,libraries47       ,the ,riverside      
,biographical ,series  ,,andrew         
,,jackson1 by ,w4 ,g4 ,,brown ,,james   
,b4 ,,eads1 by ,,louis ,,how ,,benjamin 
,,franklin1 by ,,paul ,e4 ,,more ,,peter
 ,,cooper1 by ,r4 ,w4 ,,raymond ,,thomas
 ,,jefferson1 by ,h4 ,c4 ,,merwin  ,,in 
,,preparation  ,,william ,,penn         
,,general ,,grant ,,lewis ,,and ,,clarke
  ,each about #ajj pages1 #afmo1 with   
photogravure portrait1 #ge cents4       
,,houghton1 ,,mifflin  ,,co4 ,,boston   
,,and ,,new ,,york    ,illustration3    
,jas4 ,b4 ,eads     ,,james ,b4 ,,eads  
,,by  ,,louis ,,how    ,,houghton1      
,,mifflin ,,and ,,company ,boston3 #d   
,park ,street2 ,new ,york3 #aa ,east    
,seventeenth ,street ,chicago3 #cgh-chh 
,wabash ,avenue  ,the ,riverside ,press1
 ,cambridge  ,,copyright1 #aijj1 ,,by   
,,louis ,,how ,,all ,,rights ,,reserved 
,,preface   ,i must mention with        
particular gratitude several books that 
were invaluable in preparing this       
sketch1 in supplementing the usual      

biographical dictionaries and naval     
histories4 ,these are3 ,captain ,mahan's
 ,the ,gulf and ,inland ,waters2        
,boynton's picturesque ,history of the  
,american ,navy during the ,great       
,rebellion2 ,mr4 ,fiske's ,mississippi  
,valley in the ,civil ,war2 ,snead's    
,the ,fight for ,missouri2 ,mr4 ,c4 ,m4 
,woodward's ,history of the ,st4 ,louis 
,bridge2 ,mr4 ,estill ,mc,henry's       
edition of ,eads's ,papers and          
,addresses1 with a biography2 two       
memoirs by ,senores ,francisco de ,garay
 and ,ignacio ,garfias1 of the ,mexican 
,association of ,civil ,engineers2 and1 
above all1 several memoirs and addresses
 and the history of the ,jetties by ,mr4
 ,elmer ,l4 ,corthell1 ,c4 ,e41 without 
which ,i could scarcely have written    
this ,life4  ,i must also cordially     
thank for kind personal aid and advice  
,chancellor ,chaplin 7of ,washington    
,university71 ,dr4 ,william ,taussig1   
,mr4 ,albert ,bushnell ,hart1 ,major    
,george ,montague ,wheeler of the       

,engineer ,corps 7retired71 ,messrs4    
,winston ,churchill1 ,william ,l4       
,wright1 ,c4 ,donovan1 ,e4 ,l4 ,corthell
 7who was as obliging as he was         
helpful71 ,estill ,mc,henry and ,john   
,a4 ,ubsdell1 ,mrs4 ,susan ,f4 ,stevens1
 and especially my mother--to whose help
 and encouragement this ,life of her    
father is due4  ,l4 ,h4  ,,rockport1    
,,mass41 ,july #cj1 #aijj4              
,,contents   ,,chap4                    
,,page    ,i4 ,,early ,,training        
#a   ,,ii4 ,,the ,,gunboats             
#bb  ,,iii4 ,,the ,,bridge              
#di   ,,iv4 ,,the ,,jetties             
#ge    ,v4 ,,the ,,ship-,,railway       
#aje     ,,james ,b4 ,,eads     ,i      
,,early ,,training   ,james ,buchanan   
,eads was born in ,lawrenceburg1        
,indiana1 ,may #bc1 #ahbj4 ,both the    
,eads family1 who came from ,maryland1  
and his mother's people1 the ,buchanans1
 who were originally ,irish1 were       
gentlefolk2 but ,james's father never   
was very prosperous4 ,the son1 however1 

went to school1 and he showed early a   
very special love for machinery1        
observing with great interest everything
 of that kind that he came upon4 ,for a 
while the family lived in ,cincinnati2  
from there they removed in #ahbi to     
,louisville4 ,in those days1 when       
steamboats were the best of conveyances1
 the ,ohio ,river formed a natural      
highway between the two towns4 ,on the  
trip the small boy of nine hung around  
the engine of the boat1 considering it  
with so much wonder and admiration that 
finally the engineer1 who found him an  
apt pupil1 explained the various parts  
of the mechanism to him4  ,he really had
 understood his lesson well1 for two    
years later1 in the little workshop that
 his father had fitted up for him1 he   
made a small engine which ran by steam4 
,besides he made models of sawmills1    
fire-engines1 steamboats1 and           
electrotyping machines4 ,except such    
chance instruction as that which he     
found on the boat1 he had had no        

teaching in mechanics1 but worked with  
the ingenuity of many a bright boy2 for 
he is by no means the only one who ever 
took apart and put together the family  
clock1 or even a lever-watch1 with no   
other tool than a penknife4 ,one of his 
inventions1 which shows not so much his 
talent as his true boyishness1 was a    
small box-wagon1 open only underneath   
and with a hole in front1 which1        
suddenly produced before his mother and 
sisters1 ran mysteriously across the    
room4 ,the motive power concealed within
 this agreeable toy was found to be a   
live rat4  ,so much is often said of the
 precocity of youthful geniuses1 that it
 is good to know that young ,eads was   
after all a real flesh-and-blood boy1 a 
boy so mischievous that1 as he was the  
only son1 his father hired a neighbor   
boy to come and play with him4          
,certainly he was very clever2 but that 
he had even better qualities than       
cleverness is shown by his first actions
 on his arrival at ,saint ,louis4  ,his 

father1 deciding to move farther west1  
had sent ahead the mother1 the two      
daughters just grown1 and the lad of    
thirteen1 intending to follow with      
supplies for opening a shop4 ,again the 
route was by river4 ,arrived at ,saint  
,louis1 the boat caught fire2 and early 
on a cold morning the family set foot1  
scarcely clothed1 not only in the city  
of which the young boy was to be one day
 the leading citizen1 but on the very   
spot1 it is said1 where he was          
afterwards to base one pier of his great
 bridge4 ,on that bleak morning1        
however1 none of them foresaw a bright  
future1 or indeed anything but a        
distressful present4 ,some ladies of the
 old ,french families of the town were  
very kind to the forlorn women2 and once
 on her feet ,mrs4 ,eads set about      
supporting herself and her children4 ,in
 those days1 when sometimes a letter    
took a week to go a couple of hundred   
miles1 she was not the one to wait for  
help from her husband2 so she           

immediately rented a house and took     
boarders4 ,the boy1 as resourceful and  
self-reliant as his mother1 now showed  
his energy as well as his devotion by   
doing the first thing he found to help  
her4 ,in going along the street he saw  
some apples for sale1 and1 buying as    
many of them as he could afford1 he     
peddled them to the passers-by4  ,that1 
of course1 was no permanent occupation  
for a well-bred boy1 whose associations 
and abilities were both high4           
,nevertheless his family could no longer
 afford to have him at school1 and it   
was necessary for him to do some sort of
 work4 ,one of his mother's boarders1 a 
,mr4 ,barrett ,williams1 offered him a  
position in his mercantile house4       
,before long this gentleman discovered  
his young employee's aptitude and       
overwhelming love for mechanics1 and    
kindly allowed the lad the use of his   
own library4 ,studying at night the     
scientific books which he found there1  
,eads acquired his first theoretical    

knowledge of engineering4 ,in this way1 
without teachers1 he began1 in a time   
when there was no free higher education1
 to educate himself2 and both then and  
ever after he was a constant reader not 
only of scientific works1 but of all    
kinds of books4 ,this practical         
experience in helping to support his    
family and in getting his own education1
 while he was still so young a lad1 was 
the school in which he learned          
self-reliance4 ,it is pleasant to know  
that the earnestness of life did not    
take all of his boyishness away from    
him1 for it must have been while he was 
hard at work that he built a real       
steamboat1 six feet long1 and navigated 
it on ,chouteau's ,pond4  ,for five     
years he was a clerk in the dry-goods   
house4 ,at the end of that time1        
probably because he was in poor health1 
he left that position for one that would
 take him more into the open air4       
,though his health was not strong1 he   
was by no means an invalid2 for at      

nineteen his muscles were solid and his 
fund of nervous energy was              
inexhaustible4 ,so1 with the natural    
taste of a boy for a more exciting life1
 he took a position as clerk on a       
,mississippi ,river steamboat4 ,while he
 had nothing to do with actually running
 the boat1 he certainly kept his eyes   
open to everything going on both on     
board and in the river2 and began then  
to make an acquaintance with the stream 
which was later to be the scene of his  
greatest labors4 ,if ever ,nature played
 a prominent part in the life of a man1 
the ,mississippi did in that of ,eads2  
for it became the opportunity for three 
of his chief works1 and from it he      
learned perhaps more of the laws of     
science than from all the books he ever 
read4 ,to understand his life1 one must 
have some idea of the huge river1 which 
seems to flow sluggishly or rapidly     
through his whole career4  ,the         
,mississippi ,river1 with its branches1 
drains the larger part of the whole     

