer1 who works for a    
good living and a profit1 and not for a 
bare existence4 ,such men as ,oliver    
,dalrymple1 of ,north ,dakota1 led the  
way by demonstrating what might be done 
by bonanza farms4 ,this doughty         
,scottish-,american secured #cj1jjj     
acres of the ,red ,river ,valley in     
#ahgf1 and put it all into wheat4 ,it   
was such a wheat-field as never before  
had been seen in any country4 ,the soil 
was turned with #aej gang plows1 sown   
with #gj drills1 and reaped with #aej   
self-binders4 ,twelve                   
threshing-machines1 kept busy in the    
midst of this sea of yellow grain1 beat 
out the straw and chaff and in the      

season filled two freight trains a day  
with enough wheat in each train to give 
two thousand people their daily bread   
for a year4  ,led on by such            
pathfinders1 ,american farmers launched 
out bravely1 until now they are using   
very nearly a billion dollars' worth of 
labor-saving machinery4 ,the whole level
 of farm life has been raised4 ,it has  
been lifted from muscle to mind4 ,the   
use of machinery has created leisure and
 capital1 and these two have begotten   
intelligence1 education1 science1 so    
that the farmer of to-day lives in a new
 world1 and is a wholly different person
 from what he was when ,cyrus           
,mc,cormick learned to till the soil4   
,this elevation of the farmer is now    
seen to be our best guarantee of        
prosperity and national permanence4 ,it 
was the incoming flood of wheat money   
that put the ,united ,states on its feet
 as a manufacturing nation4 ,the total  
amount of this money1 from the building 
of the first ,mc,cormick ,reaper factory

 until to-day1 is the unthinkable sum of
 #e1ejj1jjj1jjj1 which may be taken as  
the net profit of the ,reaper to the    
nation4  ,thus the ,reaper was not1 like
 the wind-mill1 for instance1 a mere    
convenience to the farmer himself4 ,it  
was the link between the city and the   
country4 ,it directly benefited all     
bread-eaters1 and put the whole nation  
upon a higher plane4 ,it built up       
cities1 and made them safe1 for the     
reason that they were not surrounded by 
hordes of sickle-and-flail serfs1 who   
would sooner or later rise up in the    
throe of a hunger-revolution and pull   
down the cities and the palaces into    
oblivion4 ,when the first ,reaper was   
sold1 in #ahdj1 only eight per cent of  
,americans lived in towns and cities2   
and to-day the proportion is forty per  
cent4 ,yet bread is cheaper and more    
plentiful now than it was then2 and     
there is the most genial and            
good-natured co-operation between those 
who live among paved streets and those  

who live in the midst of the green and  
yellow wheat-fields4 ,there are no      
,goths and ,vandals on ,american farms4 
,instead of the tiny log workshop on the
 ,mc,cormick farm1 in which the first   
crude ,reaper was laboriously hammered  
and whittled into shape1 there is now a 
,mc,cormick ,city in the heart of       
,chicago--the oldest and largest        
harvester plant in the world4 ,in       
sixty-two years of its life1 this plant 
has produced five or six millions of    
harvesting machines1 and it is still    
pouring them out at the rate of #g1jjj a
 week4 ,if it were to ship its yearly   
output at one time1 it would require a  
railway caravan of #ad1jjj freight-cars 
to carry the machines from the factory  
to the farmers4  ,illustration3         
,mc,c,o,r,m,i,c,k ,,reaper ,,in ,,use   
,,in ,,russia  ,this ,mc,cormick ,city  
is one of the industrial wonders that   
,america exhibits to visiting           
foreigners1 and it is so vast that it   
can only be glanced at in a day4 ,it    

covers #bbi acres of land4 ,in its      
buildings there is enough flooring to   
cover a #ij-;acre farm1 and if they were
 all made over into one long building1  
twenty-five feet wide and one story     
high1 it would be very nearly forty     
miles long1 as far as from ,chicago to  
,joliet4 ,the population of ,mc,cormick 
,city1 counting workers only1 is #g1jjj1
 whose average wages are #b4bj a day4   
,here you will find a mammoth           
twine-mill--the largest of its kind in  
any country4 ,into this mill come the   
bright yellow sisal fibres from ,yucatan
 and the manila fibres from the         
,philippines4 ,these fibres are cleaned 
and strewn upon endless chains of combs1
 which jerk and pull the fibres and     
finally deliver them to spindles--#a1fhj
 spindles1 which whirl and twist #ai1jjj
 miles of twine in the course of a      
single day1 almost enough to put a      
girdle around the earth4 ,most of this  
work is done by ,polish girls and women1
 who are being displaced as farm        

laborers in their own country by        
,american harvesting machines4  ,this   
plant is so vast that from one point of 
view it seems to be mainly a foundry4   
,thousands of tons of iron--#hh1jjj     
tons1 to be exact1--pour out of its     
furnaces every year and are moulded into
 #aac1jjj1jjj castings4 ,but from       
another point of view it appears to be a
 carpenter shop4 ,in its yard stand as  
many piles of lumber as would build a   
fair-sized city--#fj1jjj1jjj feet of it1
 cut in the forests of ,mississippi and 
,missouri4 ,and so much of this lumber  
is being sawed1 planed1 and shaped in   
the various wood-working shops that     
eight sawdust-fed furnaces are needed to
 supply them with power4  ,the marvels  
of labor-saving machinery are upon every
 hand1 in this ,mc,cormick ,city4 ,the  
paint-tank has replaced the paint-brush4
 ,instead of painting wheels by hand1   
for instance1 ten of them are now strung
 on a pole1 like beads on a string1 and 
soused into a bath from which they come1

 one minute later1 resplendent in suits 
of red or blue4 ,the labor-cost of      
painting these ten wheels is two cents4 
,guard-fingers1 for which ,mc,cormick   
paid twenty-four cents apiece in #ahde1 
are now produced with a labor-cost of   
two cents a dozen4 ,and as for bolts1   
with two cents you can pay for the      
making of a hundred4 ,both bolts and    
nuts are shaped by automatic machines   
which are so simple that a boy can      
operate five at once1 and so swift that 
other boys with wheelbarrows are kept   
busy carrying away their finished       
product4  ,there is one specially       
designed machine1 with a battery of     
augurs1 which bores twenty-one holes at 
once1 thus saving four-fifths of a cent 
per board4 ,another special machine     
shapes poles and saves one cent per     
pole4 ,such tiny economies appear       
absurd1 until the immense output is     
taken into account4 ,whoever can reduce 
the costs in the ,mc,cormick plant one  
cent per machine1 adds thereby #c1ejj a 

year to the profits1 and helps to make  
it possible for a farmer to buy a       
magical self-binder1 built up of #c1hjj 
parts1 for less than the price of a good
 horse1 or for as much wheat as he can  
grow in one season on a dozen acres4    
,the vast ,mc,cormick ,city has its     
human side1 too1 in spite of all its    
noise and semi-automatic machinery4     
,cyrus ,mc,cormick was not one of those 
employers who call their men by numbers 
instead of names1 and who have no more  
regard for flesh and blood than for iron
 and steel4 ,he had worked with his     
hands himself1 and brought up his sons  
to do the same4 ,the feeling of loyalty 
and friendliness between the ,mc,cormick
 family and their employees has from the
 first been unusually strong4 ,in #aijb1
 at the suggestion of ,stanley          
,mc,cormick1 gifts to the amount of     
#a1ejj1jjj were made to the oldest      
employees of the business1 as rewards   
for faithful service and tokens of      
good-will4 ,also1 a handsome club-house 

was built for the comfort of the men of 
the ,mc,cormick ,city1 and a rest-room  
for the women1 under the mothering      
superintendence of a matron and trained 
nurse4  ,but this one ,mc,cormick ,city1
 immense as it is1 does not by any means
 represent the sum total of             
,mc,cormick's legacy to the ,united     
,states4 ,as the founder of the         
harvesting-machine business1 he deserves
 credit for an industry which now       
represents an investment of about       
#aej1jjj1jjj4 ,with the sole exception  
of the ,australian stripper1 every      
wheat-reaping machine is still made on  
the lines laid down by ,mc,cormick in   
#ahca4 ,new improvements have been      
adopted2 but not one of his seven       
factors has been thrown aside4  ,fully  
two-thirds of this industry is still    
being done by the ,united ,states1      
although four-fifths of the wheat is    
grown in other countries4 ,our national 
income1 from this one item of harvesting
 machinery1 has risen to #cj1jjj1jjj a  

year--more than we derive from the      
exportation of any other ,american      
invention4 ,no ,european country1       
apparently1 has been able to master the 
complexities and multifarious details   
which abound in a successful harvester  
business4  ,in #aijb the efficiency of  
the larger ,american plants was greatly 
increased by the organization of the    
,international ,harvester ,company1     
which has its headquarters in ,chicago4 
,the ,mc,cormick ,city is the most      
extensive plant in this ,company1 and   
,mc,cormick's son--who is also ,cyrus   
,h4 ,mc,cormick--is its ,president4 ,in 
this ,company sixteen separate plants   
are coordinated1 four of these being in 
foreign countries4 ,its yearly output   
averages about #ge1jjj1jjj in value2 and
 in bulk is great enough to fill #fe1jjj
 freight-cars4 ,it has #be1jjj workmen  
and #ce1jjj agents4 ,the lumber with    
which its yards are filled comes from   
its own #hj1jjj-;acre forest2 the steel 
comes from its own furnaces and the iron

 ore from its own mines4 ,it is so      
overwhelmingly vast1 this new           
famine-fighting consolidation1 that the 
value of its output for one hour is     
greater than the #be1jjj of capital with
 which ,mc,cormick built his first      
factory in ,chicago4  ,so1 it is evident
 that the ,mc,cormick ,reaper has been  
an indispensable factor in the making of
 ,america4 ,without it1 we could never  
have had the ,america of to-day4 ,it has
 brought good1 and nothing but good1 to 
every country that has accepted it4 ,it 
has never been1 and never can be1 put to
 an evil use4 ,it cannot1 under any     
system of government1 benefit the few   
and not the many4 ,it is as democratic  
in its nature as the ,american          
,constitution2 and in every foreign     
country where it cuts the grain1 it is  
an educator as well as a machine1 giving
 to the masses of less fortunate lands  
an object-lesson in democracy and the   
spirit of ,american progress4           
,,chapter ,,xii  ,,the ,,reaper ,,and   

,,the ,,world   ,we shall now see what  
the invention of the ,reaper means to   
the human race as a whole4 ,we shall    
leave behind ,mc,cormick and the ,united
 ,states1 and survey the field from a   
higher standpoint4 ,the selection of    
wheat as the first world-food1--its     
abundance made possible by the          
,reaper--its transportation by railroads
 and steamships--its storage in         
elevators--the production of flour--the 
growth of wheat-banks1 wheat-ports1 and 
exchanges--the new wheat empires--the   
international mechanism of              
marketing--the conquest of famine and   
the stupendous possibilities of the     
future6 ,these are the subjects that    
group themselves under the general      
title--,the ,reaper and the ,world4  ,to
 find a world-food1--that was the       
beginning of the problem4 ,all human    
beings wake up hungry every morning of  
their lives2 and consequently the first 
necessity of the day is food4 ,the      
search for food is the oldest of        

instincts4 ,it is the master-motive of  
evolution4 ,it has reared empires up and
 thrown them down4 ,as ,buckle has      
shown1 where the national food is cheap 
and plentiful1 population increases more
 rapidly4 ,and as ,sir ,james           
,crichton-,browne1 in a recent book on  
,parcimony in ,nutrition1 maintains1 the
 lack of food is a prolific cause of    
war1 disease1 and social misery in its  
various forms4 ,nothing is more         
demoralizing1 he says1 than chronic     
hunger4  ,for lack of bread the ,french 
,revolution failed1 said ,prince        
,krapotkin4 ,for lack of bread the opium
 traffic flourishes in ,india and       
,china2 the secret of the prevalence of 
opium is that the natives use it to     
prevent hunger-pangs in time of famine4 
,once let those countries have cheap    
bread1 and there may be no more opium   
sold there than there is to-day in      
,kansas4 ,for lack of bread came the war
 between ,russia and ,japan2 what the   
one nation wanted was a seaport for the 

grain of ,siberia1 and what the other   
wanted was more land for the support of 
her swarming population4 ,for lack of   
bread have come most of the crimes of   
greed and violence1--most of the social 
systems based on sordid self-interest1  
most of the ill-humor that has postponed
 the coming of an era of peace on earth 
and good-will among men4  ,now1 of the  
three main foods of the human race1     
flesh1 rice1 and wheat1 wheat is the    
best suited to be a world-food4 ,flesh  
becomes too expensive once the wild game
 of the forests is destroyed2 and it is 
not suitable for food in tropical       
countries4 ,rice1 on the other hand1 is 
not a flesh-forming food1 and so is not 
suited for food in cold countries4      
,wheat is the one food that is          
universal1 as good for the ,esquimaux as
 for the ,south ,sea ,islander4 ,it is  
not easily spoiled1 as milk and fruits  
are2 and it contains all the elements   
that are needed by the body and in just 
about the right proportion4  ,wheat1 to 

the botanist1 is a grass--a degraded    
lily1 to quote from ,grant ,allen4 ,it  
was originally a flower that was tamed  
by man and trained from beauty to       
usefulness4 ,we do not know when or     
where the prehistoric ,burbank lived who
 undertook this education of the        
wheat-lily4 ,but we do know that wheat  
has been a food for at least five       
thousand years4 ,we find it in the      
oldest tombs of ,egypt and pictured on  
the stones of the ,pyramids4 ,we know   
that ,solomon sent wheat as a present to
 his friend1 the ,king of ,tyre2 and we 
have reason to believe that its first   
appearance was in the valley of the     
,tigris and the ,euphrates1 near where  
the ancient city of ,babylon rose to    
greatness4  ,illustration3 ,chart       
,showing ,relative ,distribution of     
,values by ,producing ,countries in     
#aijh of ,world's ,production of ,five  
,principal ,grains4 ,approximate ,value1
 #i1bhj1jjj1jjj  ,illustration3 ,chart  
,showing ,relative ,values in #aijh of  

