At that age he set out for the West to make his fortune. He
made it, but after a long, hard struggle. His trade of typesetter gave
him a living in Illinois, New York or wherever he wanted to go, but he
was not content with his wages or his hours. However, he did not strike
to reduce his hours or increase his wages. On the contrary, he increased
his working time and used it to increase his income. He spent his nights
and Sundays in making billiard balls, not at all the sort of thing you
would expect of a young man of his Christian name. But working with
billiard balls is more profitable than playing with them--though that
is not the sort of thing you would expect a man of my surname to say.
Hyatt had seen in the papers an offer of a prize of $10,000 for the
discovery of a satisfactory substitute for ivory in the making of
billiard balls and he set out to get that prize. I don't know whether he
ever got it or not, but I have in my hand a newly published circular
announcing that Mr. Hyatt has now perfected a process for making
billiard balls "better than ivory.
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