,united ,states1--that is1 from the     
,alleghanies on the east to the ,rockies
 on the west4 ,the main stream1 #dbjj   
miles long1 and in some places over a   
mile wide1 flows along with tremendous  
force1 ceaselessly eating away its      
yellow clay banks4 ,the water1 full of  
sediment1 is of a thick dull brown      
color4 ,the clay that it washes off in  
the bends it deposits on the juts of    
land1 thus forming greater and greater  
curves2 so that often the distance      
between two points is very much less by 
land than by water4 ,sometimes there are
 only a few yards across the neck of a  
peninsula1 around which the channel     
distance is many miles2 and on one side 
the level of the river is several feet  
higher than on the other4 ,gradually the
 water keeps eating its way1 until it   
forces a passage through the neck1 and  
then the torrent rushes through in a    
cascade1 with a roar that can be heard  
for miles4 ,the banks dissolve like     
sugar1 and the next day steamboats can  

cross where the day before were fields  
and may be houses4 ,besides this1 the   
current is constantly washing away and  
building up not only hidden bars on the 
river bottom1 but even islands above its
 surface4 ,in the fall and in the spring
 it rises with such terrifying rapidity 
that some years it quickly overflows its
 banks in certain reaches till it is    
sixty miles wide4 ,houses and trees torn
 from their places1 and wrecks of boats1
 float or protrude from the bottom of   
this brown lake4 ,and when the flood    
subsides1 the current often chooses a   
new and changed channel4 ,amid the      
ever-varying dangers of such a river the
 only safety for steamboats is in a race
 of pilots so learned and so alert as to
 have the shifting bars and courses     
always in their minds4 ,in #ahci1 when  
steamboats were the only means of rapid 
transit in the ,west1 when there were   
more of them in the harbor of the little
 town of ,saint ,louis than to-day when 
it is a great city1 this class of pilots

 was a large and a very respectable one4
 ,much of their knowledge of the river  
was what young ,eads learned while he   
was a clerk among them2 and as time went
 on1 he came to realize that although   
the ,mississippi seems so capricious in 
its terrible games that one would think 
them the result of chance1 yet in truth1
 they are controlled by laws as         
immutable as the ,creator4  ,despite all
 care that could be used1 steamboats    
were every week sunk and wrecked1 and   
with their valuable engines1 boilers1   
and cargoes were often left where they  
lay in the ceaseless brown current4     
,after he had been for three years on   
the river1 ,eads gave up his clerkship  
to go into the business of raising these
 boats1 their machinery1 and their      
freight4 ,in #ahdb1 at the age of       
twenty-two1 he formed a partnership with
 ,case  ,nelson1 boat-builders4 ,his    
first appearance in the new business was
 an experience that well shows his quick
 inventive genius1 his persistency1 and 

his courage4 ,while his diving-bell boat
 was building1 a barge loaded with      
pig-lead sank in the rapids at ,keokuk1 
#bab miles from ,saint ,louis4 ,a       
contract having been made with its      
owners1 ,eads hurried up there to rescue
 the freight from fifteen feet of water4
 ,he had no knowledge himself of        
diving-armor2 but he had engaged a      
skilled diver from the ,great ,lakes1   
who brought his own apparatus4 ,they set
 out in a barge and anchored over the   
wreck2 but1 once there1 they soon       
discovered that the current was so      
exceedingly rapid that the diver could  
do nothing in it4 ,eads at once returned
 to ,keokuk1 and1 buying a forty-gallon 
whiskey hogshead1 took it out to the    
wreck2 and having knocked out one head1 
he slung pigs of lead round his         
improvised diving-bell1 made a seat     
inside it1 rigged it to his derrick and 
air-pumps1 and then asked the diver to  
go down in it4 ,the diver having very   
naturally refused1 ,eads on the spot set

 himself a precedent which1 during his  
after life1 he never broke1--saying that
 he would not ask an employee to go     
where he would not trust himself1 he got
 inside his hogshead and was lowered    
into the river4 ,his assistants were    
unused to managing diving-bells1 and    
when they came to haul him up the       
derrick got out of order4 ,by main force
 they were able to raise the hogshead to
 the surface1 but not above it4 ,as the 
air-pump continued to work all the      
while1 ,eads1 though wondering what was 
amiss1 sat patiently in his place1 till 
finally he saw a hand appear under the  
rim of the hogshead4 ,seizing this1 he  
ducked under and got out4 ,although the 
rough diving-bell worked thus awkwardly 
at first1 it served well enough1 and    
finally all of the lost freight was     
saved4  ,a young man so fearless1 so    
energetic1 and so able to invent        
mechanical devices at sudden need1 was  
bound to succeed in a business like     
this4 ,and young ,eads did succeed4     

,fortune1 he believed1 favors the brave2
 and his motto was1 ,drive on6  ,the    
insurance companies were willing to give
 the wreckers a large interest1         
sometimes as much as a half1 of the     
rescued cargoes2 and there was a law by 
which a vessel or freight that had been 
wrecked for five years belonged to      
whoever could get it up4 ,eads and his  
partners worked up and down the river   
for hundreds of miles4 ,the first       
diving-bell boat was followed by a      
larger one1 provided with machinery for 
pumping out sand1 and for raising whole 
hulls4 ,while in this hazardous business
 ,eads invented many new appliances for 
use in its various branches4 ,because he
 was in charge of a boat people began to
 call the young wrecker ,captain ,eads1 
and that was the only reason for a title
 which clung to him always4 ,he grew now
 to know the river as few have ever     
known it1--his operations extended from 
,galena1 ,illinois1 to the ,balize at   
the river's very mouth1 and even into   

the tributaries of the                  
,mississippi1--and he used to say that  
there was not a stretch of fifty miles  
in the twelve hundred between ,saint    
,louis and ,new ,orleans in which he had
 not stood on the bottom under his      
diving-bell4  ,with the same devotion to
 his parents as when he peddled the     
apples in the street1 ,eads now bought  
them a farm in ,iowa1 and provided in   
every way he could for their comfort4   
,but beyond the ordinary desire of      
making a fortune for them1 for himself1 
and for a new interest that was coming  
into his life1 it does not appear that  
there were in his mind any unusual      
ambitions1 any of the dreams of genius4 
,as yet he was only a hard-working1     
earnest young man1 extraordinarily      
clever to be sure1 but founding on that 
cleverness no visions of great renown in
 the future4 ,perhaps this was because  
he had enough to dream of in the        
present1 enough hopes of purely domestic
 happiness to look towards4 ,for he had 

fallen in love with a ,miss ,martha     
,dillon1 a young lady of about his own  
age1 daughter of a rich man in ,saint   
,louis4 ,the father disapproved of the  
match1 not only because he thought the  
suitor too young1 too poor1 too unknown1
 but because he wished to keep his      
daughter with him1 and for other less   
reasonable causes4  ,the letters between
 the engaged couple show ,eads at       
twenty-five as a keen1 experienced1 and 
yet an unsophisticated young man2       
generous1 proud1 brave1 and courteous2 a
 lover of ,nature1 of poetry1 of people1
 and of good books2 an inveterate early 
riser2 reverend in religion1 and yet1   
while nominally a ,catholic1 really a   
free-thinker2 sentimental in his        
feelings almost as if he had lived a    
century sooner1 and at the same time    
controlling his true and deep emotions1 
and showing his strong love only to     
those he loved4  ,at last ,eads and     
,miss ,dillon were married1 he being    
over twenty-five at the time1 she nearly

 twenty-four4 ,eads then sold out his   
wrecking business and left the river4   
,he probably made this change because he
 hoped thereby not only to be more with 
his wife1 but also to support her in the
 comfort she had been used to1 and to   
show her father that he could do so4    
,the new enterprise1 into which at least
 one of his old partners entered with   
him1 and into which he put all his      
money1 was the manufacture of glass2 and
 they built the first glass factory west
 of the ,ohio ,river4 ,he had to go to  
,pittsburg--then a long journey by boat1
 stage1 and rail--to get trained workmen
 and to learn the process himself4      
,almost all of the necessary ingredients
 and apparatus had to be sent for to    
,pittsburg1 to ,cleveland1 or to ,new   
,york2 and they were often slow in      
arriving and thereby made matters drag  
considerably4 ,still there was always   
something to do1 and ,eads1 the only one
 of the partners who understood the     
trade1 was forced to work               

extraordinarily hard4 ,with his usual   
persistence he stuck to it pluckily1    
often staying up late into the night and
 rising the next day before dawn to     
oversee operations4 ,he was also        
indispensable for his faculty of        
managing men2 and a letter to his wife  
written on his twenty-seventh birthday  
7#ahdg7 shows how strong the man already
 was in that power of getting the most  
from a workman1 which was afterwards to 
count for so much in his best work4 ,an 
employer1 he says1 must have constant   
control of his temper1 and be able to   
speak pleasantly to one man the next    
moment after having spoken in the       
harshest manner to another1 and even to 
give the same man a pleasant reply a few
 minutes after having corrected him4    
,self must be left out of the matter    
entirely1 and a man or boy spoken to    
only as concerns his conduct2 and the   
authority which the controller has over 
the controlled1 used only when          
absolutely necessary1 and then with the 

utmost promptness4  ,however1 despite   
all his firmness and perseverance1 the  
difficulties of the glassworks became   
greater and greater2 and at last1 after 
having been run two years1 they were    
shut down4 ,eads was left with debts of 
#be1jjj4 ,the very unusual action of his
 creditors in this crisis shows what    
confidence they had in his integrity and
 in his ability2 for they advanced him  
#aejj with which to go back into the    
wrecking business1 and he at once       
rejoined his former partners4 ,he now   
worked harder1 if possible1 than ever2  
for he felt1 as he wrote to his wife1   
that with a man in debt it cannot be    
said that his time is his own4 ,powerful
 as he was physically1 his health was   
not good1 but even in sickness he       
scarcely ceased to toil during the first
 year or two2 and at the end of ten     
years1 not only had all his debts been  
long since paid1 but his firm was worth 
half a million dollars4  ,work1 however1
 was to him only a means to an end4 ,the

 real dignity of character he knew to   
lie in culture4 ,to a small boy he      
sends1 in one of his letters1 the       
message that he should be a good boy and
 study hard1 as that is the only way to 
be respected when he is grown4 ,even in 
his amusements his mind sought          
occupation3 we find him at night on the 
diving-bell boat playing chess1 and in  
later years he had become unusually     
adept at that game4  ,the wrecking      
business was full of life and action4   
,here and there1 up and down the river1 
and into its branches1 wherever a boat  
was wrecked or burned or run aground1   
the ,submarine hurried off to reach the 
spot before other wreckers4 ,under their
 bell the divers got at the engines1    
boilers1 and freight1 while the pumps1  
worked from above1 cleared away the     
sand2 and sometimes by means of great   
chains and derricks the very hull itself
 would be lifted and towed ashore4 ,but 
on that huge river1 which at times would
 suddenly rise three feet in a single   