,world's ,production of the ,five       
,principal ,grains4 ,approximate ,value1
 #i1bhj1jjj1jjj  ,wheat is not a wild   
weed4 ,it is a tame and transient       
plant--a plant of civilization4 ,it     
could not continue to exist without man1
 and man1 perhaps1 could not exist      
except in the tropical countries without
 wheat4 ,each needs the other4 ,if the  
human race were to perish from the face 
of the earth1 wheat might survive for   
three years1 but no longer4 ,so close   
has this co-operation been between wheat
 and civilized man1 that an eminent     
,german writer1 ,dr4 ,gerland1 maintains
 with a wealth of evidence that wheat   
was the original cause of civilization1 
partly because it was the first good and
 plentiful food1 and partly because it  
was wheat that persuaded primitive man  
to forsake his wars and his wanderings  
and to learn the peaceful habits of     
agriculture4  ,in any case1 whatever its
 earlier history may have been1 wheat is
 to-day the chief food of the civilized 

races of mankind4 ,it is the main       
support of #fjj1jjj1jjj people4 ,it has 
overcome its natural enemies--weeds1    
fungus diseases1 insects1 and           
drought1--and attained a crop total of  
#c1ejj1jjj1jjj bushels a year4 ,to the  
intelligent1 purposeful nations that    
have become the masters of the human    
race1 wheat is now the staff of life1   
the milk of ,mother ,earth1 the essence 
of soil and air and rain and sunshine4  
,but1 although wheat was known to be the
 best food for fifty centuries1 it did  
not until very recently1 until thirty or
 forty years ago1 become a world-food4  
,every community ate up its own wheat4  
,it had little or none to sell1 because1
 no matter how much grain the farmers   
planted1 they could not in the eight or 
ten days of harvest gather more than a  
certain limited quantity into their     
barns4 ,all that one man could do1 with 
his wife to help him1 was to snatch in  
enough wheat to feed ten people for a   
year4 ,each family could do no more than

 feed one other family and itself4 ,this
 was the ,tragedy of the ,wheat4 ,there 
was never enough of it4 ,it was so      
precious that none could be sure of it  
except the kings and the nobilities4 ,as
 for the masses of peasantry who sowed  
the wheat and reaped it with            
hand-sickles1 they would almost as soon 
have thought of wearing diamonds as of  
eating white bread4  ,then1 in #ahca1   
came the ,reaper4 ,it was not invented  
in any of the older countries1 nor in   
any of the great cities of the world4   
,for five thousand years neither the    
peasants nor the kings had conceived of 
any better way of reaping wheat than    
with the sickle and the scythe4 ,the man
 who had cut the ,gordian knot of       
,famine was the son of a citizen-farmer1
 ,cyrus ,hall ,mc,cormick by name1      
,scotch-,irish by race1 ,american by    
birth1 and inventor by heredity and     
early training4  ,this new machine1 the 
,reaper1 when it was full-grown into the
 self-binder1 was equal to forty        

sickles4 ,with one man to drive it1 it  
could cut and bind enough wheat in one  
season to feed four hundred people4 ,in 
its most highly developed form1 the     
combined harvester and thresher1 it has 
become so gigantic a machine that       
thirty-two horses are required to haul  
it4 ,this leviathan cuts a fifty-foot   
roadway through the grain1 threshes it  
and bags it at the rate of one bag every
 half-minute4 ,and the total world      
production of ,reapers of every         
sort--self-binders1 mowers1 headers1    
corn-binders1 etc41--is probably as many
 as #a1ejj1jjj a year1 two-thirds of    
them being made in the ,united ,states4 
,because of this harvesting machinery1  
the wheat crop of the world is now      
nearly twice what it was in #ahgi4 ,the 
,american crop has multiplied six and a 
half times in fifty years4 ,western     
,canada1 ,australia1 ,siberia1 and      
,argentina have become wheat producers4 
,the cost of growing one bushel in      
,america1 with machinery and high wages1

 is now about half a dollar1 which is   
less than the cost in ,europe and as low
 as the cost in ,india1 where laborers  
can be hired for a few pennies a day4   
,with a sickle1 the time-cost of a      
bushel of wheat was three hours2 with a 
self-binder1 it is now ten minutes4 ,and
 so1 because of these amazing results1  
the rattle of the harvester has become  
an indispensable part of the music of   
our industrial orchestra1 harmonious    
with the click of the telegraph key1 the
 ring of the telephone bell1 the hum of 
the sewing-machine1 the roar of the     
,bessemer converter1 the gong of the    
trolley1 the whistle of the steamboat1  
and the puff of the locomotive4  ,next  
to the ,reaper1 the most important      
factors in this world-mechanism of the  
bread1 are the ,railroad and the        
,steamboat4 ,these arrived on the scene 
just at the right time to distribute the
 surplus that the ,reaper produced4 ,the
 ,steamboat1 and its humble relative1   
the barge1 came first4 ,the ,erie ,canal

 of #ahbe1 the ,suez ,canal of #ahfi1   
and the ,sault ,ste4 ,marie ,canal of   
#ahha1 were built largely for the       
carrying of the wheat4 ,by #ahef wheat  
was on its way from ,chicago to ,europe2
 and four years later the first         
wheat-ship curved around ,cape ,horn    
from ,california4 ,ten years ago an     
entirely new kind of ship1 a sort of    
immense steel bag called a whaleback1   
was built to carry #bej1jjj bushels of  
wheat in a single load4 ,by this means a
 ton of wheat is actually carried       
thirteen miles for one cent4 ,there are 
to-day small barges on the canals of    
,holland1 large ones on the river       
,volga1 and several thousand steamships 
on the world's main water-ways1 all     
carrying burdens of wheat4 ,enough is   
now being transported from port to port 
to give steady work to fully three      
hundred steamships and summer work to   
very nearly as many more4  ,there was an
 exciting contest between the ship and  
the car in the earlier days of          

transportation1 to see which should     
carry the largest share of the wheat4   
,about #ahfi the car won4 ,in this year1
 too1 the ,united ,states was belted    
with a railway1 east to west1 which     
meant the opening up of the first great 
wheat-empire4 ,other railways pushed out
 into the vast prairies of the ,west1   
lured by the call of the wheat4 ,they   
were the pioneers of the world's        
wheat-railways4 ,wheat was their chief  
freight and wheat farmers were their    
chief passengers4 ,at the outset the    
grain was shipped in bags4 ,then some   
railway genius invented the grain-car1  
which holds as much as twenty or        
twenty-five wagons4 ,and to-day one of  
the ordinary moving pictures of an      
,american railroad is a sixty-car train 
travelling eastward with enough wheat in
 its rolling bins to give bread to a    
city of ten thousand people for a year4 
,the trans-,siberian railway1 which is  
the longest straight line of steel in   
the world1 was built largely as a       

wheat-conveyor4 ,so were the railways of
 western ,canada1 ,argentina1 and       
,india4 ,ever since the advent of the   
,reaper wheat has been the prolific     
mother of railways and steamships4      
,while the rice nations are still       
putting their burdens on ox-carts and on
 the backs of camels and elephants1 the 
wheat nations have built up a system of 
transportation that is a daily miracle  
of cheapness1 efficiency1 and speed4    
,this system is not yet finished4 ,a new
 line of steamships is about to be set  
afloat between ,buenos ,ayres and       
,hamburg4 ,the ,erie ,canal is being    
re-made1 at a fabulous cost1 so that a  
steamer with #ajj1jjj bushels of wheat  
can go directly from ,buffalo to ,new   
,york4 ,and an adventurous railway is   
now pushing its way north from the      
wheat-fields of western ,canada to the  
unknown water of ,hudson ,bay1 whence   
the wheat will be carried by boat to    
,london and ,liverpool4  ,to-day it is  
not the long haul of wheat1 but the     

short haul1 that is more expensive4 ,it 
is cheaper to carry wheat from one      
country to another than from the barn to
 the nearest town4 ,the average distance
 that an ,american farmer has to haul   
his grain is nine and a half miles1 and 
the average cost of haulage is nine     
cents per hundred pounds4 ,thus it has  
actually become true that to carry wheat
 ten miles by wagon costs more than     
#b1cjj miles by steamship4 ,such is the 
tense efficiency of our wheat-carrier   
system that a bushel of grain can now be
 picked up in ,missouri and sent to the 
cotton-spinners of ,england for a dime4 
,associated with this transportation    
problem was the matter of storage4      
,there was no sort of a building known  
to man1 fifty years ago1 in which a     
million bushels of wheat might be       
conveniently kept4 ,an entirely new kind
 of building had to be invented4 ,all   
the wheat barns were overflowing4 ,all  
the warehouses were outgrown4 ,the      
difficulty was to make a huge building  

that could be quickly filled and        
emptied4 ,then1 at the precise moment   
when he was needed1 an inventor1 ,f4 ,h4
 ,peavey1 appeared with a device for    
elevating grain--an endless carrier to  
which metal cups were fastened4 ,from   
this idea the elevator was born4        
,illustration3 ,,mammoth ,,wheat-,,field
 ,,in ,,south ,,dakota ,,with ,,twenty  
,,harvesters ,,in ,,line  ,the first    
city that appreciated the usefulness of 
this new1 unlovely building was         
,chicago4 ,it became not only the home  
of the ,reaper1 but also the main       
storehouse of the wheat4 ,it erected one
 after another of these mastodonic      
buildings until to-day thirty-six of    
them stand along the water-front1 roomy 
enough to hold the entire crop of       
,holland1 ,sweden1 ,greece1 ,egypt1     
,mexico1 and ,new ,zealand4 ,what these 
immense grain-bins have done for the    
prosperity of ,chicago would require    
many books to tell completely4 ,it was  
largely because of them that ,chicago   

outgrew ,berlin and became the central  
metropolis of ,north ,america1 with     
twenty-six railways emptying their      
freight at her doors and seven thousand 
vessels a year arriving at her harbor4  
,at present ,chicago has swung from     
wheat to corn and oats1 and enabled     
,minneapolis to become the greatest     
actual wheat-storage city of the world4 
,in ,minneapolis the owning of elevators
 has become a profession4 ,there are not
 only forty-four elevators in the city  
itself1 but also forty elevator         
companies that have built more than two 
thousand elevators in the wheat ,states 
of the ,northwest4 ,the ,jumbo of all   
elevators is here--a stupendous granary 
that holds #f1jjj1jjj bushels1 as much  
as may be reaped by two thousand        
self-binders from seven hundred square  
miles of land4  ,of all ,american       
cities1 there are only five others that 
can put roofs over #aj1jjj1jjj bushels  
of grain4 ,duluth-,superior stands at   
the head of these1 with twice the       

storage capacity of ,new ,york4 ,this   
double city1 with the picturesque       
location1 ,duluth on her ,minnesota     
hillside and ,superior on her ,wisconsin
 plain1 has in recent years overtaken   
all competitors and is now the leading  
wheat-shipping port in the world4       
,buffalo comes next as an elevator city1
 having twenty-eight towering buildings 
of steel operated by the energy of      
,niagara ,falls4 ,even this famous      
cataract helps a little in the making of
 cheap bread4 ,new ,york follows closely
 after ,buffalo2 with ,kansas ,city and 
,st4 ,louis running neck and neck at    
quite a distance behind4 ,it is an odd  
fact that there is not one elevator on  
the ,pacific coast4 ,because of the     
rainless weather1 the wheat is put into 
bags and piled outdoors until the day of
 shipment4 ,this is an expensive method 
of handling1 as the bags cost four cents
 apiece and no machine has as yet been  
invented that will pick up and handle a 
sack of grain4  ,the ,american elevator 

