Later he found another partner and went to manufacturing in the deserted plant at Roxbury, with an order from the Government for a large number of mail bags.

This order was given wide publicity and it aroused the interest of manufacturers throughout the country.

But by the time the goods were ready for delivery the first bags made had rotted from their handles.

Only the surface of the rubber had been "cured." This failure was the last straw, as far as Goodyear's friends were concerned.

Only his patient and devoted wife stood by him; she had labored, known want, seen her children go hungry to school, but she seems never to have reproached her husband nor to have doubted his ultimate success.