night1 and whose strong current played  
such giant pranks as turning over a     
wreck in the chains that were raising   
it1 there was need of eternal vigilance 
and agility4 ,however1 ,eads was more on
 his own ground on the river than on the
 shore1 and his business so increased   
that he was soon running four           
diving-bell boats4 ,in #ahdi twenty-nine
 boats were burned at the levee in      
,saint ,louis in one big fire1 and most 
of their remains were removed by him4   
,winter as well as summer the work went 
on2 and the task of cutting out a vessel
 wrecked in an ice-gorge1 or of raising 
one from beneath the ice1 must have been
 as trying as walking the river bottom  
in search of a wreck4 ,eads himself1    
years later1 thus describes one of his  
many experiences3 ,five miles below     
,cairo1 ,i searched the river bottom for
 the wreck of the ,neptune1 for more    
than sixty days1 and in a distance of   
three miles4 ,my boat was held by a long
 anchor line1 and was swung from side to

 side of the channel1 over a distance of
 #ejj feet1 by side anchor lines1 while 
,i walked on the river bottom under the 
bell across the channel4 ,the boat was  
then dropped twenty feet farther down   
stream1 and ,i then walked back again as
 she was hauled towards the other shore4
 ,in this way ,i walked on the bottom   
four hours at least1 every day 7,sundays
 excepted7 during that time4 ,for a     
day's work the city of ,saint ,louis    
gave him #hj1 out of which he paid his  
own workmen4 ,he was so prosperous that1
 as he wrote to his wife1 there was no  
need for him to join the rush to        
,california to get gold2 and his success
 caused much envy among his rivals4 ,he 
began to clear the channel of the       
,mississippi from some of its           
obstructions and to improve the harbor  
of ,saint ,louis4  ,in #ahef he knew his
 work so well that he went to           
,washington and proposed to ,congress to
 remove all the snags and wrecks from   
the ,western rivers1--the ,mississippi1 

the ,missouri1 the ,arkansas1 and the   
,ohio1--and to keep their channels open 
for a term of years4 ,a bill to that    
purpose passed the ,house1 but in the   
,senate it was defeated by ,jefferson   
,davis and others4 ,the next year1 on   
account of poor health1 ,eads retired   
from business1 but he carried with him a
 fortune4 ,he had not succeeded in his  
purpose at ,washington1 but his name was
 known there and remembered4  ,meanwhile
 his wife had died1 and two years later 
he had married the widow of a first     
cousin4 ,with his second wife he made   
his first trip to ,europe1--the first of
 very many he was destined to make4 ,in 
#aheg1 being thirty-seven years old1 he 
retired1 as ,i have said1 from business4
  ,his youthful hopes1 the ordinary     
ambitions of men1 were realized4 ,he had
 been a poor boy3 at only thirty-seven  
he was rich1--very rich for the times   
and for the place4 ,from his proposals  
to the government1 we may imagine that  
he now had broader dreams of usefulness4

 ,but his first proposition toward river
 improvement had been checked4 ,he had  
bought a large house and grounds4 ,he   
made for himself a rose-arbor1 and for  
four years he was as much unoccupied as 
his lively mind permitted4 ,he was at   
any rate what is called a man of        
leisure4  ,then1 four years being       
passed1 he received from ,washington1   
from his friend ,attorney-,general      
,bates1 a letter written three days     
after the surrender of ,fort ,sumter1   
which said3 ,be not surprised if you are
 called here suddenly by telegram4 ,if  
called1 come instantly4 ,in a certain   
contingency it will be necessary to have
 the aid of the most thorough knowledge 
of our ,western rivers1 and the use of  
steam on them1 and in that event ,i     
advised that you should be consulted4   
,the government was thinking of placing 
gunboats to occupy and to defend the    
,western waters4     ,,ii  ,,the        
,,gunboats   ,at the beginning of the   
,civil ,war the ,state of ,missouri and 

the city of ,saint ,louis were in a very
 confused condition4 ,a border slave    
,state1 ,missouri contained a great many
 persons of ,southern birth and         
,southern sympathies2 and besides a good
 many strong ,northern men1 ,saint      
,louis had also a considerable ,german  
population1 all stanch ,unionists4 ,but 
excepting the ,germans and one or two   
dauntless clear-seeing men1 who read the
 future1 few persons in either party    
wished to fight if fighting could       
possibly be avoided4 ,the governor1 a   
,southern man1 while hesitating at      
actual secession1 wished and tried to   
control the power of the ,state so that 
at need it might help the ,south2 and   
while professing loyalty1 he did all he 
could to prove his disloyalty to the    
,union4 ,the legislature1 however1 would
 not pass a bill to arm the ,state1     
thereby1 says an historian1 causing the 
,south to sustain a defeat more         
disastrous to its independence than any 
which thereafter befell its arms1 down  

to the fall of ,vicksburg4 ,in response 
to ,lincoln's call for troops1 the      
governor refused to send any from       
,missouri4 ,an extraordinary state      
convention1 called in this crisis1 voted
 against secession4 ,seeing that the    
governor1 notwithstanding this1 was     
covertly aiming at throwing himself and 
the ,state1 so far as he could1 in with 
the ,confederacy1 young ,frank ,blair   
and ,general ,nathaniel ,lyon1 carrying 
things with a high hand1 seized and     
dispersed the state militia encamped in 
,saint ,louis1 got control of almost all
 the ,federal arms in the ,state1 and   
with outside aid and help from the      
regular army1 chased the governor from  
the capital1 and held him at bay long   
enough for the convention to depose him 
and the ,general ,assembly1 and to      
establish a state government loyal to   
the ,union4  ,during all these lively   
events ,saint ,louis was in confusion4  
,there were many minds in the           
town--secessionists1 conditional and    

unconditional unionists1 submissionists3
 some who wanted war1 some who wanted   
only to preserve peace so that they     
might keep their homes and fortunes     
safe1 even on condition of abandoning   
slavery4  ,james ,b4 ,eads did not own a
 slave1 nor did he approve of slavery1  
but among his friends and associates    
there were many who did own them1 and   
many secessionists4 ,it is curious to   
observe how little a difference of      
opinion on these points1 that had become
 so vital1 was able to put personal     
enmity among men who were true friends4 
,of course1 among mere acquaintances    
there were many instances of bitterness 
and taunting4 ,through it all1 ,eads1   
with his rare tact and his exquisite    
manners1 steered without collision1     
offending none of those who were not on 
his side4 ,and yet we are presently to  
see what a deep interest his side had   
for him1 and how much he was able and   
willing to do for it4  ,between the     
election and the inauguration of        

,lincoln1 ,eads and three other         
prominent citizens of ,saint ,louis     
wrote a letter to him1 expressing their 
fears that an attempt at secession would
 be made1 and urging the policy of      
having a secretary of state from one of 
the slave ,states4 ,and they            
recommended1 for purity of character1   
stern integrity1 exalted patriotism1 and
 enlightened statesmanship1 ,edward     
,bates1 born in ,virginia1 married into 
a ,south ,carolina family1 and long     
resident in ,missouri4 ,a first draught 
of this letter is in ,eads's            
handwriting4 ,when the new cabinet was  
formed1 ,bates1 a personal friend of    
,lincoln's as well as of ,eads's1 was   
given a position in it1 that of         
attorney-general4 ,it was he who1 three 
days after ,sumter was fired on1 wrote  
the letter1 already quoted1 telling     
,eads to expect a telegram calling him  
to ,washington for consultation on the  
best method of defending and occupying  
the ,western rivers4 ,eads himself was  

by this time no believer in a defensive 
policy for the government4 ,after       
,sumter he had already written to ,bates
 advocating determined and vigorous     
measures4 ,so1 when the telegram soon   
followed the letter1 he was glad to     
hasten to ,washington in order to be of 
use4 ,there he was introduced to the    
,secretary and to the ,assistant        
,secretary of the ,navy4  ,the          
importance of controlling the           
,mississippi ,river was well seen by the
 great strategist1 ,lincoln1 who called 
it the backbone of the rebellion--the   
key to the whole situation4 ,if it could
 be held by the government1 the         
,confederacy could neither move its     
troops up and down it1 nor--thus cut in 
half--could it bring over from ,texas   
and ,arkansas the many men and the      
quantities of food greatly needed by its
 armies east of the river4 ,realizing   
this1 the ,confederacy was already      
beginning to fortify the ,mississippi   
and the ,ohio with its branches4 ,to    

dislodge the rebels ,bates proposed a   
fleet of gunboats4 ,the ,secretary of   
,war1 however1 thinking this idea of    
gunboats either useless or              
impracticable1 showed at first no       
interest in the plan4 ,but at the       
request of the ,secretary of the ,navy1 
who realized the importance of the      
subject1 ,eads prepared a statement of  
his views1 embodying ,bates's project4  
,in it he also suggested1 besides the   
best kind of boats for the service1     
batteries1 to be erected at several     
points4 ,commodore ,paulding1 on reading
 this statement1 at once reported in    
favor of it4 ,suddenly1 the ,secretary  
of ,war1 when he saw that the scheme was
 coming to something1 claimed           
jurisdiction over the whole matter1 but 
finally he agreed to order the same     
officer already appointed for the       
purpose by the ,navy to go west with    
,eads and purchase vessels to be armed4 
,all necessary approvals having been    
made1 the two went to ,cairo1 where they

 examined the ,benton1 one of the former
 snag-boat fleet4 ,afterwards ,eads     
proposed the strong and swift ,missouri 
,river steamboats4 ,but neither of these
 suited his colleague1 who at last went 
to ,cincinnati1 and buying three boats  
there1 armed them himself3 and very     
useful boats they were4  ,the gunboat   
scheme had been first proposed in       
,april2 it was now ,june1 and excepting 
these three wooden boats1 nothing seemed
 to have come of it4 ,so in ,july the   
quartermaster-general advertised for    
bids for ironclad gunboats4 ,in #ahfa   
ironclads were a rather new thing4      
,france and ,england had a few of them1 
but at the time the ,merrimac was begun 
no ironclad had been finished in        
,america4 ,on ,august #e1 when the bids 
were opened1 that of ,eads was found not
 only to be the lowest1 but to promise  
the quickest work4 ,on ,august #g the   
contract was signed for seven gunboats  
to be delivered at ,cairo on ,october   
#aj1--sixty-four days later4 ,this      