has now been very generally adopted as  
the ideal wheat-bin4 ,two ,roumanian    
cities1 ,braila and ,galatz1 have       
suggested an improvement by using       
concrete instead of steel4 ,and one     
,russian city1 ,novorossisk1 on the     
,black ,sea1 has introduced a most      
original feature in the building of     
elevators by erecting a very large one a
 quarter of a mile back from the dock1  
because of the better view that this    
site affords of the harbor4  ,london has
 no elevators1 and never has had1       
although it buys more wheat than any    
other city4 ,it has six million mouths  
to feed1 so that the grain is devoured  
as fast as it arrives4 ,to give bread to
 ,london would take the entire crop of  
,indiana or ,siberia4 ,neither are there
 any elevators of any importance in     
,paris1 ,berlin1 or ,antwerp4 ,whatever 
wheat arrives at these cities is either 
hurried to the mill or re-shipped4      
,wheat is too precious in ,europe to be 
stored for a year or for two years1 as  

may happen in ,minnesota4 ,rotterdam has
 one elevator only and of moderate size4
 ,neither ,odessa nor ,sulina have any  
of the large proportions1 for the       
reasons that in ,odessa the labor unions
 have an unconquerable prejudice against
 elevators1 and in ,sulina the grain is 
held only a short time and then         
forwarded elsewhere4 ,this ,sulina1 as a
 glance at the map of ,europe will show1
 is the loneliest of all the            
wheat-cities4 ,it stands on a heap of   
gravel at the mouth of the ,danube--an  
oasis of human life in a vast marshy    
wilderness4 ,the children born there    
have never seen a railway2 but #a1djj   
ships leave the stone docks of ,sulina  
every year laden with enough wheat to   
feed ,london1 ,paris1 and ,berlin4 ,to  
find the exact reverse of ,sulina1 we   
must go to ,buenos ,ayres--the premier  
wheat-city of ,south ,america and the   
gayest of them all4 ,built up at first  
by the cattle trade1 and now depending  
mainly upon wheat1 this superb city has 

become the topmost pinnacle of ,south   
,american luxury and refinement4 ,it has
 several new elevators1 erected by the  
railway companies4  ,after the ,reaper1 
the ,railway1 the ,steamship1 and the   
,elevator1 came the ,exchange4 ,this1   
too1 came first in ,chicago1 in its     
modern form4 ,there was one little grain
 ,exchange in the ,italian city of      
,genoa1 several centuries ago1 and      
,england points back to #agdg as the    
year when her first ,corn ,exchange was 
born4 ,but it was the ,exchange in      
,chicago1 started by thirteen men in    
#ahdh1 that first came into its full    
growth and became an arena of           
international forces4  ,a wheat         
,exchange is to-day much more than a    
meeting-place for brokers4 ,it is a     
mechanism4 ,it is a news bureau--a      
parliament--a part of the               
whispering-gallery of the world4 ,it not
 only provides a market where wheat can 
at once be bought and sold1 but it      
obtains for both buyer and seller all   

the news from everywhere about the      
wheat1 so that no bargain may be made in
 the dark4 ,before ,exchanges were      
organized there were times when a farmer
 would drive twenty miles to the nearest
 town with a load of wheat1 and find no 
one to buy it4 ,even in ,chicago1 in the
 early forties1 a farmer ran the risk of
 not being able to trade his wheat for a
 few groceries4  ,at present1 when a    
buyer or a seller of wheat arrives at an
 ,exchange1 he goes at once to consult  
the weather map of the day4 ,from here  
he passes to a series of                
bulletin-boards1 which inform him of the
 arrival or outgo of wheat at many      
cities4 ,one board tells him the visible
 supply of wheat in the world1 so that  
he can easily ascertain1 if he wishes to
 do so1 how much bread the human race   
ate last week4 ,other boards have       
telegrams and cablegrams of             
disaster--frost in ,alberta1 hail in    
,minnesota1 green bug in ,texas1 rust in
 ,argentina1 drought in ,australia1     

locusts in ,siberia1 monsoon in ,india1 
and chinch bug in ,missouri4 ,good news 
is here1 too1 as well as bad4 ,there may
 be reports of a record-breaking crop in
 ,roumania1 an opulent rain in ,kansas1 
a new steamship line from ,kurrachee to 
,liverpool1 and the plowing of a million
 acres of new land in western ,canada4  
,and also there are1 of course1 the     
records of the latest sales and prices  
in other ,exchanges4  ,thus the farmer  
can not only find a ready buyer for his 
wheat4 ,he can1 by means of a newspaper 
or a telephone1 know what price he ought
 to receive1 as all the news gathered by
 the ,exchanges is freely given to the  
public4 ,such is the perfection of the  
news mechanism that has been built up   
around the marketing of the wheat1 that 
before a ,dakota farmer starts out for  
town with a load of grain1 he can go to 
the telephone under his own roof and    
learn the prices at various cities and  
the world-conditions of the wheat trade4
  ,the paper which best deserves to be  

called the official journal of the wheat
 is the ,corn ,trade ,news1 of          
,liverpool2 and the building which best 
deserves to be called the international 
headquarters of the wheat business is   
the handsome new ,baltic ,exchange1 near
 by the ,bank of ,england in ,london4   
,this ,baltic market is so practically  
international1 in fact1 that it is never
 closed4 ,whoever wishes to buy or sell 
wheat may do so here at any hour of the 
day or night4 ,there are no days in this
 building and no seasons1 for the reason
 that it is always noonday and          
harvest-time in some part of the world4 
,in this ,baltic ,exchange1 too1 there  
is now a nucleus for a ,wheat           
,parliament1 organized under the name of
 the ,corn ,trade ,association4 ,this   
society has undertaken to put the wheat 
business in order1 by establishing      
standard contracts1 collecting samples  
of all wheats1 arbitrating disputes1 and
 condemning all dishonesties of whatever
 sort4  ,as wheat ,exchange cities1     

,london1 ,liverpool1 and ,chicago       
outclass all others4 ,neither ,italy nor
 ,france have any central or dominating 
market4 ,in ,paris1 ,antwerp1 ,hamburg1 
and ,amsterdam the ,bourses1 as the     
,exchanges are called1 are public       
buildings1 and the members of each      
,bourse represent the local situation   
and nothing more4 ,one of the most      
ambitious and speculative of the        
,european ,exchanges is the one at      
,budapest1 which stands beside a dainty 
little park where the brokers eat their 
lunch in fine weather2 and the youngest 
of all ,exchanges is the one that was   
born in ,buenos ,ayres in #aijh1        
representing a surplus of a hundred     
million bushels a year4  ,besides the   
brokers1 in their ,exchanges1 there must
 also be inspectors in the marketing of 
the wheat4 ,in some countries these     
inspectors are government officers1 as  
in ,germany and ,canada2 and elsewhere  
they are local officials or private     
employees1 as in the ,united ,states4 ,a

 carload of wheat1 passing from ,dakota 
to ,new ,york1 will probably have from  
three to six inspections4               
,illustration3 ,,harvesting ,,in        
,,roumania  ,also1 the insurance agent  
takes his place in the circle of        
co-operation when the wheat begins to   
move from barn to bakery4 ,he insures   
the wheat in the elevators1 on the cars1
 or in the steamships4 ,he may even     
insure it against hail and tornadoes    
while it is growing4 ,it is so precious1
 this brown seed1 that we watch over    
every step of its progress4  ,it is the 
bankers' busy season1 too1 when the     
wheat begins to move4 ,the marketing of 
the grain ties up more money than any   
other yearly event4 ,it threatens us    
with disaster every fall1 said one of   
the ,secretaries of the ,treasury1 when 
making a plea for a more elastic        
currency4 ,we ship half a million       
dollars a day during harvest1 said the  
president of a ,chicago bank4 ,we drew  
more than five millions of currency from

 the ,east and sent thirty-eight        
millions to the country during          
,september and ,october of last year1   
said a third financier1 who spoke for   
,chicago as a whole4 ,in short1 the     
movement of the wheat means a matter of 
five hundred millions to ,american      
bankers2 and it is the most important   
occurrence of the year to the bankers of
 ,russia1 ,canada1 ,argentina1 and      
,australia4 ,many a bank1 as well as    
many a railroad1 was founded upon the   
moving of the wheat4  ,the broker1 the  
banker1 the inspector1 and the insurance
 agent--these four render a useful      
service to the wheat that has left home2
 but there is a fifth man about whose   
usefulness there is the widest possible 
difference of opinion--the speculator4  
,from one point of view1 the speculator 
is the driving-wheel of the whole wheat 
trade4 ,by his energy and his impetus he
 steadies and equalizes the conflicting 
forces1 and gives the entire mechanism a
 continuous movement4 ,from another     

point of view1 he is a gambler1 reckless
 and parasitical1 who interferes with   
the natural laws of supply and demand1  
and snatches an unearned toll from the  
wheat bins of the world4  ,some of the  
wheat nations not only permit           
speculation in wheat1 but practically   
encourage it by allowing more privileges
 to the speculator than to the ordinary 
business man4 ,others are resolutely    
stamping it out1 as a nuisance and a    
crime4 ,the nations that have voted ,yea
 on speculation are ,great ,britain1    
,hungary1 ,sweden1 ,norway1 ,france1 and
 the ,united ,states2 and the nations   
that have voted ,nay are ,germany1      
,holland1 ,belgium1 ,australia1         
,switzerland1 ,greece1 and ,argentina4  
,canada has been divided on the         
question1 since the ,province of        
,manitoba broke up the ,winnipeg ,grain 
,exchange by legislation in #aijh4  ,in 
the end1 as organization increases1     
speculation will decline4 ,chicago will 
try to push prices up and ,london will  

try to pull them down2 but there will be
 fewer violent fluctuations4 ,better    
methods of farming and a more reliable  
system of news-gathering will eliminate 
the element of chance to such an extent 
that the wheat trade will offer less and
 less scope for speculation and no      
inducements at all to the reckless      
plunger4 ,already the frantic methods of
 marketing wheat have been outgrown in  
the ,exchanges of ,liverpool and        
,london4 ,in neither of these places is 
there any ,wheat ,pit1 or any maelstrom 
of frenzied brokers4 ,without any       
shouting or jostling or wild tumult of  
any kind1 the ,english brokers are      
buying two hundred million bushels of   
wheat a year1 and controlling the       
situation to a greater extent than any  
other body of men4 ,this1 too1 without  
any restrictive legislation4  ,before   
wheat was made plentiful by the ,reaper1
 it was possible for a daring man to    
establish a corner or monopoly2 but no  
one has succeeded in doing this for more

 than forty years4 ,the last wheat      
corner that did not fail was in #ahfg4  
,since then every would-be cornerer has 
been caught in his own trap4 ,the       
wheat-machinery of the world has now    
become so vast that no individual can   
master it4 ,whoever has tried it has    
found that he was being cornered by the 
wheat2 for as soon as he had raised the 
price to an artificial level1 the grain 
has flowed in upon him and covered him  
up4 ,the price of wheat to-day may be   
temporarily deflected by schemes and    
conspiracies1 but not for long4         
,ultimately it is decided by the state  
of the crop and the state of public     
opinion in the thirty-six countries that
 grow wheat and eat bread4  ,within the 
last thirty years1 since the ,reaper has
 come into universal use1 the area of   
the world's wheat-field has doubled4    
,new countries have arisen1 that were   
only waste places before4 ,the habitable
 earth has grown immensely larger4      
,there is more room for both wheat and  

men to grow1 and less scope for the     
forestaller and the monopolist4 ,just as
 the ,reaper was the advance-machine of 
civilization across the prairies of the 
,west1 so it is to-day opening up new   
territories and developing new          
resources4  ,northwestern ,canada1 for  
instance1 was a dozen years ago supposed
 to be a barren wilderness of snow and  
ice1 in which none but the hunter and   
the fur-trader might earn a living4     
,then several adventurous ,minnesotans  
went across and planted wheat4 ,it      
grew--forty bushels to the acre1 and the
 acres1 there were two hundred million  
of them1 were waiting for the plow and  
almost to be had for the asking4 ,since 
then1 more than three hundred thousand  
,american farmers have swept across the 
line and joined in the greatest         
wheat-rush of this generation4 ,twelve  
hundred grain elevators have been built 
along the line of the ,canadian         
,pacific2 and ,chicago self-binders     
rattled through the yellow wheat last   

