tolerably well posted about clocks at Waterbury, I hired myself to two
men to go into the state of New Jersey, to make the old fashioned seven
foot standing clock-case. Messrs. Hotchkiss and Pierpont, of Plymouth,
had been selling that kind of a clock without the cases, in the northern
part of that State, for about twenty dollars, apiece. The purchasers,
had complained to them however, that there was no one in that region
that could make the case for them, which prevented many others from
buying. These two men whom I went with, told them that they would get
some one to go out from Connecticut, to make the case, and thought they
could be made for about eighteen or twenty dollars apiece, which would
then make the whole clock cost about forty dollars--not so very costly
after all; for a clock was then considered the most useful of anything
that could be had in a family, for what it cost. I entered into an
agreement with these men at once, and a few days after, we three started
on the 14th Dec., 1812, in an old lumber wagon, with provisions for the
journey, to the far off Jersey. This same trip can now be made in a few
hours. We were _many_ days. We passed through Watertown, and other
villages, and stopped the first night at Bethel. This is the very place
where P.T. Barnum was born, and at about this time, of whom I shall
speak more particularly hereafter. The next morning we started again on
our journey, and not many hours after, arrived in Norwalk, then quite a
small village, situated on Long Island Sound; at this place I saw the
salt water for the first time in my life, also a small row-boat, and
began to feel that I was a great traveler indeed. The following night we
stopped at Stamford, which was, as I viewed it, a great place; here I
saw a few sloops on the Sound, which I thought was the greatest sight
that I had ever seen. This was years before a steamboat had ever passed
through the Sound. The next morning we started again for New York, and
as we passed along I was more and more astonished at the wonderful
things that I saw, and began to think that the world was very extensive.