contract1 it has been said1 would under 
ordinary circumstances have been thought
 by most men impossible to fulfill4 ,and
 the circumstances then were anything   
but ordinary3 it was a time of great    
financial distress2 in the border slave 
,states the pursuits of peace were      
interrupted2 all was in turmoil and     
confusion2 rolling-mills1 machine-shops1
 foundries1 forges1 and sawmills were   
all idle1 and many of the mechanics had 
gone to the war4 ,the timber for the    
boats was still growing in the forests2 
the iron was not yet manufactured4 ,and 
so short was the time that two or three 
factories alone1 no matter how well     
equipped they might be1 were not to be  
depended upon4 ,yet ,eads had undertaken
 to start up the factories1 to gather   
the materials1 and to build his boats in
 two months4 ,never were the            
self-reliance and the energy of the man 
better exhibited2 but his keen business 
sense might have hesitated1 had not his 
patriotism shown him that the ,union    

needed the boats quickly4  ,most of the 
machine-shops and foundries of ,saint   
,louis were at once set to work night   
and day2 and for hours at a time the    
telegraph wires to ,pittsburg and to    
,cincinnati were in use4 ,twenty-one    
steam-engines and thirty-five boilers   
were needed4 ,prepared timber was       
brought from eight different ,states1   
and the first iron plating used in the  
war was rolled not only in ,saint ,louis
 and ,cincinnati1 but in small towns in 
,ohio and ,kentucky4 ,within two weeks  
#djjj men were at work in places miles  
apart1--working by night and seven days 
a week4 ,to the workmen on the hulls who
 should stick to the task till it was   
done ,eads promised a handsome bonus2   
and in this way gratuitously paid out   
thousands of dollars4 ,the building of  
this little fleet has been called a     
triumph of sagacity1 pluck1 and         
executive ability unsurpassed by any    
exploit in the military or civil history
 of the times4  ,to be sure1 the seven  

boats were not finished at the time     
called for4 ,that they were all launched
 within a hundred days of the signing of
 the contract is amazing enough1 but if 
they had been built after designs of    
,eads's own1 so that he would not have  
been delayed by sudden changes          
necessitated when he found weaknesses in
 the plans furnished him1 or when the   
designer changed the specifications1 and
 if the government1 harassed and driven 
as it then was1 had been able to pay him
 according to its part of the contract1 
there is little doubt that he would have
 had the vessels finished in time       
according to his agreement4 ,even as it 
was1 it was legally decided later that  
he was not at fault4 ,when he entered   
into the contract he was a rich man2 and
 as he was not to receive his first     
payment from the government for twenty  
days1 probably only a rich man could    
have had the credit necessary to put so 
much machinery into motion4 ,as it      
proved subsequently1 the government was 

so lax in its payment1 and demanded work
 so much more expensive than the        
specifications called for1 that before  
the work was finished ,eads was in a    
hard way financially4 ,he had been much 
worried and distracted in obtaining     
funds3 after exhausting his own fortune 
he had sought the aid of patriotic      
friends1 and it was principally in order
 to pay them back that he made his      
appeal to the government4 ,by the terms 
of his contract he might have delayed   
the work until his payments were        
received1 and might thus have saved     
himself great distress and worry1 but1  
as ,i have said1 he realized how much   
the ,union needed the boats4 ,he himself
 said that it was of the utmost         
importance that these boats should be   
made as effective as possible1 without  
reference to how ,i was to be affected  
by delays1 444 and that their completion
 should be pushed with the utmost       
energy1 whether the government failed in
 its part of the bargain or not4 ,their 

rapid completion then was a proof not   
only of ,eads's masterful energy1 but of
 his self-sacrificing patriotism as     
well4 ,ultimately he was paid most of   
the money for the gunboats1 and as a    
result of his patriotism won back the   
fortune he had risked2 but at the time  
of course it hampered him intolerably to
 be without funds4 ,he had1 besides1    
other difficulties to contend with4 ,at 
least one of his sub-contractors or     
head-workmen was a disappointed bidder  
for the gunboat contract1 and was on a  
salary which ran till the boats were    
finished2 and while ,eads would not     
mention such a suspicion in public1 he  
suggested in a private letter that this 
had been an additional cause of delay4  
,after all1 the seven boats had been    
launched and were ready to be put into  
commission by ,flag-,officer ,foote1    
before he had more than one third of the
 necessary crews ready for them4  ,these
 seven1 the ,saint ,louis 7afterwards   
,de ,kalb71 the ,cairo1 ,carondelet1    

,cincinnati1 ,louisville1 ,mound ,city1 
and ,pittsburg1 were all alike4 ,the    
,saint ,louis1 as ,eads wrote to        
,lincoln1 when he sent him a photograph 
of her1 was the first ironclad built in 
,america4444 ,she was the first armored 
vessel against which the fire of a      
hostile battery was directed on this    
continent2 and1 so far as ,i can        
ascertain1 she was the first ironclad   
that ever engaged a naval force in the  
world4 ,in reading the descriptions of  
them1 and in reading in the naval       
histories of their undeniable faults1 it
 must be remembered that ,eads had no   
part in the modeling of these boats1 and
 is therefore relieved of all           
responsibility as to their              
imperfections4 ,they were #age feet     
long1 #ea-a_/b feet beam4 ,their flat   
sides sloped upward and inward at an    
angle of about #ce deg41 and the front  
and rear casemates corresponded with the
 sides1 the stern-wheel being entirely  
covered by the rear casemate4 ,it was a 

large paddle-wheel1 placed forward of   
the stern so as to be protected4 ,the   
whole thing was like a tremendous       
uncovered box1 with its sides sloping up
 and in1 and containing the battery1 the
 machinery1 and the paddle-wheel1 while 
the smoke-stacks and the conical        
pilot-house stuck up out of the top4    
,captain ,mahan says that they looked   
like gigantic turtles4 ,underneath the  
water1 they were simply like            
flat-bottomed scows4 ,as they were      
intended always to fight bows on1 they  
were built with that in view4 ,in front 
they were accordingly armored two and a 
half inches over two feet of solid oak4 
,the only other armor they carried was  
abreast of the boiler and engines4 ,the 
stern1 therefore1 and the greater part  
of the sides were decidedly vulnerable4 
,their armament consisted of three guns 
forward1 four on each broadside1 and two
 at the stern4  ,when ,eads was given a 
chance to alter a boat from his own     
designs1 he made it a much better one   

than these4 ,it was a boat ordered by   
,general ,fremont in ,september1 #ahfa1 
in excess of the government             
appropriation for the river fleet4 ,this
 was the same snag-boat which three     
months before had been suggested for    
alteration by ,eads1 and refused by the 
army's agent4 ,in this case1 as in so   
many afterwards when ,eads knew himself 
to be right1 he stuck persistently to   
his own opinion2 and out of the heavy   
old boat1 despised and objected to by so
 many persons1 he fashioned the old     
war-horse1 the ,benton1 which1 slow as  
she was1 ,spears1 the naval historian1  
calls the most powerful warship afloat  
at that date4 ,as a snag-boat1 formerly 
used by ,eads1 she had had two hulls so 
joined and strengthened that she could  
get the largest kind of a cottonwood    
tree between them1 hoist it out of the  
mud1 and drag it clear of the channel4  
,these hulls were now joined together2  
and while the boat was armored on the   
same general plan as the seven contract 

gunboats1 she was so much more          
completely iron clad as to avoid the    
danger that they were exposed to of     
having their boilers burst and great    
damage and death caused thereby4 ,her   
tonnage was twice that of the others2   
her size about #bjj by #ge feet4 ,she   
was entirely iron clad4 ,in her gun-deck
 casemate the twenty inches of timber   
under the plating had its grain running 
up from the water instead of            
horizontally1 by which means wrote ,eads
 a ball will strike1 as it were1 with   
the grain1 and then be more readily     
deflected4 ,on the same principle that a
 minie ball will penetrate five inches  
of oak1 crossing the grain1 while it    
will not enter one inch if fired at the 
end of the timber4 ,this detail         
illustrates the care and interest with  
which ,eads built his boats4  ,the eight
 of them1 ,captain ,mahan says1 formed  
the backbone of the river fleet         
throughout the war1 and may be fairly   
called the ships of the line of battle  

on the ,western waters4 ,he speaks also 
of their very important services4 ,this 
is milder praise than has been given    
them4 ,commander ,stembel said that he  
had heard them called equal to #ejjj men
 each2 ,boynton1 the naval historian1   
goes so far as to say that the permanent
 occupation of the ,south was rendered  
possible by the ironclad navy of the    
,western waters4 ,though the naval      
battles in the ,atlantic were perhaps   
more brilliant1 he says1 none1 unless   
that between the ,merrimac and the      
,monitor1 had more important results4   
,eads has been called as potent as a    
great general in clearing the upper     
,mississippi4 ,he did not1 to be sure1  
build the entire gunboat fleet1 but he  
did build1 as ,captain ,mahan says1 the 
backbone of it2 and that the praises for
 that fleet1 which ,i have quoted1 are  
not altogether extravagant1 is further  
shown by the comments of ,mr4 ,john     
,fiske4 ,he says1 ,while it was seldom  
that they these formidable gunboats     

could capture fortified places without  
the aid of a land force1 at the same    
time this combination of strength with  
speed made them an auxiliary without    
which the greater operations of the war 
could hardly have been undertaken4      
,these eight boats figured in many a    
fight on the great river and its        
branches4 ,they were ever where danger  
was4 ,a month and more before the       
,merrimac and the ,monitor were         
finished1 the important capture of ,fort
 ,henry was a victory exclusively for   
the gunboats4 ,it was the ,carondelet   
that ran the gauntlet past ,island      
,number #aj1 a feat as full of romance  
and daring as any that the ,civil ,war  
tells us of4 ,and these things were done
 with vessels still unpaid for and the  
personal property of their builder4     
,their usefulness was a great           
satisfaction to ,eads1 and he rejoiced1 
as he wrote to ,foote1 with the prideful
 pleasure of the poor armorer who forged
 the sword that in gallant hands struck 

down the foe4  ,when the ,benton left   
her dock for ,cairo1 ,foote requested   
,eads to see her there in safety4 ,eads1
 who was so deeply interested in his    
boats that on another occasion he was   
narrowly prevented from going into      
action with one of them1 gladly agreed4 
,before long the ,benton grounded4 ,as  
,eads was merely a guest1 and as there  
were naval officers aboard1 he did not  
feel called upon to interfere with any  
suggestions4 ,but after the officers and
 crew had labored all night trying to   
float her1 then with his aptitude for   
emergencies he used his scientific      
knowledge to suggest another scheme4    
,the captain at once gave him leave to  
command the entire crew1 and by means of
 hawsers tied to trees ashore and then  
strongly tightened1 the vessel was      
floated4 ,in this case the old river man
 knew more than the naval officers4  ,in
 ,april1 #ahfb1 the ,navy ,department   
called ,eads to ,washington to make     
designs for more ironclads1--or rather  