,summer two thousand miles north of ,st4
 ,louis4  ,in ,argentina1 too1 and      
,australia1 where the wheat ripens just 
in time to decorate the ,christmas      
trees1 there is to be seen the same     
conquest of nature4 ,desolate plains are
 being tamed by the plow and exploited  
by the harvesters4 ,in the semi-arid    
belt that lies east of the ,rocky       
,mountains1 new kinds of wheat1 less    
thirsty1 are being taught to grow4 ,in  
,russia and ,siberia a vast tract of    
twenty-five million acres has been      
rescued from idleness in the last       
fifteen years4 ,and even in the valley  
of the ,euphrates1 where wheat1 so it is
 believed1 was born1 a new railway is   
now being constructed which1 when it is 
finished1 will carry oil and wheat4  ,by
 thus opening up new regions to         
settlement1 the wheat-farmer not only   
thwarts the monopolist and makes the    
world a larger place to live in1 he does
 more3 he compels the gold to come out  
of its vaults in the great cities and to

 flow to the outermost parts of the     
earth4 ,for every eighteen thousand     
pounds of wheat that go to the city1    
there will go back to the farmer one    
pound of gold4 ,for every loaf of bread 
upon a ,londoner's table1 there will go 
a cent and a half to the man behind the 
,reaper4 ,and so1 the sale of every     
wheat-crop means that the gold will come
 throbbing out into the arteries of     
business1 like the blood from the heart1
 and on its way back and forth nourish  
the whole body of the nation4  ,it is in
 the very nature of the wheat trade to  
benefit the masses and not the few4 ,the
 more wheat that grows1 the less danger 
there is of an aristocracy of wheat4    
,more wheat means more luxury in the    
farm-house1 more traffic on the railway1
 and more food in the slums4 ,it means  
busier factories and steel-mills1       
because the farmer1 when he receives his
 wheat-money1 becomes the customer of   
the manufacturer4 ,thus it was not at   
all accidental that the wealth of       

,buenos ,ayres came with the exportation
 of wheat1 or that the commercial       
awakening of ,canada followed the       
opening up of her western prairies1 or  
that the industrial supremacy of the    
,united ,states dates from the immense  
wheat harvests that began in #ahhj to   
push the whole country forward with the 
power of #ejj1jjj1jjj a year4 ,as one of
 ,mc,cormick's competitors1 ,j4 ,d4     
,easter of ,evanston1 once declared1 ,it
 seems as though the ,mc,cormick ,reaper
 started the ball of prosperity rolling1
 and it has been rolling ever since4    
,illustration3 ,,harvesting ,,heavy     
,,grain1 ,,south ,,america  ,if we wish 
to know what the ,reaper will eventually
 do for these new wheat countries1 we   
have but to glance back over the short  
history of our ten prairie ,states4     
,here1 by the use of both science and   
machinery1 the ,new ,farmer has reached 
his highest level of success4 ,by #ahhd 
these ten ,states had twenty million    
thriving settlers1 riding on forty-two  

thousand miles of railway1 raising as   
much wheat in a day as ,new ,england    
could in a year1 and storing their      
profits in twenty-five hundred banks4   
,incredible as it may seem to ,europe   
and ,asia1 it is true that even the     
poorhouses in ,iowa and ,kansas were    
used last year as storehouses for wheat4
 ,and it is true that in the            
co-operative commonwealth called        
,kansas1 at the last assessment1 there  
were found to be forty-four thousand    
pianos and six million dollars' worth of
 carriages and automobiles4 ,this in a  
,state where there are no ,grand ,dukes 
and where every man works for a living6 
,if the lords of ,siberia wish to know  
what may be done with that famine-swept 
vastitude they may come and see that bed
 of an ancient sea1 which in thirty     
years has been transformed into the     
world's greatest bread-land--the ,red   
,river ,valley4 ,here the banks are not 
only packed with millions1 but hundreds 
of millions1 belonging to the           

shirt-sleeved proprietors of the soil4  
,here1 in the yellow days of ,august1 a 
man may travel for days and see no limit
 to the ocean of waving1 shimmering     
wheat1 that ripples around him in a vast
 sky-bounded circle4                    
,wheat--wheat--wheat6 ,nothing but      
wheat6 ,it is a ,field of the ,cloth of 
,gold1 that adds nothing to the glory of
 kings1 but much to the glory of the    
common people4 ,drop the ,german ,empire
 down upon this valley and its expanse  
of dizzying1 swirling wheat1 and the    
wheat would not be wholly eclipsed4     
,there would still be enough grain      
around the edges to make a golden       
fringe4  ,the children born and bred in 
this ,red ,river ,valley have never     
seen1 except in pictures1 a sickle or a 
flail4 ,their only conception of a      
harvest time is that a battery of red   
self-binders1 with reels whirling and   
knives clacking1 shall charge upon the  
wheat as though each acre were a        
battalion of hostile infantry1 and make 

war until the land is strewn with heaps 
of fallen sheaves4 ,famine1 to these    
children of the wheat1 seems as remote a
 danger as the cooling of the sun4 ,even
 the one young ,state of ,north ,dakota1
 not yet of age1 is now growing food for
 herself1 and for twelve million people 
besides4  ,so1 the urgent world-problem 
is to teach other nations the lesson of 
the ,red ,river ,valley4 ,there is not  
yet enough bread so that we may put a   
loaf at every plate4 ,to feed the whole 
race according to the present ,american 
standard of living would require ten    
thousand million bushels--three times as
 much as we are raising now2 and the    
demand is fast outgrowing the supply4   
,sooner or later the ,chinese will learn
 to eat at least one loaf a week apiece1
 and when they do1 it will mean that the
 world's wheat crop must be increased   
ten per cent4  ,more wheat and a more   
efficient organization of wheat         
agencies--that is the programme of the  
future4 ,already one unsuccessful effort

 has been made to hold an international 
,wheat ,congress2 and the second attempt
 may end more happily4 ,now that the    
world has become so small that a        
cablegram flashes completely around it  
in twelve minutes2 now that there are   
forty-four nations united by ,the ,hague
 ,conferences and fifty-eight by the    
,postal ,union2 now that war has grown  
to be so expensive that one cannon-shot 
costs as much as a college education and
 one battleship as much as a first-class
 ,university1--it is quite probable that
 the march of co-operation will continue
 until there is a ,congress1 and a      
central headquarters and a ,tribunal1   
which will represent nothing less than  
an international fellowship of the      
wheat4     ,,chapter ,,xiii  ,,give ,,us
 ,,this ,,day ,,our ,,daily ,,bread     
,we have now seen the machinery by which
 the wheat is cut1 moved1 stored1       
financed1 and marketed4 ,its next and   
last step1 as wheat1 is to the          
,flour-mill1 whence it goes to the      

bakeries1 the groceries1 and the homes  
of six hundred million people4 ,here1   
too1 there have had to come new methods 
since the advent of the ,reaper4  ,in   
the ,dark ,ages of the sickle and the   
flail1 two flat stones did well enough  
for a flour-mill4 ,even the bread that  
was found in the ruins of ,pompeii had  
been made of wheat that was merely      
crushed4 ,later came the mill run by    
horse-power or by the energy of a little
 stream4 ,such were the first ,american 
mills4 ,the mill that was operated by   
,george ,washington at ,mount ,vernon1  
for instance1 was run by water-power and
 produced flour that sold for thirteen  
dollars a barrel4 ,rochester1 ,n4 ,y41  
was the first ,american ,flour ,city2   
but the modern flour-mill did not come  
until it was compelled to come by the   
deluge of ,reaper wheat that flooded the
 markets in #ahgj4  ,as usually happens 
in the case of inventions1 it came where
 it was not expected4 ,it made its      
arrival in the ,hungarian city of       

,budapest in #ahgd4 ,the new process1 as
 it was called1 was based upon the use  
of steel rolls instead of stones4 ,it   
was as superior to the old-fashioned way
 as the ,reaper had been to the sickle  
or as the thresher was to the flail4 ,it
 was amazingly quick and produced a     
better flour4 ,by reason of these new   
mills1 ,budapest became at a bound the  
foremost ,flour ,city of the world1 and 
held its place against all comers until 
#ahij4  ,then the prestige passed to    
,minneapolis--a young city on the       
head-waters of the ,mississippi1 the    
recent home of the prairie-dog and the  
buffalo4 ,shortly before the ,civil     
,war1 a youthful lawyer named ,william  
,d4 ,washburn drifted westwards from    
,maine until he came to ,minneapolis1 at
 that time a tiny village on the        
frontier4 ,he found no clients here1 and
 no law2 but he did find a ledge of     
limestone rock jutting across the       
,mississippi and making the only large  
water-fall in all that region4 ,so he   

threw aside his legal education and     
became the organizer of a water-power   
company and the owner of a little       
flour-mill4 ,soon the long line of      
,reapers reached ,minneapolis and swept 
on westwards into the richest wheat     
lands that had ever been known4 ,the    
wheat overwhelmed the slow old-fashioned
 mills1 so the ex-lawyer in #ahgh       
adopted the ,budapest system and built a
 roller-mill that was the quickest and  
most automatic of its kind4 ,other      
millers had by this time come to        
,minneapolis--,pillsbury1 ,crosby1      
,christian1 and ,dunwoody2 and all      
together they pushed the flour business 
until in twelve years they had become   
the main millers of the world4          
,illustration3 ,,indians ,,reaping      
,,their ,,harvest1 ,,white ,,earth1     
,,minnesota  ,to-day the river of wheat 
is deepest at ,minneapolis4 ,its        
twenty-two great mills roll #abj1jjj1jjj
 bushels into flour as an ordinary      
year's work4 ,while the swiftest mill in

 ,athens1 in the age of ,pericles1      
produced no more than two barrels a day1
 there is one mill of incredible size in
 ,minneapolis that fills seventeen      
thousand barrels in a twenty-four hours'
 run--enough to give bread to ,new ,york
 ,state and ,california4 ,what the      
,greeks did in a day the ,minnesotans do
 in ten seconds4 ,five million barrels  
of this ,minneapolis flour is each year 
scattered among foreign nations1 a fact 
which informs us that flour is now not a
 local product1 but part of the real    
currency of nations4 ,no doubt the      
people who dwell by the ,sea of         
,galilee1 whose fathers were once       
miraculously fed upon seven loaves of   
bread and a few fishes1 are now being   
fed miraculously upon loaves of bread   
made from the flour of ,minneapolis4    
,the making of the bread--that is the   
final step in this movement of the      
wheat4 ,as yet1 this is a local process1
 though not wholly so4 ,certain         
ready-to-eat foods are now being made   

from wheat and boxed in such a way that 
they may be sent from one country to    
another4 ,if we trace back the original 
of a loaf of bread of ordinary size1 we 
shall find that it was made from        
two-thirds of a pound of flour1 which   
was rolled from one pound of wheat1     
containing about twelve thousand grains 
that were grown on forty-eight square   
feet of land and reaped by a self-binder
 in two seconds4 ,when the wheat was cut
 in the old-fashioned way1 with a       
hand-sickle1 every loaf of bread        
required eighty seconds' labor instead  
of two4  ,in a public test made last    
year in the ,state of ,washington1 wheat
 was cut1 threshed1 ground into flour1  
and baked into biscuits in twenty-three 
minutes4 ,this is an evidence that all  
the machinery for handling grain has now
 been brought up to the same high level 
of speed and efficiency as the          
self-binder4 ,it also helps us to       
understand the daily marvel of cheap    
bread--the fact that a hundred loaves of

 bread are now delivered one by one at  
an ,american workingman's door for the  
cost of a seat at the opera or a couple 
of song-records by ,caruso4  ,so        
plentiful is this bread that the loaves 
baked from ,american flour in #aijg     
would have made a wall of bread around  
the earth1 or have given thirty loaves  
apiece to every human creature2 and so  
cheap has it become in these latter days
 that even in the ,united ,states it is 
not more than three cents a day per     
capita4 ,the unskilled laborer who      
receives #a4ej a day1 earns his bread in
 the first ten minutes1 every work day  
morning4 ,and the total tax he pays to  
the men who make the self-binders is not
 more than one tenth of a cent per loaf4
  ,three-sevenths of the people of the  
world are now on a wheat basis4 ,they   
are the lesser fraction in point of     
numbers1 but the larger in point of     
prosperity and progress4 ,a wheat map of
 the globe would be very nearly a map of
 modern civilization4 ,as yet1 there are

