this town. There was an element of romance leavening these various
transactions, as in December on the twenty-second, 1825, Mr. Melendy was
married to Miss Eveline Boutelle of Amherst, and on the twenty-fifth of
the same month, Mr. David was married to Elizabeth Welch Melendy, a
sister of his partner. These were fortunate marriages. The parties were
not only happy in each other, but what is worthy special notice, a few
years later in 1831, very eligible houses were bought, one for each
family, at joint expense, which were occupied without interruption till
both couples had commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of their
marriage. During all this period, the property was held in common, and
the expenses of each family, however enlarged, were paid from the common
fund.

In 1830, stimulated by a desire to perfect his knowledge of the business
and secure any improvements in methods or machinery to be found in
England, Mr. David sailed for Liverpool.

As might be anticipated, in subordination to this main interest Mr.
David sought to enlarge his knowledge of English men and English
institutions. He became familiar with their commercial habits, visiting
public buildings and places of historical importance, so that fifty
years afterwards he could speak of parks, streets, and sections of the
city of London in which any recent event occured as if he had been an
eye witness. He was present at the opening of the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway when Lord Huskinson was killed, being crushed by the
wheels of the locomotive. At this time he saw the Duke of Wellington,
with other distinguished men, members of Parliament, and nobility. On
his return to America, he brought a machine for winding whip-stocks, the
first ever used in this country. The machine was subsequently
duplicated, and proved a valuable accession to the trade. He also
introduced some new materials, and enlarged the variety of fashions. In
other respects the manufacture was unchanged. The prosperity of the firm
had no serious checks; they had agencies for the sale of goods in
Boston, New York, New Orleans, and large orders came from other cities.
They bought materials for cash, so that when the commercial crash of
1837 carried disaster to multitudes, they survived. "We did not fail,"
said Mr. David, "for we owed no one anything, but we lost nearly all we
had by the failure of others." The result of this experiment was a
contraction of the system of credits and selling