boats made wholly of iron4 ,these were  
to be of very light draught and         
turreted4 ,he submitted plans for boats 
drawing five feet4 ,the department      
insisted on lighter draught1 but still  
on heavy plating4 ,so he revised his    
designs once1 and then once more4       
,finally the draught was reduced to only
 three and a half feet4 ,eads has       
himself described his going back to his 
room in the hotel1 and in a few hours   
making over his designs4 ,when these    
boats were finished they were found to  
draw even less than had been contracted 
for1 so that extra armor was ordered for
 them1 and three of them exceeded the   
contract speed4 ,at first two boats were
 ordered1 later four others4 ,for the   
turrets ,eads submitted designs of his  
own1 but as it was then only a month    
after the ,monitor's fight1 ,ericsson's 
turrets were insisted on for the first  
two boats1 although modifications were  
allowed4 ,as the other four had two     
turrets each1 ,eads was allowed on two  

of them to try one turret of his own1   
with the guns worked by steam1 on       
condition of replacing them at his own  
cost with ,ericsson's in case of        
failure4 ,this was the first            
manipulation of heavy artillery by      
steam4 ,the guns were fired every       
forty-five seconds1 or seven times as   
fast as in ,ericsson's turrets4  ,in    
addition to the fourteen gunboats1 ,eads
 also converted seven transports into   
musket-proof tinclads1 and built four   
mortarboats4 ,such men1 says ,boynton1  
deserve a place in history by the side  
of those who fought our battles4  ,the  
career of some of the gunboats          
subsequent to the war is interesting4   
,in #ahhj the ,chickasaw and the        
,winnebago1 which were two of the six   
iron boats1 and both of which took part 
in the naval campaign at ,mobile1 had   
come into the hands of ,peru2 and old as
 they were1 they were used very         
effectively against some of the larger  
and more modern boats of the ,chileans4 

,during those trying war times all of   
,eads's tremendous energy had by no     
means been exhausted by the gunboats4   
,in more ways than one he had been      
showing himself a good citizen and a    
kind-hearted man4 ,much as his fortune  
had been drained by the boats1 he still 
found money to give to the sufferers in 
the war4 ,out of a belated partial      
payment on the ,benton he at once sent  
money to ,foote for use in relief work1 
and with characteristic persistence he  
sent several letters and telegrams to   
make sure of the money's arriving4 ,a   
month or so later he sent a check from  
,washington to ,saint ,louis to the     
,sanitary ,commission1 asking that its  
receipt might not be made public4 ,in   
the letter sent with this he speaks of  
the war as an accursed contest between  
brothers1 but adds that the cause is    
most worthy of the sacrifice4 ,from the 
niece of the ,secretary of the ,navy we 
also find a letter of acknowledgment of 
money to be used in relief4 ,but it was 

not only to the soldiers that he showed 
his tenderness3 to ,foote1 the gallant  
,christian commander of his fleet1 he   
sent various friendly gifts when that   
brave man lay dying1--grapes from his   
own vines1 a portrait he had had painted
 of his friend4 ,and even to those on   
the other side he showed an unusual     
consideration4 ,towards the end of the  
war there seemed to be no means of      
feeding the many refugees in ,saint     
,louis but by levying a tax upon        
,southern sympathizers4 ,eads1 who      
foresaw what bitterness such a course   
would produce1 offered1 in the name of a
 bank in which he was a director1 #ajjj 
to start a subscription to be used      
instead1 and the invidious assessment   
was never levied again4  ,to his        
personal friends he was always generous 
and thoughtful1 sending them many       
presents1 defending them from           
misrepresentation1 and helping them in  
their chosen careers4 ,by means of his  
influence and tact he procured the      

release of an indiscreet person who had 
talked himself into ,mc,dowell's        
,college prison as a suspected enemy to 
the government4 ,giving to others seemed
 a trait in ,eads's character which     
afforded him an intense pleasure2 and   
though a man of great dignity1 he used  
with his intimate friends a charming    
playfulness and affection4 ,he could be 
extremely mild in correcting faults2 and
 while he was inclined to bear with     
others1 he could be stern4 ,his manners 
were rather those one expects in a      
,european gentleman of leisure and high 
breeding1 than in a former steamboat    
clerk and a man who had worked hard most
 of his life4 ,his hospitality was      
princely4 ,in his large house in the    
suburbs of ,saint ,louis he received not
 only the young friends of his five     
daughters and his own friends1 but also 
officers of the river fleet and of the  
army1 officers sent west on inspection  
duty1 and foreign officers following the
 course of the war and of the           

improvements in gunboat building4  ,his 
mind was as active as his heart was     
generous1 and the course of his life    
mirrored that activity4 ,now he was at  
home1 now in ,washington1 now at ,cairo 
visiting the gunboats to see how they   
worked under fire4 ,in ,washington he   
was busy with plans and projects4 ,an   
intimate associate said of him in his   
later life that he was always inventing 
some new gun or gun-carriage2 and we may
 be sure that if he ever was doing so1  
he was in those war times4 ,besides     
inventing his own1 he was also busy     
examining ,ericsson's inventions1 in    
making improvements on them1 in applying
 steam in novel ways to the working of  
artillery and to the rotating and       
raising of turrets2 in sending models of
 his inventions here and there1 at home 
and abroad1 to ,germany1 where the      
,prussian minister1 a friend with whom  
he often dined1 wished they could get   
some of his boats on the ,rhine2 having 
his turrets explained at a ,russian     

dinner in ,new ,york or ,washington2 and
 receiving from the ,navy ,department an
 appointment as special agent to visit  
the navy yards in ,europe4 ,at home he  
was just as busy4 ,with his house so    
full of company1 he nevertheless found  
time somewhere for solid reading apart  
from his work--the ,attorney-,general   
sent him ,cicero's letters1 and he lent 
the ,attorney-,general ,king ,alfred's  
works4 ,there is a curious interest in  
knowing what two men so engrossed1 and  
upon such necessary duties1 were reading
 at such a time4 ,while he was building 
the second batch of gunboats1 he wrote  
to ,bates in a personal letter that he  
believed he had the most complete and   
convenient works in the country for iron
 boat-building2 that there and in other 
places he had as many as seventy        
blacksmith fires at work for him1 and   
that his men were all sheltered from sun
 and rain4 ,after those boats were      
finished1 he went on planning others1   
and we have a letter from ,farragut in  

which the admiral asks if some of them  
are not for his use at ,mobile4  ,eads1 
by this period in his strenuous life1   
knew a great many men1 all of whom he   
treated with a uniform dignity and      
courtesy1 even when they were           
unfriendly1 and a few of whom he was on 
the most intimate terms with4 ,among all
 of them he was admired2 perhaps already
 he was as prominent a citizen as there 
was in ,saint ,louis1 and as it was     
still in the good old times when the    
mayoralty there was a high honor to the 
best men1 it was suggested to him that  
he hold the office4 ,nor was this the   
first honor offered to be thrust upon   
him2 early in the war ,bates had wanted 
him appointed commissary of subsistence 
at ,saint ,louis1 and though it was     
unusual to appoint a civilian to that   
position1 ,lincoln had been willing to  
do it to oblige ,bates1--but ,eads had  
not wished it4 ,more than a year later  
he was given a commission of            
lieutenant-colonel by the governor1 but 

he was never sworn in4 ,like all men in 
those troublous times1 he took a        
peculiar interest in politics2 and on   
being asked privately in a joint letter 
from the editors of three ,saint ,louis 
papers 7two of them ,german7 exactly    
what his politics were1 he replied that 
he was as strongly in favor of          
emancipation as he was opposed to       
slavery1 and that he believed in no     
kid-glove policy2 but he remarked       
incidentally that if he were to be      
offered the mayoralty he should refuse  
it4  ,his work was for the whole        
country4 ,while he was still too much   
engrossed with his turrets and his plans
 for new boats1 he fell very ill4       
,indeed there can be no question that he
 sacrificed his health to build the     
gunboats4 ,never very robust1 he was now
 so ill that eight doctors gave him up4 
,his indomitable spirit pulled him      
through1 but he was ordered away from   
his workshop to ,europe1 he and his     
family4 ,his overburden of labor had    

crushed him1--before this his eyes had  
been tired out4 ,bates charged him to   
take care of himself2 the country can't 
spare you1 he said and ,i can't spare   
you4  ,unless ,bates was a prophet1 we  
may well think the first of these       
statements unduly strong4 ,to be sure1  
when in a crucial moment the gunboats   
were needed1 and needed quickly1 ,eads's
 unparalleled haste in building them    
certainly did an inestimable service to 
the country4 ,but so far in his         
career1--and he was over forty1--while  
he had shown a marked inventive talent1 
he had not as yet made clear his signal 
genius for engineering4 ,and although he
 had exhibited wonderful executive      
ability and such true patriotism as made
 him a valued citizen1 he had still to  
render himself indispensable to the     
development of the nation4     ,,iii    
,,the ,,bridge   ,eads was bred to the  
,mississippi4 ,he had mastered its      
secrets by hard experience2 he had      
worked in successful opposition to its  

great wayward forces4 ,but he was not to
 be content till he had tamed it1 till  
he had saddled it1 and1 wild as it will 
always be1 had made it nevertheless     
subservient to him4 ,to his quietly     
stubborn spirit there was a delightful  
invigoration in using his brain to      
conquer the brute force of this         
capricious monster4 ,for the river is   
the grandest power between our two      
oceans4 ,niagara is more sublime2 but   
,niagara is constant1 and therefore its 
immense strength has been easily set to 
a task4 ,the ,mississippi is so         
irregular that one tends unconsciously  
to personify it by calling it tricky4   
,to find the causes of its sudden       
changes one must go back hundreds of    
miles to the mountains east and west4   
,seeming to delight in destruction1 it  
tears down or eats away the checks that 
are put upon it4 ,only a mind never     
discouraged1 a mind capable of          
discovering and comprehending the laws  
that after all underlie the apparently  