 many peasants who grow wheat and cannot
 afford to eat it4 ,but the number of   
bread-eaters is steadily increasing1    
probably at the rate of four or five    
million a year4  ,the nation that eats  
most bread per capita is ,belgium4      
,after her come ,france1 ,england1 and  
the ,united ,states4 ,as the ,belgians1 
with their scanty acres1 cannot grow    
more wheat than would support them for  
nine weeks1 they are compelled to import
 nearly fifty million bushels a year2   
and it is this continual influx of grain
 that has done most to make ,antwerp the
 third busiest port in the world and the
 home of forty steamship lines4  ,france
 is second as an eater1 and third as a  
grower1 of wheat4 ,but it is not an     
important factor in the international   
market1 as there is usually almost an   
even balance between what it grows and  
what it eats4 ,it has very little either
 to buy or to sell4 ,its crops are      
steady and large1 and by intensive      
cultivation the thrifty ,french are     

obtaining the same amount of grain from 
less and less land4  ,there are two     
countries only1 ,great ,britain and     
,holland1 that impose no tariff upon    
either wheat or flour4 ,neither the     
,british nor the ,dutch will tolerate a 
bread tax4 ,both countries have barely  
enough land to grow one-quarter as much 
wheat as they need1 although there was a
 period in the early history of ,england
 when it was nicknamed the ,granary of  
the ,north1 because of its many         
wheat-fields4 ,to-day the bread on three
 ,british tables out of four is made of 
wheat brought in a ,british ship from   
some foreign country2 and the total     
amount of wheat consumed in the ,united 
,kingdom is so great that it requires an
 army of #ic1jjj men with self-binders  
to cut it and tie it into sheaves4 ,if  
it had to be reaped with sickles1 it    
would be a ten-day harvesting for half  
the able-bodied men in the two islands4 
,germany eats less wheat than ,great    
,britain1 and raises more than twice as 

much4 ,the ,germans are skilled         
wheat-farmers4 ,they grow as much on    
half an acre of poor soil as ,americans 
grow on a whole acre of good soil4 ,the 
,italians eat very nearly as much as the
 ,germans1 and raise a larger crop by   
dint of great labor on the tiny farms   
and terraced hillsides of ,italy4 ,both 
countries tax the bread of the poor by a
 tariff of thirty-eight to forty-eight  
cents a bushel on foreign wheat4 ,the   
,austrians and ,hungarians1 in spite of 
a climate of extremes and sudden        
changes1 manage to supply themselves    
with more than ten billion loaves of    
bread by the tillage of their own       
fields1 and usually have some flour to  
sell to the neighboring countries4 ,the 
,spanish cannot quite feed themselves2  
in addition to the wheat they grow1 they
 are obliged to buy about a hundred     
ship-loads a year4 ,denmark comes out   
even4 ,portugal buys her bread for four 
months of the year4 ,greece1 ,norway1   
and ,sweden raise half enough wheat4    

,the ,swiss can get no more from their  
valley-farms than will feed them for ten
 weeks4 ,and the peasants of ,russia and
 ,roumania1 who raise wheat in          
abundance1 have unfortunately not yet   
risen to that luxurious level of life in
 which white bread is the every-day food
 of the people4 ,although ,russia has   
more wheat to sell than any other       
nation1 a ,russian eats one-third as    
much wheat as a ,belgian1 and there is a
 famine somewhere in the vast ,russian  
,empire almost every winter4            
,illustration3 ,a ,,harvest ,,scene     
,,upon ,a ,,russian ,,estate  ,africa is
 not yet a wheat-eating continent4      
,egypt1 which was1 in the ,golden ,age  
of the ,pharaohs1 the wheat-centre of   
the world1 now grows less grain than    
,oregon2 ,algeria raises less than      
,ohio2 and ,tunis1 from the fields that 
surround the ruins of ancient ,carthage1
 produces less grain than ,tennessee4   
,india is slowly shifting from rice to  
wheat4 ,many of the fields that once    

grew indigo are now yellow with grain4  
,at present ,india is the most uncertain
 factor in the situation1 as it may have
 eighty million bushels to sell or none4
 ,as it is one-third as large as the    
,united ,states1 and crowded with three 
times the population1 there is always   
need of its grain at home4 ,as yet1 the 
,reaper has not been allowed to extend  
its benefits to ,india4 ,most of the    
grain is reaped in the old slow1        
wasteful way4 ,it is sown by hand1 cut  
by sickles1 stored in pits1 and         
transported on the backs of camels4     
,little ,japan is falling into line as a
 bread-eating country1 growing now as   
much wheat as ,california4 ,and even    
,china1 which is not as a whole on the  
wheat-map of the world1 has recently    
begun to grow wheat in ,manchuria and to
 build flour-mills at ,hong-,kong4  ,so1
 the human race will soon be able to    
feed itself4 ,it has learned how and    
needs only to use to the full the       
agencies that are already invented and  

established4 ,beginning with the        
,mc,cormick ,reaper in #ahca1 there has 
been constructed a world mechanism of   
the bread1 which promises to wholly     
abolish ,famine and its brood of evils4 
,the crude machine that was hammered and
 whittled into shape in a log workshop  
on a ,virginian farm1 has now become a  
,system--a ,mc,cormick ,system1 that    
cuts ten million bushels of ripe wheat a
 day and transports it hither and       
thither as handily as though the whole  
round earth were girt with              
belt-conveyors4  ,that young ,virginian 
farmer who awoke from his dream and made
 his dream come true1 made it possible  
for a few in each country to provide    
enough food for all4 ,he found a cure   
for ,hunger1 which had always persisted 
like a chronic disease4 ,he heaped the  
plates on the tables of thirty-six      
nations4 ,he took a drudgery and        
transformed it into a profession4 ,he   
instructed the wheat-eating races how to
 increase the seven small loaves so that

 the multitudes should be fed4 ,he      
picked up the task of feeding the hungry
 masses--the ,christly task that had    
lain unfulfilled for eighteen centuries1
 and led the way in organizing it into a
 system of international reciprocity4   
,to-day there is no longer in most      
countries any tragic note in the ,epic  
of the ,wheat4 ,there is no sweating    
peasant with a hoe4 ,the plowman may    
even sit1 if he wishes1 upon the sliding
 steel knife that slices the soil into  
furrows1 or upon the steel harrow that  
combs the clods into soft1 loose earth4 
,the sower is no heavy-footed serf1     
scattering his grain in handfuls upon   
the surface of the soil1 where the birds
 of the air may devour it4 ,he1 too1    
rides upon a machine with steel fingers 
that plant the living seed securely in  
the living earth4 ,and when1 at the call
 of the sun and the rain1 the black     
field becomes green and ripens from     
green to gold1 its yellow fruitage is   
swept down and into barns1 not by a     

horde of stooping laborers1 but by the  
,grand ,march of the ,harvesters1 the   
drivers of painted chariots1 who ride   
against the grain and leave it behind   
them in bound sheaves4  ,henceforth     
civilization may be based upon higher   
motives than the ,search for ,food4 ,the
 struggle for existence may become the  
struggle of the nobler nature for its   
full development4 ,the gentle need not  
be eliminated by the strong4 ,instead of
 contending with one another in an      
unbrotherly competition1 men may move   
upward to the higher activities of      
social self-preservation and organized  
self-help4 ,by mastering the problem of 
the bread1 they have opened up such     
opportunities for education1 for travel1
 for happier homes1 for the prosperity  
and friendship of the nations1 as no    
previous generation has ever had4 ,and  
it is here1 it is in this larger and    
kindlier civilization1 that is now made 
possible by the ,reaper and the         
wheat-mechanism which has grown up      

around it1 that we shall find the full  
spiritual value to the world of that    
stout-hearted bread-winner of the human 
race whose life began among the hills of
 ,old ,virginia one hundred years ago4  
,,the ,,end     ,,index     ,a          
,adams1 ,john1 #ae    ,adriance1 ,john  
,p41 #ajc1 #aai    ,advertisements of   
,reaper1 #ed1 #ha-hc1 #aab1 #acd        
,africa not a wheat-eating country1 #bdb
    ,agencies established for sale of   
,reapers 7about #ahdd71 #fc    ,agents1 
,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick's plan in regard 
to1 #hc1 #hd1 #hf    ,agriculture1      
,department of1 #hg    ,albert1 ,prince1
 #abe1 #acb    ,algeria1 #bdb    ,allen1
 ,grant1 #bje    ,america1 yacht1 #aca  
,amsterdam1 #bbb    ,antwerp1 no grain  
stored in1 #bag2     ,bourse in1 #bbb2  
third busiest port in world1 #bci       
,appleby1 ,john ,f41 #aae    ,argentina1
 #bji1 #bab1 #bbe1 #bbh    ,arkwright1  
inventor1 #ec1 #aca    ,armagh massacre 
of #afda1 #bb    ,athens1 mills at1 #bcf
    ,atkins1 ,jearum1 #ajf    ,augusta  

,county1 ,virginia1 #c    ,australia1   
wheat crop of1 #bji2     legislation    
against speculation in1 #bbe2           
development of1 #bbh    ,australian     
stripper1 #bjj    ,austria in #ahji1 #d2
     farm laborers received no wages in1
 #abc2     climate and wheat production 
in1 #bda    ,austrian ,emperor decorated
 ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick1 #ace           
,ayrshire1 ,scotland1 #hf     ,b        
,babylon1 #bjf    ,baggage ,case1       
#ahfb-ahhe1 #ajj-ajb2     see also      
,pennsylvania ,railroad    ,baltic      
,exchange1 ,london1 #bba    ,baltic1    
holder of ocean record1 #aca            
,baltimore and ,ohio ,railway1 #di      
,baltimore ,convention of #ahfa1 #aeh1  
#aff    ,bankers concerned in moving of 
wheat1 #bbc1 #bbd    ,barbary pirates1  
#d    ,barclay1 ,col4 ,a4 ,t41 #dj      
,barge1 invention of1 #baj              
,battleship turret1 improver of1 #ie    
,bavarians in the ,tyrol 7#ahji71 #d    
,beagle1 ,h4 ,m4 ,s41 ,darwin's voyage  
in1 #ea    ,bear1 ,henry1 #ff    ,behel1

 ,jacob1 #aae    ,belgian method of     
reaping1 #f    ,belgians1 ,king of the1 
#abe    ,belgium1 legislation against   
speculation in1 #bbe2     consumption of
 bread per capita in1 #bci1 #bdb        
,berlin1 #bad1 #bag    ,berthelot1 #ea  
,bessemer converter1 #ag1 #di1 #fi1 #baj
    ,bismarck1 #acf    ,black ,death in 
,england1 #abd    ,blackie1 #a          
,blame1 ,mrs4 ,emmons1 #ahc             
,blanchard1 inventor1 #ie    ,blue      
,ridge ,mountains1 #b1 #cf    ,board of 
,trade1 none in ,chicago when ,cyrus ,h4
 ,mc,cormick came1 #gj    ,bonanza      
farms1 #aid    ,bull1 ,ole1 #ahd        
,bonar1 #a    ,bonner1 ,henry1          
publisher1 #ba    ,bottgher1 #ec        
,bourses1 or ,european ,exchanges1 #bbb 
,bowyer1 ,col4 ,john1 #dj    ,braila1   
,roumania1 #baf    ,bradshaw1 ,prof41   
#dj    ,brains1 ,john1 #ei    ,bread1   
making of1 #bcg1 #bch2     record time  
from standing grain to1 #bch2           
cheapness of1 #bch    ,bread tax1 #bdj1 
#bda    ,brokers1 wheat1 #bai1 #bbb1    

#bbd    ,brooks1 ,absalom1 #eh          
,brown1 ,a4 ,c41 #ff    ,brown1         
,senator1 of ,miss41 #ic    ,bryant1 #gf
    ,buckle1 #bjd    ,budapest1 ,bourse 
in1 #bbb2     new process mills in1     
#bce1 #bcf    ,buenos ,ayres1 #bah1     
#bbb1 #bbi    ,buffalo1 ,n4 ,y41 #fi1   
#baf    ,bulwer1 ,sir ,henry ,lytton1   
#acj    ,burson1 ,w4 ,w41 #aae          
,bushnell1 ,reaper manufacturer1 #ajc1  
#abj    ,butler1 ,e4 ,k41 #adc1 #adh    
,butler1 ,gen41 #cf     ,c              
,cablegrams1 #bcc    ,calhoun1 #afd1    
#agh    ,california1 #ea1 #hb1 #aij1    
#bdc    ,calvin1 ,john1 #aef1 #aeg1 #afh
    ,canada1 grain inspectors in1 #bbb2 
grain speculation in1 #bbe    ,canada   
7western71 wheat crop of1 #bji2         
railways of1 #bab1 #bac2     development
 of1 #bbg1 #bbi    ,canadian ,pacific   
,railway1 #bbg    ,canal1 first1 in     
,chicago1 #ge    ,carlyle1 #aee         
,carnegie1 ,andrew1 #ef    ,carpenter1  
,pump1 #aad1 #aae1 #aag    ,carson1     
,miss ,polly1 #dj1 #da    ,carthage1    

ruins of1 #bdb    ,cash1 ,john1 #ce     
,cavaliers of ,virginia1 #bj    ,chlons1
 ,emperor ,napoleon's estate1 #acd      
,chautauqua idea1 originator of1 #abj   
,chicago1 #d1 #cj1 #ca1 #cg1 #ej1 #fg1  
#fh1 #gj-gh1 #hc1 #he1 #ig1 #ajf1 #acg1 
#add1 #adf1 #aea-aec1 #afb1 #aff1 #ahh1 
#ahi1 #aib1 #aif1 #bja1 #bad1           
#bae1 #bah1 #bai1 #bbb1 #bbc    ,chicago
 fire of #ahga1 #cj1 #aea-aec1 #ahb     
,china1 opium traffic of1 #bjd2         
future use of wheat in1 #bcb1 #bdc      
,chopin1 #a1 #ea    ,christian1         
,minneapolis miller1 #bcf    ,cincinnati
 ,democratic ,convention1 #aga          
,circus1 first1 in ,chicago1 #ga        
,city and town dwellers1 proportion of1 
#aie1 #aif    ,civil ,war1 see          
,secession1 ,war of    ,clay1 ,henry1   
#ae1 #afd    ,clermont1 ,fulton's       
steamboat1 #g    ,cleveland1 ,ohio1 #gc 
,collins ,line1 #aca    ,colt's pistol1 
#acj1 #aca    ,columbus1 ,reaper traced 
back to1 #ag    ,congress1 first        
recognition of ,chicago by1 #gb2        

