The pawning or selling some relic of better days or some article of necessity was a frequent expedient.

His library had long since disappeared, but shortly after the discovery of this process, he collected and sold at auction the schoolbooks of his children, which brought him the trifling sum of five dollars; small as the amount was, it enabled him to proceed.

At this step he did not hesitate.

The occasion, and the certainty of success, warranted the measure which, in other circumstances, would have been sacrilege." His itinerary during those years is eloquent.

Wherever there was a man, who had either a grain of faith in rubber or a little charity for a frail and penniless monomaniac, thither Goodyear made his way.