isfy the ambition of the youth; and in 1808, at the age
of seventeen, he left the paternal roof and apprenticed himself for four
years to John Woodward, a leading coach-builder in New York, whose shop
was located on the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street, then the
northerly edge of the city, opposite a vegetable garden, the remnants of
which, after the occupation of a large portion by city, county, and
national buildings, now constitute the City Hall Park. The terms of his
employment were his board and a salary of twenty-five dollars a
year,--out of which he managed not only to pay all obligations, but also
to lay by a little money. During this period he not only mastered the
details of the trade, but learned in his hours of leisure other
branches, such as ornamental wood-carving, and made several inventions,
one of which was a machine for mortising hubs,--an operation performed
by hand up to that time. Another invention over which the young
apprentice dreamed, and of which he laboriously constructed a model, was
an apparatus for utilizing, in the running of machinery, the swift
current of the tide in the East River.

III

BUSINESS VENTURES

AT the end of his apprenticeship, his employer offered to set him up in
business as a coach-builder, lending him the necessary capital. Many
years later, Mr. Cooper told the story thus:--

"I was about to accept his generous offer, when an incident occurred
which changed my decision. Mr. Woodward had just completed one of the
finest coaches ever built in New York, for a gentleman who was supposed
to be one of the richest men in the city. But a day or two before the
coach was to be delivered the gentleman died, and it was then found that
he was insolvent. This made me hesitate. If I should accept my
employer's kind offer and have such a misfortune happen to me in the
sale of an elegant and expensive coach, I should consider myself a slave
for life, since the law of imprisonment for debt had not then been
abolished. So I changed my plans, and went to Hempstead, Long Island, to
visit my brother."

The visit to Hempstead became a prolonged residence. He obtained work at
$1.50 a day (then regarded as high wages) in a factory making machines
for shearing cloth, and after nearly three years had saved enough money
to purchase the right for the State of New York to a patented machine
for that purpose. He used to tell, in his old age, of his elation when
he effected his firs