,lincoln elected to1 #gb2     patent    
suits carried to1 #ia1 #ib2     how     
inventors have been treated by1 #ie     
,cooper1 ,peter1 #aa1 #aee    ,corn     
stored at ,chicago1 #bae    ,corn ,trade
 ,association1 ,london1 #bba    ,corn   
,trade ,news1 of ,liverpool1 #bba       
,corners in wheat1 #bbf    ,cort1 #ec   
,cotton-gin1 #eb1 #ig1 #aia             
,covenanters1 ,scotch1 #ai1 #bc1 #aeg   
,cradle1 #e1 #bg1 #de                   
,crichton-,browne1 ,sir ,james1 #bjd    
,crimean ,war1 #aij    ,criminals in    
period of #ahji1 #h    ,cromwell1 #agc1 
#ahe    ,crosby1 ,minneapolis miller1   
#bcf    ,cross of the ,legion of ,honor 
given ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick by ,emperor
         ,napoleon ,,iii41 #ace         
,crystal ,palace1 ,london1 #abg     ,d  
,dalrymple1 ,oliver1 #aic1 #aid         
,darwin1 #a1 #ea    ,davis1 ,h4 ,winter1
 #ii    ,davy1 #aca    ,debates between 
,lincoln and ,douglas1 #ajj    ,deere1  
,john1 #di1 #aca    ,deering1 ,william1 
#aae1 #aaf1 #aah1 #aba1 #aej    ,de     

,lesseps1 #gj    ,denmark1 #bda         
,department store1 free trial given by1 
#hj    ,des ,moines1 ,iowa1 #f1 #hf     
,dickerson1 ,e4 ,n41 #ia1 #ih    ,diet  
of ,worms1 #aef    ,diseases prevalent  
in #ahji1 #g    ,divider1 origin of1    
#cb1 #df    ,douglas1 ,stephen ,a41 #ia1
 #ii1 #ajj    ,driving-wheel of ,reaper1
 #cd    ,drunkenness in #ahji1 #g       
,duluth-,superior1 #bae    ,dunfermline1
 ,scotland1 ,andrew ,carnegie's         
birthplace1 #ef    ,dunwoody1           
,minneapolis miller1 #bcf    ,duties    
imposed on ,american machines entering  
,europe1 #acf     ,e    ,eager1 ,samuel1
 #eh    ,easter1 ,j4 ,d41 #bcj          
,eastern ,states1 labor and money in    
7about #ahci71 #eh    ,ebrington1 ,lord1
 #abg1 #abh    ,edward1 ,king1 #acb     
,egypt once wheat-centre of world and   
present production in1 #bdb    ,egyptian
 tombs1 wheat found in1 #bjf            
#ahjj-;and-starve-to-death period1 #ea  
,elastic currency1 demands for1 #bbc    
,electric engine1 builder of1 #ie       

,electrical experiments1 #ej            
,elevators1 grain1 #bad-bag    ,embargo 
7#ahji71 #h-aj    ,emerson1 ,ralph1 #de1
 #df1 #ih1 #ajc1 #aai    ,emerson1      
,ralph ,waldo1 #ig    ,england1 riots in
 7#ahji71 #c1 #d2     ,u4 ,s4 flag      
flouted by1 #d2     at war with         
,scotland1 #ah1 #ai2       with         
,ireland1 #ai2     ,scotch-,irish ready 
for war with1 #bj2     conditions in    
7#ahca71 #ej2     price of labor in1    
#abc2     labor conditions and farm     
machinery in1 #abd2     ,corn ,exchange 
in1 #bah2     speculation in1 #bbd2     
consumption of bread in1 #bci2     no   
tariff on wheat or flour in1 #bdj2      
has lost place as granary of the ,north1
 #bdj2     contrasted with ,germany1    
#bda    ,erie ,canal1 #baj1 #bab        
,ether1 use of1 #fi    ,euphrates1      
valley of1 #bbh    ,europe1 introduction
 of ,reaper into1 and trade with1       
#abc-ach2     cost of growing wheat in1 
#bji2     ,american wheat exported to1  
#baj2     wheat stored in1 #bag         

,exchanges1 grain1 #bah-bbb     ,f      
,factories in #ahca1 #dh1 #di           
,factory1 rebuilding of1 after fire1    
#ca1 #aeb1 #ahb2     present size of1   
#dg1 #aif-bjj2     in ,virginia1 poor   
transportation from1 #fd2               
,mc,cormick's plan to build his own1    
#fg2     ,chicago chosen as site of1    
#gg1 #acg1 #bjb2     largest in         
,chicago1 #gg2     in #ahfj1 #ajf2      
output of1 #acg2     at time of ,chicago
 fire1 #aea2     in #ahhd1 #ahh         
,famine of #ahdf in ,ireland1 #ga       
,famines1 local1 #ea2     in ,russia1   
#bdb    ,farm laborers drawn by #ahdi   
gold rush1 #hb1 #hc1 #aij    ,farm      
machinery1 none in #ahji1 #e1 #aa2      
invention of1 #ag2     profession of    
making1 #bb2     none in #ahca1 #di2    
farmers not using 7about #ahci71 #eg1   
#eh2     fixed prices for1 #ha2         
field test as method of marketing1 #hg2 
,mc,cormick's system of selling1 #hi2   
introduction of1 in ,england1 #abd2     
sale of1 boomed after #ahdi1 #aij2      

present era of1 #aic-aie    ,farmers1   
increase of 7#ahaj-ahbj71 #aa1 #ba2     
their opinions of early types of mowers 
and reapers1 #dc2     ,mc,cormick's     
confidence in1 #hj2     advertising     
among1 and testimonials from1 #hb2      
,mc,cormick stood well with1 #he2       
his business methods with1 #he2         
,mc,cormick hurt by petitions of protest
 from1 #id2     credit extended to1     
#aic2     farm machinery used by1       
#aic-aie    ,farmer's ,register1 #dc    
,fassler1 ,jerome1 #aai    ,federal     
bankrupt law of #ahdb1 #ga    ,field1   
,cyrus ,w41 #aee    ,field tests1       
#hg-hi1 #acd1 #ace    ,fingers on       
cutting blade1 origin of1 #cc    ,fire  
department1 ,chicago1 #ahdf1 #gb        
,fiske1 ,john1 #ba    ,fitch  ,co41 #ff 
,fitz,gerald1 #a    ,fixed price1       
,reapers sold at1 #hj1 #ha    ,flesh    
food1 #bje    ,flour ,cities1 #bcd1 #bce
    ,flour1 manufacture of1 #bcd-bcg    
,flour-mills1 #bcd-bcg    ,food1 first  
necessity1 #bjc1 #bjd2     relation     

between population and1 #bjd2     three 
principal articles of1 #bje    ,foreign 
trade in ,reapers1 #abc1 #abd1 #aca-ach 
,fowler1 ,miss ,nettie1 see ,mc,cormick1
 ,mrs4 ,cyrus ,h4    ,france1 ,u4 ,s4   
flag flouted by1 #d2     price of labor 
in1 #abc2     no central wheat market   
in1 #bbb2     speculation in1 #bbe2     
consumption of bread in1 #bci1 #bdj2    
wheat grown in1 #bdj2     intensive     
cultivation in1 #bdj    ,frederick of   
,holstein1 ,prince1 #abh    ,frederick1 
,virginia1 #c    ,fredericksruhe1       
,bismarck's estate1 #acf    ,free       
library1 none in #ahca1 #ej    ,free    
trial of ,reaper1 #hj    ,french        
,academy of ,science elected ,cyrus ,h4 
,mc,cormick a member1 #acf    ,french   
,revolution1 #aef1 #bjd    ,froude1 #ba 
,fulton1 ,robert1 #g1 #aa1 #ba1 #ec1 #ie
    ,fulton's steamboat1 #g     ,g      
,galatz1 #baf    ,galena1 ,ill41 #gf    
,galilee1 ,sea of1 people who dwell by  
the1 #bcg    ,gammon1 ,e4 ,h41 #aaf     
,garrison1 ,william ,lloyd1 #ea    ,gas 

not used in ,chicago when ,cyrus ,h4    
,mc,cormick came1 #gj    ,genoa1 #bah   
,gerland1 ,dr41 #bjf    ,germany in     
#ahji1 #d2     price of labor in1 #abc2 
reasons why ,reapers are not made in1   
#acf2     grain inspectors in1 #bbb2    
legislation against speculation in1     
#bbe2     compared with ,red ,river     
,valley1 #bca2     compared with ,great 
,britain1 #bdj2     intensive           
cultivation in1 #bda    ,gilkerson1     
,david1 #eh    ,gladstone1 #b1 #ea      
,glanders1 a contagious disease1 #e     
,glessner1 ,reaper manufacturer1 #ajc1  
#abj    ,gold put in circulation by     
wheat1 #bbh1 #bbi    ,gold rush to      
,california1 #ahdi1 #hb1 #aij           
,goodyear1 #ec1 #ie    ,gorham1 ,marquis
 ,l41 #aae1 #aag    ,grain-car1         
invention and use of1 #baa1 #bab        
,granville1 ,lord1 #aca    ,gray        
,warner1 #ff    ,great ,britain1 see    
,england    ,greece1 #bbe1 #bda         
,greeley1 ,horace1 #gb1 #abi1 #aee1 #afg
    ,gutenberg1 #ec     ,h    ,hague1   

,the1 ,conferences1 #bcc    ,hall1 ,dr4 
,john1 #afi    ,hall1 ,patrick1 #bb1 #bc
    ,hamburg1 #bbb    ,hancock1         
candidate for ,president1 #aga          
,hand-labor1 ,reaper invented in era of1
 #dh1 #di    ,hard ,times measures in   
,legislature1 #ga    ,harding1 ,george1 
#ia1 #ii    ,hargreaves1 inventor of    
weaving machinery1 #ec    ,harper1      
,henry1 publisher1 #ba    ,hart1 ,eli1  
,co41 #eb    ,harvest season only       
opportunity of testing ,reaper1 #fa1 #ib
    ,haussemann1 ,baron1 #a    ,hayes1  
,president1 #afe    ,hayes-,tilden      
controversy1 #afe    ,heathcoat1        
inventor of weaving machinery1 #ec      
,henry1 ,joseph1 #ba1 #ej    ,herald    
,square1 ,new ,york1 #f    ,hewitt1     
,abram ,s41 #aee    ,hite1 ,james ,m41  
#fc    ,hitt1 ,dr4 ,n4 ,m41 #cg         
,hobbs lock1 #aca    ,hoe press1 #di1   
#fi1 #aca    ,holland in #ahji1 #d2     
legislation against speculation in1     
#bbe2     no tariff on wheat or flour   
in1 #bdj    ,holloway1 ,d4 ,p41 #if     

