The process appeared to be a complete success, and a large capital was employed to make handsome shoes and clothing out of the new product and in opening shops in the large cities for their sale.

Merchants throughout the country placed orders for these goods, which, as it happened, were made and shipped in winter.
But, when summer came, the huge profits of the manufacturers literally melted away, for the beautiful garments decomposed in the heat; and loads of them, melting and running together, were being returned to the factory.

And they filled Roxbury with such noisome odors that they had to be taken out at dead of night and buried deep in the earth.
And not only did these rubber garments melt in the heat.

It presently transpired that severe frost stiffened them to the rigidity of granite.
Daniel Webster had had some experience in this matter himself.

"A friend in New York," he said, "sent me a very fine cloak of India Rubber, and a hat of the same material.