blind and brutal jests of this untiring 
giant1 can1 by the use of those very    
laws1 tame it4 ,and such a mind ,eads   
had4 ,that everlasting brain of yours   
will wear out three bodies1 said one    
friend4  ,though indeed his body was    
strong1 with iron muscles and a fierce  
nervous energy1 yet it was not a big    
body1 and his health was weak4 ,again   
and again he worked beyond his strength1
 and only on the absolute order of his  
doctors would he go away from his work  
and rest4 ,but he could not entirely    
rest4 ,his brain would work4 ,in his    
health tours to ,europe he was always   
open to new ideas1 always studying new  
methods to carry back to his task4 ,your
 recreation1 some one wrote him1 is     
,monitor discussions with ,captain      
,ericsson4 ,another recreation was      
chess4 ,had he not elected to be the    
leading engineer of his day1 he might   
have been the chess champion4 ,this     
game1 never one for the slothful and    
unthinking1 he made even more exacting  

than usual4 ,he would play several games
 at the same time2 or1 without seeing   
the board which his opponent used1 he   
would carry the game in his head4       
,though it was his nature not to like to
 be beaten1 yet he was as kindly as he  
was set in his purpose2 and it was also 
his nature to take defeat gracefully3   
defeat seldom came4 ,never let even a   
pawn be taken1 he gave me1 a small boy1 
as a rule for the game4 ,even in little 
things he liked thoroughness1--a        
capacity for painstaking which is1 ,i   
think1 characteristic of the            
thoroughbred4  ,his appearance showed   
his traits4 ,not tall1 and rather       
slight1 he was always dignified4 ,his   
wide and thin-lipped mouth shut so      
emphatically that it made plain his     
intention to do1 in spite of all1 what  
he believed could and should be done4   
,some one said that it was a hundred    
horse-power mouth4 ,it admitted no      
trifling4 ,when it spoke seriously1 it  
spoke finally4 ,but his eyes1 with their

 merry twinkle1 showed that he could    
also speak humorously4 ,he was indeed a 
famous story-teller1 fond of all sorts  
of riddles and jests1 and remembering   
all of them he heard4 ,he used often to 
point his arguments with an anecdote1   
always a fresh one4 ,believing with     
,lamb that a man should enjoy his own   
stories1 he would laugh at his in a most
 infectious way1 till he was red in the 
face4 ,indeed1 he was the larger half of
 his stories4 ,his face was thoughtful  
and stern4 ,though he seldom found      
fault1 he never did more than once2 but 
he was by no means violent4 ,his        
mildness was more forcible than anger4  
,he wore a full beard1 but no mustache1 
thus exhibiting his long1 determined    
lip4 ,at forty he was already bald1 and 
after he was sixty he always wore       
indoors a black skull-cap4 ,scrupulously
 cleanly1 in his dress he was           
point-device4 ,without the least        
ostentation1 his clothes were invariably
 faultless4 ,from young manhood he had  

thought that it is due to one's self and
 to one's friends to look one's best2   
and he had also realized the practical  
value of a good appearance4 ,often      
impressing this on his wife and         
daughters1 he would have them at all    
times well dressed4 ,really he seems to 
have been a point too precise4 ,he was  
just the opposite to those geniuses     
whose great brain shows itself by a     
sloppy exterior4 ,eads was never sloppy1
 even at home4  ,his great brain showed 
itself in its restless activity1 in its 
grasp of laws and of details1 in its    
fight to help and to better the country 
and the world4 ,for it was not only the 
lusty pleasure of battling with ,nature 
that made him long for another struggle 
with the ,mississippi3 he saw the value 
there was in it to commerce and to      
civilization4 ,before the war he had    
long contended with stubborn currents1  
and with ice1 and by his energy and his 
talent for inventing new devices he had 
become the most successful wrecker on   

the river4 ,abandoning the peaceful but 
lively triumphs of snatching hulls and  
cargoes from the maw of the stream1 he  
had offered the government to cleanse   
its course and thereby to increase its  
safety and usefulness4 ,in war times1   
owing to his knowledge of the waterways 
and of science1 he had been able to     
build1 with a speed fairly romantic1 a  
gunboat fleet to patrol the             
,mississippi4 ,already now greater      
schemes for improving this central      
highway of our country were in his mind1
 but as yet the fullness of the time was
 not come4 ,still1 he was no longer     
merely the careful son and father       
striving to protect his beloved ones and
 with no dreams of broader duties2 he   
was no longer contented with rose-arbors
 for an occupation4 ,the grim war had   
roused him2 his years of rest were over2
 he was the well-known                  
boat-builder1--engineer1 perhaps some   
persons already called him1--and his    
mind was teeming with schemes of        

helpfulness4 ,yet his ambition was not  
for fame1 but to do in the perfect way  
the work that only he could do4  ,in    
#ahfg a grand convention for the        
improvement of the ,mississippi and its 
tributaries met in ,saint ,louis4 ,even 
then people were beginning to see       
vaguely that the ,mississippi ,valley is
 destined to be the ruling section of   
the country4 ,eads in his speech showed 
that he foresaw it plainly4 ,he urged   
the convention to persuade the          
government to take steps to improve the 
river2 showing that for less money than 
was paid by the river boats in three    
years for insurance against             
obstructions1 those obstructions could  
be removed4 ,there was not one of them1 
he said1 that engineering skill and     
cunning could not master4  ,two years   
later he urged upon the commercial      
convention at ,new ,orleans by letter   
the importance of introducing iron boats
 on the ,mississippi2 saying that it was
 the fault of the tariff on iron that   

the saving they would effect was not    
taken note of4 ,thirty years later this 
scheme has again been brought up4       
,perhaps ,eads was before his time in   
advocating it4 ,but it shows how he had 
the interests of commerce at heart4     
,his convention speech is a good sample 
of his style4 ,he was so painstaking    
that even in private letters he would   
insert words and change sentences and   
sometimes rewrite4 ,there are first     
draughts with excisions of whole half   
pages1 for he sought conciseness4 ,he   
sought also a certain rhythm or grace or
 forcefulness1 it is hard to tell       
exactly what1 since in his letters it   
often resulted in a rather              
self-conscious formality or a stiff     
playfulness1 and in his speeches in a   
prettiness or a floweriness of style4   
,he sought too carefully4 ,probably in  
delivery the speeches sounded better    
than we should imagine4 ,in reading     
them1 they seem florid4 ,that was1      
however1 the favorite style of the time4

 ,and while1 by overdoing it1 he often  
seems to lose force1 he is almost always
 clear and always entirely logical4 ,in 
contrast to his speeches his            
professional reports are models3 simple 
and complete1 written not faultlessly   
perhaps1 but with a limpidity which     
makes one interested even in dry        
technical details4 ,one of his most     
marked talents1 often noted1 was the    
ability to explain an abstruse subject  
so that it would be quite clear to      
anybody4 ,and this he did nearly as well
 in writing as by word of mouth4  ,he   
thus made clear his remarkable plans for
 the bridge2 for in #ahfg the long      
talked of bridge at ,saint ,louis was at
 last begun4  ,in #ahcc1 when ,eads had 
arrived at the town1 it had about       
#aj1jjj inhabitants4 ,though already    
seventy years old1 it had not advanced  
very far beyond its original state of a 
,french trading-post4 ,with the         
introduction of steam and the waking up 
of the country1 the growth of ,saint    

,louis was rapid4 ,in #ahfg it had about
 #ajj1jjj people4 ,despite a commanding 
situation1 it could be seen that a      
struggle would have to be made for it to
 maintain the leadership among the river
 towns4 ,as early as #ahci there had    
been a project for a highway bridge2 and
 we are told that the city fathers stood
 aghast at an estimated cost of         
#gcf1fjj4 ,in the following years there 
were several more abortive schemes for  
bridging1 one of which1 it is even said1
 would have been carried out1 had not   
its projector died4 ,perhaps it is as   
well that he never lived to try it1 for 
until ,eads no one seems to have        
realized how enormous the undertaking   
was4 ,probably few others1 realizing it1
 would have dared to go on4  ,in the    
winter of #ahfe-ff a bill was brought up
 in ,congress to authorize the bridging 
of the ,mississippi at ,saint ,louis4   
,dependence on ferries had become       
intolerable to the people1 and often    
when the river was frozen even the      

ferries were blocked4 ,a bridge was felt
 to be absolutely indispensable4        
,however1 the antagonism of rival       
commercial routes was so powerful that  
the bill was allowed to pass only after 
it had been so amended that it was      
supposed to require an impracticability4
 ,it declared that the central span of  
the contemplated bridge must be no less 
than #ejj feet long1 nor its elevation  
above the city directrix less than fifty
 feet4 ,it was said at the time that the
 genius did not exist in the country    
capable of erecting such a structure4   
,still1 a span of over #ejj feet had    
been built in ,holland2 and the fact    
that there was not a total doubt as to  
the practicability of doing as well in  
the ,mississippi ,valley is shown by the
 inauguration of two rival bridge       
companies about a year after the passage
 of the bill4 ,one of these1 which was  
located in ,illinois1 after calling a   
convention of engineers1 who considered 
the question for ten days1 without an   

examination of ,eads's plans1 adopted a 
plan for a truss bridge4 ,the other1 the
 ,saint ,louis company1 from the first  
had ,eads as its chief engineer4 ,for   
another year there was a sharp contest  
carried on between these two companies1 
confined1 however1 principally to the   
courts and the newspapers1 until finally
 the ,illinois company sold out to the  
,saint ,louis company4 ,had the truss   
bridge been built1 there is no knowing  
how long it might have stood1 for the   
engineer who designed it did not arrange
 to base the foundations on the bed-rock
 of the river4 ,afterwards it was shown 
how necessary it was to do this2 but at 
the time many people thought it quite   
superfluous1 and on that1 as well as on 
many other points1 ,eads met with       
opposition4  ,in every case it turned   
out that he had been right4 ,no one else
 knew so well as he the immense power   
and the waywardness of the ,mississippi4
 ,good engineers supposed that the      
greatest imaginable scour at the river  