,holmes1 #a1 #ea    ,holmes1 ,h4 ,a41   
#aae    ,homestead ,act of #ahfb1 #aic  
,hong-,kong1 flour-mills at1 #bdc       
,houghawout1 ,john ,w41 #dj             
,houghton1 ,lord1 #a    ,howe1 #fi1 #ie1
 #aca    ,hudson ,bay1 #bac    ,hulled  
corn1 use of1 #fi    ,hungary1          
speculation in1 #bbd2     climate and   
wheat production of1 #bda    ,hunger1   
evils due to1 #bjd1 #bje    ,huntley1   
,byron ,e41 #ajc1 #aai    ,hussey1      
,obed1 #hg1 #hh1 #aai    ,huxley1 #ea   
,hyatt1 inventor1 #ie     ,i            
,illinois1 #fd1 #fe1 #fi1 #ajj1 #aea1   
#aic    ,immigrants supplied with       
,reapers on credit1 #he1 #hf    ,india1 
opium traffic of1 #bjd2     cost of     
wheat production and labor in1 #bji1    
#bdb2     railways of1 #bab2     area   
and population of1 #bdb1 #bdc2          
wasteful methods practised in1 #bdc     
,indian ,confederacy of ,tecumseh1 #d   
,indian ,massacre 7#agfd7 in ,rockbridge
 ,county1 ,virginia1 #b    ,indiana     
wheat crop1 #bag    ,indigo displaced by

 wheat in ,india1 #bdb    ,inspectors of
 grain1 #bbb1 #bbd    ,insurance agents 
for wheat1 #bbb-bbd    ,intensive       
cultivation1 #bdj1 #bda    ,interior1   
,the1 #afb1 #afc1 #agb    ,international
 ,harvester ,company1 #ahc1 #bja        
,inventors not encouraged1 #f2     how  
treated by ,congress and the ,patent    
,office1 #ie2     rights of1 as stated  
by ,webster1 #ie    ,iowa1 #ej1 #fc1    
#fi1 #bcj    ,ireland1 ,scotch          
,covenanters in1 #ai1 #ba2     famine of
 #ahdf in1 #ga    ,irish immigrants in  
,chicago1 #ga    ,iron furnace operated 
by ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick1 #ee-eg       
,iron ,man1 ,atkins's self-rake ,reaper1
 #ajf1 #ajg    ,iron1 price of1 about   
#ahcc1 #ee1 #ef    ,italy1 no central   
wheat market in1 #bbb2     wheat        
consumption and production in1 #bda     
,j    ,jacquard1 inventor of weaving    
machinery1 #ec    ,jails1 conditions in1
 #h1 #i    ,jamestown colony1 #cf       
,janesville1 ,wis41 #aad    ,japan1     
object of1 in war with ,russia1 #bjd2   

more wheat consumed and raised in1 #bdc 
,jefferson1 ,president1 #h1 #aj1 #aa1   
#ae1 #af    ,jenks1 ,joseph1 of ,lynn1  
#e    ,johnson1 ,reverdy1 #ia1 #ih      
,johnson1 ,senator1 of ,maryland1 #if   
,jones1 ,william ,h41 #ajd1 #abj     ,k 
,kansas1 #ea1 #he1 #bjd1 #bcj1 #bca     
,kansas ,city1 #baf    ,kay1 inventor of
 weaving machinery1 #ec    ,kelly1      
inventor1 #ie    ,kentucky1             
,scotch-,irish in1 #bj    ,kinglake1 #a 
,kinzie1 ,john1 #gg    ,knox1 ,john1    
#ah1 #eh1 #aef1 #aeg1 #afi              
,koh-i-noor diamond1 #abe1 #abf         
,krapotkin1 ,prince1 #bjd    ,kurtz1    
,jacob1 #eh     ,l    ,land sales from  
#ahaj to #ahbj1 #aa    ,law-school1     
first in1 ,chicago1 #ga    ,lexington   
,female ,academy1 #dj    ,lexington     
,union1 #ed    ,lexington1 ,virginia1   
#cg1 #ci1 #dj    ,licenses to           
manufacturers of ,mc,cormick's ,reaper1 
#ff1 #ih1 #aab1 #aaf1         #abj      
,lilley1 ,general1 #adj    ,lincoln1    
,abraham1 #a1 #b1 #ea1 #gb1 #ia1 #ii1   

#ajj1 #aia    ,lind1 ,jenny1 #ahd       
,liverpool1 #bba1 #bbb1 #bbe            
,livingstone1 #gj    ,locke1 ,sylvanus  
,d41 #aab1 #aae    ,locomotives1 early1 
#di1 #ej1 #aib1 #baj    ,london         
,exhibition of #ahea1 #abd-abg1 #acj1   
#aca1 #aij    ,london1 no grain         
elevators in1 #bag2     wheat           
consumption of1 #bag2     ,baltic       
,exchange in1 #bba1 #bbb2     methods of
 wheat marketing in1 #bbe    ,low-down  
binder1 #aah    ,luther1 ,martin1 #aef1 
#aeg1 #agc     ,m    ,mackenzie1 expert 
,reaper operator1 #abh    ,mail-order   
houses1 free trial given by1 #hj        
,manchuria1 wheat raised in1 #bdc       
,manitoba1 ,province of1 #bbe    ,mann1 
inventor1 #ajh    ,manny and ,emerson1  
of ,rockford1 ,ill41 #ih1 #ajc1 #aai    
,manufacturers licensed to build        
,mc,cormick's ,reapers1 see             
under ,licenses    ,marsh1 ,c4 ,w41 #de1
 #df    ,marsh ,harvester1 #aji1 #aaj   
,martineau1 ,miss1 #gf    ,mary1 ,queen 
of ,scots1 #ah    ,masses benefited by  

wheat trade1 #bbi    ,massie1 ,william1 
#fj    ,mazzini1 #ea    ,mc,chesney1    
,adam1 #bh    ,mc,clung1 ,billy1 #aei   
,mc,clurg1 ,alexander ,c41 publisher1   
#ba    ,mc,cormick1 ,miss ,anita1 see   
,blame1 ,mrs4 ,emmons    ,mc,cormick    
,centenary1 #de    ,mc,cormick ,city1   
#aif-bjb    ,mc,cormick ,company1       
present1 #ih    ,mc,cormick1 ,cyrus     
,hall1 #b1 #c1 #aa-ac1 #af-ah1 #ba1 #bb1
 #be-bh1 #cj-ce1         #cg-dh1 #ea-fh1
 #ga-he1 #hg-aje1 #aji-aac1 #aae-aai1   
#aba-abd1         #abi-aia1 #aic1 #aie1 
#aih-bjb1 #bjh1 #bcj1 #bdd1 #bdf        
,mc,cormick1 ,mrs4 ,cyrus ,h41 #ahb1    
#ahc    ,mc,cormick1 ,cyrus ,h41 ,jr41  
#afc1 #ahc1 #ahd1 #bja    ,mc,cormick1  
,davis1 #bi    ,mc,cormick family1 #ac1 
#ag1 #bb-be1 #fd1 #ff1 #gh              
,mc,cormick1 ,harold1 #ahc              
,mc,cormick home in ,rockbridge ,county1
 ,virginia1 #b1 #c1 #ac-af1 #be1        
#ce-cg1 #dj1 #dh1 #fb    ,mc,cormick1   
,leander1 #cg1 #abc1 #adj1 #adc1 #aha1  
#ahb    ,mc,cormick ,plan1 #afg         

,mc,cormick1 ,robert1 #ac-ag1 #bb1 #be1 
#bh-ca1 #dj1 #de1 #ajd1 #aha            
,mc,cormick1 ,mrs4 ,robert1 #bc-be1 #aha
    ,mc,cormick1 ,robert1 son of ,cyrus 
,h4 ,mc,cormick1 #ahc    ,mc,cormick1   
,stanley1 #ahc1 #bjj    ,mc,cormick     
,system1 #bdc    ,mc,cormick            
,theological ,seminary1 #afb1 #afc      
,mc,cormick1 ,thomas1 #bb               
,mc,cormick1 ,miss ,virginia1 #ahc      
,mc,cormick1 ,william1 #cg1 #abc1 #adc1 
#aha1 #ahb    ,mc,dowell1 ,col4 ,james1 
#dj    ,mechi1 ,john ,j41 #abg-abi1 #aca
    ,mecklenburg1 ,virginia1 #bj        
,melville1 ,andrew1 #afi                
,mendelssohn1 #a1 #ea    ,mexican ,war1 
,chicago organized regiment for1 #ga    
,michigan white ash used in manufacture 
of ,reapers1 #gd    ,miller1 ,lewis1    
#ajd1 #abj    ,milwaukee1 #gc           
,minneapolis1 #bae1 #bce-bcg            
,minnesota1 #ea1 #aic1 #bag             
,mississippi ,river1 #ej    ,missouri1  
#fc    ,moore1 ,james1 #dj    ,morgan1  
,junius1 #aca1 #aee    ,mormons1 #fi    

,morse1 #ba1 #ie1 #aca    ,morton1 ,dr41
 #fi    ,mount ,vernon flour-mill1 #bcd 
,mower1 ,miller's1 #abj     ,n          
,napoleon1 #d1 #aj    ,napoleon ,,iii41 
,emperor1 #acd1 #ace    ,nebraska1 #ea  
,new ,albany1 ,ind41 ,seminary1 #afb    
,new ,england1 #bcj    ,new process     
flour-mills1 #bce    ,new ,york ,city1  
#d1 #f1 #h1 #i1 #cg1 #eb1 #aai1 #afj1   
#baf    ,newspapers in #ahca1 #ej       
,newton1 ,john1 #ei    ,niagara ,falls1 
power from1 #baf    ,north ,dakota1 #he1
 #bcb    ,northwestern ,theological     
,seminary1 #afb    ,norway1 speculation 
in grain in1 #bbe2     wheat production 
in1 #bda1 #bdb    ,novorossisk1 ,russia1
 grain elevator at1 #baf1 #bag     ,o   
,oats stored at ,chicago1 #bae          
,odessa1 #bag    ,ogden1 ,william ,b41  
#ge-gh    ,ohio1 #fd1 #fg1 #bdb         
,oklahoma1 #fi    ,oliver1 ,james1 #di  
,opium traffic1 #bjd    ,oregon1 #bdb   
,oriental method of chaffering and      
bargaining1 vogue of1 #ha    ,osborne1  
,david ,m41 #ajc1 #abj     ,p           

,pacific coast1 no grain elevators on1  
#baf    ,page1 ,prof41 #ie    ,palissy1 
#ec    ,papers in #ahca1 #dh            
,parcimony in ,nutrition1 #bjd    ,paris
 ,exposition 7#ahee71 #acc    ,paris1 no
 grain stored in1 #bag2     ,bourse in1 
#bbb    ,parker1 ,j41 #fc    ,pasteur1  
#ea    ,patent1 ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick's
 first1 on ,reaper1 #ei2     expiration 
of original1 #ia2     suits over        
extension of1 #ia-ih    ,patent ,law1   
#ia    ,patent ,office1 #ia-ic1 #ie1    
#ahe    ,patents for ,reaper and mower  
inventions1 #cd1 #da2     suits over1   
#de1 #ij-ih2     for self-binders1 #aah 
,patton1 ,dr4 ,francis ,l41 #agb        
,paupers in period of #ahji1 #h         
,paved streets1 none in ,chicago when   
,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick came1 #gj        
,peabody1 ,george1 #aca1 #aee           
,peavey1 ,f4 ,h41 #bad    ,pennsylvania 
,railroad1 #aeh2     see also ,baggage  
,case    ,pericles1 mills in time of1   
#bcf    ,peterborough1 ,n4 ,h41 #ej     
,photography1 #di    ,pillsbury1        

,minneapolis miller1 #bcf    ,pittsburg1
 ,pa41 #gd    ,platform on ,reaper1     
origin of1 #cc    ,plow1 hillside1 #de1 
#ha    ,plow1 iron1 thought to poison   
soil1 #e2     invention of1 #di         
,plow1 self-sharpening1 #de    ,poe1 #a1
 #ea    ,police force of ,chicago in    
#ahdg1 #gj    ,polish female laborers1  
#aig    ,pompeii1 bread found in ruins  
of1 #bcd    ,poorhouses used as         
storehouses for wheat1 #bcj             
,portugal1 #bda    ,post-office1        
,chicago1 in #ahdg1 #gj    ,postage in  
#ahca1 #ej    ,postage stamps1 #gj      
,postal ,union1 #bcc    ,prairie        
,ground1 ,american display at ,london   
,exhibition of #ahea1 #abf    ,prairies1
 need of ,reapers to harvest on the1    
#fe1 #gc2     uncultivated before advent
 of ,reaper1 #fg    ,prairie ,states1   
ten1 #bcj    ,presbyterian ,church1     
#aeh1 #ahe1 #ahf    ,princeton          
,university1 #agb    ,protestant        
,reformation1 #aef1 #ahe    ,proudhon1  
#a1 #ea    ,publicity1 ,cyrus ,h4       

,mc,cormick believed in policy of1 #ha  
,puddling-furnace1 #ag    ,pyramids1    
wheat pictured on1 #bjf     ,r          
,railway from ,chicago to ,galena1 #gf  
,railways in #ahca1 #di2     extending  
westward1 #fg2     none reaching        
,chicago when ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick    
came1 #gj2     ,chicago becomes a centre
 for1 #gc2     preceded by ,reaper in   
,west1 #aib2     distribution of        
food-stuffs by1 #baj1 #baa2     building
 of trans-continental1 #baa2     across 
,siberia1 #bab2     in western ,canada1 
,argentina1 and ,india1 #bab2     as    
wheat-conveyors1 #bab2     converging at
 ,chicago1 #bad2     in ,prairie        
,states1 #bcj    ,ready-to-eat foods1   
#bcg    ,reaper1 ,mc,cormick1 #ac1 #ag1 
#bh-dh1 #eb-fg1 #gc-gf1 #gh-hf1 #hh1    
#hi1 #ib1         #ie-ih1 #ajj1         
#ajc-ajh1 #aaj-aac1 #aae1 #aag1         
#aai-abd1 #abf-ace1 #acg1         #ach1 
#adg1 #aff1 #afi1 #agj1 #ahh-aic1 #aie1 
#aif1 #bjj-bjc1 #bjh1 #baj1             
#bab1 #bad1 #bbf1 #bbg1 #bcj1 #bdc-bdf  

,reapers of all makes1 total annual     
production of1 #bji    ,reciprocating   
blade1 origin of1 #cb    ,red ,river    
,valley1 #aid1 #bca1 #bcb    ,reed1     
,col4 ,samuel1 #dj    ,reel1 origin of1 
#cc1 #df    ,republican party1 #ajj     
,revolutionary ,war1 #c1 #bj    ,rice1  
#bje1 #bab1 #bdb    ,riots in #ahcg1 #eb
    ,river and ,harbor ,convention1     
,chicago1 #ga1 #gb    ,rochester1 ,n4   
,y41 #bcd    ,rockbridge ,county1       
,virginia1 ,mc,cormick farm in1 #b      
,rotterdam1 wheat stored in1 #bag       
,roumania1 #bdb    ,roumanian cities use
 concrete grain elevators1 #baf         
,rubber manufacture1 inventor of1 #ec   
,ruff1 ,john1 #ch1 #dj    ,russia1 farm 
laborers received no wages in1 #abc2    
in war with ,japan1 #bjd2               
development of1 #bbh2     wheat         
production1 consumption1 and exportation
 in1 #bdb2     famines in1 #bdb         
,russian army in ,sweden 7#ahji71 #d    
,russo-,japanese ,war1 #bjd     ,s      
,sailors become farmers1 #aa    ,st4    

,louis1 ,mo41 #gc1 #baf    ,sales system
 of ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick1 #dg1 #gh et 
seq4    ,saratoga1 ,n4 ,y41 #g    ,sault
 ,ste4 ,marie ,canal1 #baj    ,sauvage1 
inventor of screw propeller1 #ec        
,school attended by ,cyrus ,h4          
,mc,cormick1 #bf    ,scotch-,irish1 the1
 #ag-bc1 #be1 #bi    ,scotland1 #ah1 #gd
    ,screw propeller1 inventor of1 #ec  
,scribner1 ,charles1 publisher1 #ba     
,scythe1 invention of1 #e    ,secession1
 ,war of1 #ajj1 #aff-afh1 #aia1 #aib    
,self-binders1 #aaj-aae1 #aag1 #aah1    
#aba1 #bjh-baj1 #bch    ,self-rake      
,reapers1 #ajf1 #ajg1 #aaj1 #aad        
,self-sizing device1 ,gorham's invention
 of1 #aag    ,seneca1 quoted1 #aed      
,serfs1 #ae1 #abd    ,servia1 conditions
 in 7#ahji71 #d    ,svres porcelain1 #ec
    ,seward1 ,william ,h41 #ia1 #ih1    
#aee    ,sewerage1 none in ,chicago when
 ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick came1 #gj       
,sewing-machine1 #ag1 #di1 #fi1 #aca1   
#baj    ,seymour1 ,morgan  ,co41 #ff1   
#aaf1 #aai1 #abj    ,sheffield steel    

used in manufacture of ,reapers1 #gd    
,sherwood farm1 near ,elgin1 ,ill41 #aaa
    ,shipping1 ,chicago becomes centre  
for1 #gc1 #bae    ,siberia1 ,russia     
seeking seaport for1 #bjd2     wheat    
crop of1 #bji1 #bag2     railway across1
 #bab2     development of1 #bbh2        
might take lesson from ,red ,river      
,valley1 #bca    ,sickle1 its use in    
#ahji1 #e    ,side-draught construction 
of ,reaper1 #cc1 #cd    ,side-delivery  
machine1 first practical1 #df           
,skulls1 pyramid of1 #d    ,slaves1 work
 of1 #aia    ,smith1 ,abraham1 #fj1 #fb 
,smith1 ,joshua1 #eg    ,smith1 ,sidney1
 #acj    ,social conditions in #ahji1   
#g-i    ,solomon1 #bjf    ,south        
,carolina1 #ig    ,spain1 in #ahji1 #d2 
wheat imported by1 #bda    ,spaulding1  
,george ,h41 #aae    ,speculators1      
grain1 #bbd1 #bbe    ,spencer1 ,herbert1
 #ea    ,spring1 ,charles1 #adc         
,stanton1 ,edwin ,m41 #ia1 #ii          
,staunton1 ,virginia1 #b1 #dj1 #eg1 #eh1
 #fj    ,steamboat1 invention of1 #baj  

,steele1 ,eliza1 #cg    ,steele1 ,john1 
#cg1 #dj    ,steele's ,tavern1          
,virginia1 #cg    ,stewart1 ,a4 ,t41    
#ba1 #ha    ,stock-yards not located at 
,chicago when ,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick    
came1 #gj    ,storage of wheat1 #bac1   
#bad    ,suez ,canal1 #gj1 #baj         
,sulina1 #bag1 #bah    ,surveying1      
,cyrus ,h4 ,mc,cormick's study of1 #bg  
,sweden in #ahji1 #d2     speculation in
 grain in1 #bbd2     wheat production   
in1 #bda1 #bdb    ,switzerland1 #bbe1   
#bdb     ,t    ,taylor1 ,dr41 #dj       
,taylor1 ,hon4 ,william1 #ci1 #dj       
,tecumseh1 #d    ,tehuantepec           
,inter-,ocean ,railroad1 #add           
,telegraph1 #di1 #ej1 #gj1 #aca1 #baj   
,telephone1 #baj    ,temperance society 
at ,saratoga1 #g    ,tennessee1         
,scotch-,irish in1 #bj2     first       
,reaper purchased in1 #fc2              
comparison of grain production of1 #bdb 
,tennyson1 #a1 #ea    ,texas1           
,scotch-,irish in1 #bj2     not in the  
,union in #ahca1 #ea    ,theatres in    

early ,chicago1 #gj1 #ga    ,thompson1  
,j4 ,edgar1 #aja    ,tilden1 #gf1 #afe  
,times1 ,chicago1 #aff    ,times1       
,london1 #acj    ,town and city         
dwellers1 proportion of1 #aie1 #aif     
,town laborers become farmers1 #aa      
,trans-,siberian railway1 #bab          
,transportation charges on wheat1 #bac  
,transportation of ,reapers from        
,virginia farm1 #fd    ,tribune1 of     
,chicago1 founded1 #ga    ,trolley1     
introduction of1 #baj    ,tunis1 #bdb   
,turks in ,servia 7#ahji71 #d           
,tutwiler1 ,colonel1 #fc    ,twine-mill 
in ,mc,cormick factory1 ,chicago1 #aig  
,twine self-binders1 #aae-aah1 #aba     
,tyre1 ,king of1 #bjf    ,tyrol1 riot in
 7#ahji71 #d     ,u    ,ulster1 county  
of1 #ai1 #ba1 #bb    ,union ,army in    
,rockbridge ,county1 ,virginia1 #cf     
,union ,pacific ,railway1 #add          
,united ,states1 in #ahji1 #d et seq42  
,scotch-,irish in1 #ah-ba2     papers   
printed in 7#ahca71 #dh2     railways in
 7#ahca71 #di2     extent and           

development of 7#ahca71 #ej2            
,buffalo chief grain market of1 #fi2    
,london ,exposition display from1 #abf2 
inventions credited to1 #acj2           
reasons why ,reapers were invented in1  
#acf1 #bja2     ,mc,cormick's place in  
history of1 #aec2     production of     
wheat in1 #ahh1 #ahi2     manufacturing 
and labor in 7#ahhd71 #ahi2     ,reaper 
little used in1 until after #ahdi1 #aij2
     ,reaper appreciated in1 #aia2      
industrial supremacy of1 #aie1 #bbi2    
harvesting machinery industry in1 #bja2 
wheat crop of1 #bji2     cost of        
production of wheat in1 #bji2           
railway across1 #baa2     grain         
inspection in1 #bbb2     speculation in1
 #bbe2     cultivation of semi-arid land
 in1 #bbh2     consumption of bread in1 
#bci2     area and population of1       
compared with ,india1 #bdb1 #bdc     ,v 
,van ,buren1 ,martin1 #gf1 #agh         
,vermont hay crop1 relative value of1 #e
    ,victoria1 ,queen1 #abe1 #acb       
,virchow1 #ea    ,virginia ,reapers1 #fd

    ,virginia1 ,scotch-,irish in1 #bj2  
main wheat ,state in #ahca1 #ea1 #aic2  
supremacy passing to ,ohio1 #fg     ,w  
,wages of harvesters at time of         
introduction of ,reaper1 #ch            
,wallace1 ,andrew1 #dj    ,wallace1     
,henry1 #ajf1 #ajg    ,wallace's        
,farmer1 #ajf    ,walton1 ,n4 ,y41 #gf  
,warder ,reaper manufacturer1 #ajc1 #abj
    ,warehouses at ,reaper agencies1    
#hc1 #hd    ,warfare1 expenses of       
modern1 #bcc    ,washburn1 ,william ,d41
 #bce1 #bcf    ,washington1 ,george1 #e1
 #f1 #aa1 #ae1 #ag1 #bj1 #ha1 #bcd      
,washington ,state1 #bch    ,watson1    
,peter ,h41 #ia1 #ii    ,watt1 #aca     
,weaving machinery1 inventors of1 #ec   
,webster1 ,daniel1 #ae1 #gf1 #ie1 #afd  
,weed1 ,thurlow1 #gb    ,west1 orders   
for ,reapers from the1 #fc2             
transportation to the1 #fd2             
,mc,cormick visits the1 #fe2     need of
 quicker method of cutting grain in the1
 #fe1 #ff2     ,chicago helped by use of
 ,reaper in1 #gc2     ,mc,cormick's     

policy developed the1 #hf2     ,reaper  
preceded railway in the1 #aib2     wheat
 crop of the1 #aic2     railways in the1
 #baa2     ,reaper advance-machine of   
civilization in1 #bbg    ,wet grain1    
adaptation of the ,reaper to cut1 #cc1  
#fa1 #fb    ,whaleback grain ships1 #baj
    ,wheat1 #ea1 #fg1 #fi1 #gj1 #gc1    
#ahh-aif1 #bja1 #bjc1 #bje et seq4      
,wheat ,congress1 international1 #bcc   
,wheat-ships1 #baj-bac    ,whiteley1    
,william ,n41 #de1 #df1 #abj1 #aej      
,whitney1 ,eli1 #eb1 #ig1 #aia          
,whittier1 #ea    ,willmoth1 improver of
 battleship turret1 #ie    ,wilson      
family from ,ayrshire1 ,scotland1 #hf   
,wilson1 ,hon4 ,james1 #hf1 #hg1 #aib   
,winnipeg ,grain ,exchange1 #bbe        
,wire self-binders displaced by twine   
self-binders1 #aae-aag    ,wisconsin1   
#ej1 #fc1 #aad    ,withington1 ,charles 
,b41 #aji-aae    ,wood1 ,jethro1 #di1   
#ec    ,wood1 ,walter ,a41 #ajc1 #aab1  
#abj    ,woodworth1 inventor1 #ie       
,world's ,fair1 ,chicago1 #ahic1 #abd   

,wright1 ,joseph ,a41 #acd    ,written  
guarantees given with ,mc,cormick       
,reapers1 #gi     ,y    ,yellow fever in
 the ,mc,cormick family1 #af            
99      99      99      99      99      
,transcriber's note3  ,simple           
typographical errors were corrected4    
,punctuation and spelling were made     
consistent when a predominant preference
 was found in this book2 otherwise they 
were not changed4  ,page #ia3 ,beverdy  
,johnson corrected to ,reverdy ,johnson4
  ,page #bef3 see ,blaine corrected to  
see ,blame4