bottom in extreme high water would not  
remove over twenty-two feet of sand1 and
 it was believed that there were perhaps
 one hundred feet of it along the east  
shore4 ,but ,eads had been sixty-five   
feet below the river's surface at       
,cairo1 and there he had found the river
 bottom to be a moving mass at least    
three feet deep2 and in cutting through 
the frozen river to liberate his        
diving-bell boats1 he had found that the
 floating ice which goes underneath     
solid ice1 as well as the rising or     
backing-up of the water above           
ice-gorges1 forces the undercurrents    
lower than even a flood does2 and he had
 found on cutting a wreck out of the ice
 that she had been held up by the gorged
 ice underneath her1 which must         
therefore have been packed to the       
bottom4 ,knowing all this and much more 
about what goes on under the turbid     
surface of the river1 he did not doubt  
that even beneath #ajj feet of sand the 
bed-rock might at times be laid bare1   

and he was absolutely convinced that his
 bridge must be founded on it4          
,moreover1 he saw that on account of the
 exceptional force of the current in its
 rather narrow bed at ,saint ,louis1 the
 masonry piers of his bridge must be    
made unusually big and strong to        
withstand it4 ,since they must be so big
 and sunk so very deep1 it was evident  
that they would be so costly that the   
fewer there need be of them the better4 
,the central span was required to be    
#ejj feet2 with three spans about that  
length the river could be crossed1 and  
three spans would require only four     
piers4 ,steel trusses #ejj feet long    
would have to be made extremely heavy2  
but ,eads showed that a steel arch the  
same length1 while quite as strong1     
would be lighter and consequently much  
cheaper4 ,when his opponents objected   
that there was no engineering precedent 
for such spans1 while he pointed out    
their mistake1 at the same time he      
expressed his conviction that           

engineering precedents had nothing to do
 with the question of length of span2   
that it was altogether a money question4
 ,therefore1 since the cheapest method  
was to be carefully sought1 he          
determined upon arches1--two abutment   
piers1 two river piers1 and three arches
 of respectively #ejb1 #ebj1 and #ejb   
feet long4  ,there were many opponents  
to this plan2 some of them people who   
would have opposed any bridge1 as1 for  
example1 the ferry and the transfer     
companies4 ,to his own company he       
explained away every objection that came
 up1 as he was bound to do1 in view of  
their confidence in him4 ,he made the   
clearest of explanations of the theories
 involved2 and even such absurd         
predictions as that his superstructure  
would crush his huge stone piers1 he    
took the trouble to blast sarcastically4
 ,to an engineering journal he wrote    
three letters correcting mistakes in its
 accounts of his work4 ,but he seems to 
have wasted little of his energy in     

arguing with the newspaper public4 ,it  
was a question only of time till        
everybody should be convinced4  ,the    
most extraordinary care and pains were  
expended in every direction4 ,the stone1
 granite1 and steel were both hunted up 
and tested by experts1 and by machines  
specially devised in the bridge works1  
though not by ,eads himself4 ,for his   
assistants he chose men who were of real
 ability and well trained1 and to them  
he invariably gave great credit for     
their part in the work4 ,the plans1     
after being figured out in detail by    
them1 were gone over by the             
mathematician ,chauvenet1 then          
chancellor of ,washington ,university1  
who found not one single error in them4 
,most of the big work1 such as the      
masonry and steel1 was given out on     
contract2 and1 as was natural1 delays by
 the contractors often greatly delayed  
the progress of the bridge4 ,the whole  
work occupied seven years4  ,while ,eads
 had promised the company to prove by   

careful experiment1 so far as was       
possible1 everything connected with the 
bridge that had not already been fully  
demonstrated in practice1 he did not    
pretend that in his main outlines he was
 without some examples4 ,it was in his  
development of known ideas and his      
expedients for simplification that his  
genius perhaps most strikingly showed   
itself4 ,again and again he contrived   
some device so simple that1 like a great
 many strokes of genius1 it seemed that 
anybody should have thought of it4 ,the 
massive piers were sunk to the bed-rock 
by means of metal caissons4 ,these were 
adapted in design from some he had seen 
in use in ,france1 and had examined     
during a trip his doctors ordered him to
 make in #ahfh4 ,eads himself compared  
them to inverted pans4 ,they were open  
at the bottom1 but perfectly air-tight  
everywhere else4 ,they had several      
important features which were entirely  
original4 ,such caissons1 sunk to the   
bottom1 have the masonry of the pier    

built on top of them even while they are
 sinking2 and workmen inside them keep  
removing the sand from underneath1 and  
throwing it under the mouths of pipes   
which suck it up to the surface of the  
river4 ,evidently the caissons must be  
filled with compressed air to equalize  
the external pressure1 which is         
constantly increasing as ever deeper    
water is reached2 they must also have an
 opening connecting with the surface2   
and to admit of passing from the        
ordinary atmosphere to the denser one1  
there must be an air-lock4 ,before this 
bridge was built1 the air-lock had      
always been placed at the top of the    
entrance shaft1 where1 as the caisson   
sank and the shaft was lengthened1 it   
had to be constantly moved up4 ,eads    
placed it in the air-chamber of the     
caisson itself1 where it never had to be
 moved2 and thus1 as the shaft was not  
filled with compressed air1 less was    
needed1 and there was less danger of    
leaks4 ,another of his useful           

innovations was to build his shaft of   
wood1 and another was to put a spiral   
stairway into it4 ,indeed1 in the last  
pier he put an elevator into the shaft4 
,moreover1 he was the first person to   
run his pipes for discharging the sand1 
not through the shaft1 but through the  
masonry itself2 and he invented a very  
simple and effectual new sand-pump1     
which was worked by natural forces      
without machinery4 ,all these           
improvements and various others seem to 
have been thought of so easily1 that we 
are inclined to wonder why clumsier     
methods had ever been in use4 ,he       
described them all in his reports and   
his letters about the bridge in a style 
which is not only clear but actually    
fascinating even to a person who has    
scant scientific knowledge or taste4    
,one of the piers was sunk #aaj feet    
below the surface of the river1 through 
ninety feet of gravel and sand4 ,eads's 
theories were justified by finding the  
bed-rock so smooth and water-worn as to 

show that at times it had been          
uncovered4 ,this was the deepest        
submarine work that had ever been done1 
and ,eads tells us in his reports many  
interesting experiments he made in the  
air-chambers4 ,in their dense atmosphere
 a candle when blown out would at once  
light again4 ,this was before the days  
of electric lighting3 otherwise we may  
be sure that that would have been used1 
as so many other modern inventions were4
 ,for the first time in any such work1  
the last pier sunk had telegraphic      
communications with the offices on      
shore2 which must have been comforting  
to workmen starting out to their labor  
in the dead of winter with two weeks'   
provisions4 ,the dense air of the       
chambers caused not only discomfort to  
the ears1 but also in the case of some  
of the workmen a partial paralysis4     
,there was no previous experience to go 
by1 but every precaution seen to be     
necessary was taken2 the hours of work  
were made very short1 the elevator was  

provided1 medical attendance and        
hospital care were given free4 ,after   
the first disasters no man was allowed  
to work in the air-chambers without a   
doctor's permit4 ,and it is known that  
in helping the sufferers with his       
private means1 ,eads was as charitable  
as ever4 ,out of #ceb men employed in   
the various air-chambers1 #ab died4     
,eads1 with his wonted generosity of    
praise1 printed in his yearly report the
 names of all the men who worked in the 
deepest pier from its beginning till it 
touched bed-rock4 ,it is interesting to 
note in passing that of all the workmen 
in the blacksmith's yard only the head  
smith himself could lift a greater      
weight than the designer of the bridge4 
,the superstructure consisted mainly of 
three steel arches1 by far the longest  
that had ever been constructed2 the     
first to dispense with spandrel bracing2
 and the first to be built of           
cast-steel4 ,the ,encyclopaedia         
,britannica called them the finest      

example of a metal arch yet erected4    
,they were built out from the piers from
 both ends to meet in the middle2 and   
were put into place entirely without    
staging from below1--once again1 the    
first instance of such a proceeding4    
,all the necessary working platforms and
 machinery were suspended from temporary
 towers built on the piers2 and thus    
while the arches were being put up1     
navigation below was not interfered     
with4 ,this throwing across of the      
#ejj-;foot arches without the use of    
false works has been ranked with the    
sinking of the piers through a hundred  
feet of shifting quicksands1 as         
producing some of the most difficult    
problems ever attempted by an engineer4 
,one problem1 caused by the fault of the
 contractors1 presented itself when they
 came to insert the central tubes to    
close the arches4 ,the tubes were found 
to be two and a half inches too long to 
go in1 although they would be only the  
required length when they were in4 ,it  

was left for ,eads to insert them4      
,shortening them would of course have   
lowered the arch4 ,eads1 who was just   
starting for ,london on financial       
business of the bridge1 cut the tubes in
 half1 joining them by a plug with a    
right and left screw4 ,then he cut off  
their ends1 for the plug would make them
 any required length by inserting or    
withdrawing the screws a little4 ,then  
he went away4 ,as it would have been    
much cheaper not to use this device1 his
 assistants tried for hours to shrink   
the tubing by ice applications1 and thus
 to get the arches closed2 and there is 
a popular tradition in ,saint ,louis    
that they succeeded2 but it was         
excessively hot weather1 and they did   
not succeed4 ,the screw-plug tubes1 of  
course1 were easily put in4 ,any part of
 this steel work can be at any time     
safely removed and replaced1--another   
structural feature original in this     
bridge4  ,although ,eads took care to   
protect his special innovations by      

patent1 he was most willing to explain  
them with care to other engineers and to
 have others profit by his improvements2
 and several of the mechanical novelties
 of his bridge are now in the commonest 
use1 and have been taken advantage of   
even in such famous structures as the   
,brooklyn ,bridge4  ,during the building
 of the bridge ,eads spent many months  
in enforced absence1 but while in       
,europe he always had his labor in mind1
 and1 as ,i have said1 brought home from
 ,france one of his most useful         
appliances4 ,during his absence he left 
absolutely trustworthy and efficient    
engineers in charge of the work1 and    
before leaving home he provided for     
accidents that might occur4 ,so much    
work was done in the winter that great  
barriers had to be built to keep it     
clear of floating ice4 ,one curious     
detail connected with the bridge is that
 the ,milwaukee1 one of the             
double-turreted gunboats which ,eads had
 built from his own plans1 and which had

 been with ,farragut at ,mobile1 was    
bought now from a wrecking company1 and 
her iron hull used in making the        
caissons2 so that her usefulness still  
continued in peace as in war4  ,it has  
been said of ,eads that he grappled with
 great problems in engineering1 and     
solved them as easily as a boy subtracts
 two from six4 ,while this is true1 it  
must not be forgotten that he had not   
the school-training of an engineer4     
,nothing is more untrue than the        
statement that he was1 like de ,lesseps1
 only a contractor4 ,he was a very      
unusually brilliant engineer1 and his   
ignorance of the higher mathematics     
served to show his brilliancy the more  
clearly4 ,some persons have said that   
his chief talent was in explaining      
abstruse reasonings simply2 but an      
engineer has told me that he thought    
,eads's chief talent was his ability to 
arrive by some rough means at a certain 
conclusion to a given problem1 which    
conclusion would in every instance be   

approximately the same that better      
trained mathematicians would reach by   
mathematics4  ,by the time the bridge   
was finished1 indeed from the time      
7#ahfh7 when his first report for it    
made a decided stir in the scientific   
world1 both at home and abroad1 ,eads   
was a very well-known engineer4 ,in that
 same year a visit to ,europe for his   
health's sake gave him the opportunity  
to interview a ,french steel company1   
through whom he met a famous            
bridge-builder1 and was led to examine  
the piers of the bridge then being      
constructed at ,vichy2 and it was there 
that he found his new ideas for         
caissons4 ,going home1 by way of        
,england1 he explained his plans to the 
engineers there1 and was by them        
proposed as a member of the ,royal      
,society4 ,even at home1 in his own     
adopted ,state1 he was not without      
recognition2 for in #ahgb the           
,university of ,missouri conferred upon 
him the honorary degree of ,,ll4,d4     

,from the general of engineers he       
received a request for suggestions for  
improvements in guns2 and from his work 
on the subject of ,naval ,defenses it is
 plain that his mind still found time to
 run on this favorite topic4  ,in #ahgd 
the bridge was finished4 ,after it had  
satisfactorily stood the severe tests   
put upon it1 it was formally opened on  
the #dth of ,july4 ,the celebrations of 
that day were the first public outburst 
of approval given to ,eads's work4 ,and 
to-day the strong and graceful bridge   
stands as his most beautiful and lasting
 monument4 ,and as even the great       
tornado of #ahif was unable to do the   
piers any serious damage1 they are      
likely to last indefinitely1 and thus   
make the bridge endure1 as its builder  
said1 as long as it is useful to man4   
,to ,saint ,louis it has been so useful 
that while on the one hand the growth of
 the city was the cause of its being    
built1 on the other it has been one     
great cause of the continued growth and 

prosperity of the city4 ,but it had even
 broader results than that4 ,it made a  
radical change in the conditions of     
transportation ,east and ,west1 and it  
made possible the ,memphis bridge and   
the future ,new ,orleans bridge4  ,and  
in another direction yet it is          
peculiarly important4 ,in               
bridge-building it marks an era1 not    
only because of its strength and beauty 
and the daring of its design1 but also  
because of its many labor-saving        
devices1 the inventions of a thoroughly 
practical mind4 ,a distinguished        
engineer calls it a great pioneer in the
 art of sinking deep foundations and    
building spans over wide stretches of   
space1 that astonished in its           
construction the entire civilized world4
 ,london ,engineering chose it1 while   
building1 as preeminently the most      
highly developed type of bridge2 and    
says1 ,in that work the alliance between
 the theorist and the practical man is  
complete4 ,in ,eads it finds its        

long-sighed-for dream1 combining the    
highest powers of modern analysis with  
the ingenuity of the builder4     ,,iv  
,,the ,,jetties   ,the ,mississippi     
,river is a great antimonopolist4 ,as   
more and more railways have been built  
it has been less and less used4 ,and    
yet1 because it drains almost every     
corner of a valley which comprises over 
one third of the whole ,united ,states1 
it affords means of transportation to an
 immense area2 and since it cannot be   
controlled by any one company or group  
of companies1 its freight rates can     
hardly be arbitrarily fixed4 ,still1 so 
long as there are impediments to its    
free navigation in the shape of floods  
and bars1 it cannot be depended on for  
shipping1 and the magnificent           
opportunities it should offer to        
commerce are lessened4 ,the vastest     
river system in the world1 it shows in  
its various parts great contrasts4 ,one 
large tributary flowing from the        
,alleghanies1 one from the ,rockies1 one

 from the north1 others from the        
southwestern plains1 are each able to   
contribute their various products of    
grain1 lumber1 cattle1 cotton1 fruits1  
and so on4 ,some branches freeze every  
winter2 others never do4 ,some are      
clear1 others silt-bearing4 ,from about 
,cairo it flows southward through the   
greater delta1 or land built up by its  
own action in ages past1 and in all this
 part of its course both banks and      
bottom are of yielding alluvion4 ,for   
some hundreds of miles the crookedest of
 great rivers1 it varies frequently in  
width and velocity and is full of       
shoals2 then for hundreds more1 though  
uniform in width1 it often rises higher 
than its shores1 and is confined in     
artificial levees1 which it continually 
breaks down4 ,finally1 below ,new       
,orleans1 growing more sluggish1 and    
dividing into several mouths1 or passes1
 it wanders through tracts of waste     
marsh-lands into the gulf1 which it     
colors brown for miles around4 ,blocking

 the end of each shallow mouth there was
 formerly a sand-bar2 and these         
obstructions to navigation were the     
despair of the river commerce1 and no   
less the despair of the government in   
its attempts to remove them4  ,every one
 interested in trade or shipping        
realized what a very serious hindrance  
to the usefulness of the ,mississippi   
these choked-up mouths were1 but no one 
realized it better than ,eads4          
,understanding that the great valley is 
capable of supporting #djj1jjj1jjj      
people1 and intent on doing all in his  
power for good1 even before he had      
completed the bridge he was studying the
 problem of opening the river4 ,its     
improvement and the welfare of its      
millions of people were cherished       
objects of his life4 ,for some men one  
great undertaking at a time is enough1  
but ,eads's energies were such that his 
works overlapped one another4 ,it is    
hard to see how one man can have time1  
even if he has brains1 to do all he did4

 ,but apparently he never lived an idle 
day4 ,the bridge1 with its many         
extraordinary solutions of new problems1
 made its builder's permanent           
reputation4 ,at the particular request  
of ,west ,point he had supplied that    
institution with writings1 diagrams1 and
 models4 ,and so far afield had his fame
 spread that on one of his many trips   
abroad1 he made plans1 at the request of
 the ,sultan's grand vizier1 for an iron
 bridge over the ,bosphorus4 ,a change  
in viziers1 however1 prevented its being
 built4  ,it seems as if the river-mouth
 problem had not always been so         
difficult4 ,still1 ,eads showed that the
 bars were inevitable2 and it is        
probably only because1 with the growing 
population and trade of the central     
,states1 the need for an outlet was     
greater1 that the problem seemed more   
complicated4 ,moreover1 ocean vessels   
were increasing in size and draught1    
which also made an adequate channel more
 desirable4 ,although the blockade had  

forced the construction of several      
expensive lines of railway1 yet it was  
impossible to carry all the products of 
the valley by rail4 ,millions of        
dollars' worth of merchandise were      
delayed at the bars4 ,as early as #agbf 
attempts had been made to deepen the    
channels through the river's mouths by  
harrowing4 ,but the first government    
effort was in #ahcg1 when an            
appropriation was made for a survey and 
for dredging with buckets4 ,again in    
#aheb another appropriation was made2   
and a board1 appointed by the ,war      
,department1 recommended1--      #a4    
,stirring up the bottom4      #b4       
,dredging4      #c4 ,if both these      
methods failed1 the construction of     
parallel     jetties five miles in      
length1 at the mouth of the ,south ,west
 ,pass1     to be extended into the gulf
 annually1 as experience should show to 
be necessary4      #d4 ,should it then  
be needed1 the lateral outlets should be
     closed4      #e4 ,should all these 

fail1 a ship canal might be made4       
,dredging by stirring the bottom was    
tried1 and produced a depth of eighteen 
feet4 ,three years later this depth had 
entirely disappeared4 ,in #ahef an      
appropriation was entered into1 but the 
jetties were never completed4 ,later    
than that dredging was tried again4 ,up 
to #ahge more than eighteen feet of     
depth had never been obtained1 and even 
that could not be steadily preserved4   
,channels1 opened in low water1 were    
quickly filled up with sediment in high 
water1 and sometimes a severe storm     
would wash in enough sand from the gulf 
to undo the result of months of         
dredging4  ,as early as #ahcb a ship    
canal near ,fort ,saint ,philip1 which  
should cut through the river bank out to
 the gulf1 had been planned1 and this   
solution had been approved of by the    
,louisiana legislature4 ,that idea had  
been revived from time to time4 ,and    
there had also more than once been new  
recommendations made for jetties1 which 

by narrowing the channel should deepen  
it4 ,finally ,congress ordered surveys  
and plans for the canal1 and then       
appointed a board not only to report on 
them1 but also to ascertain the         
feasibility of improving the channel of 
one of the natural outlets of the river4
 ,in #ahgd this board reported in favor 
of the canal1 and against the idea of   
jetties1 which1 in its opinion1 could   
hardly be built1 could not be           
maintained1 and would be excessively    
costly4  ,this1 then1 was the situation 
when ,eads appeared on the scene3       
scratching and scraping were going on in
 ,south ,west ,pass1 but were doing     
little real and no lasting good2 the    
government engineers had declared       
themselves in favor of a canal2 and     
though in some quarters jetties had been
 advocated1 scarcely any one thought    
they could be built1 or that if they    
were they would last1 or that they would
 do any good4 ,eads1 however1 understood
 the river like a book1 and he had      

studied this particular subject4 ,he now
 came forward publicly1 offering not    
only to build and to maintain jetties   
which would insure a twenty-eight foot  
channel1 but to do all this for less    
than half the cost the board had        
estimated1 and on a contract which      
should provide for his being paid only  
in case he succeeded4 ,from this        
remarkable offer his own confidence in  
his plans may be inferred4 ,a purpose   
which he had reasoned out as practical  
became an inspiration to him which      
nothing could shake1 for his courage    
equaled his convictions4  ,but so bold  
was his proposition that he was         
considered a wild enthusiast4 ,never at 
a loss to solve any problem1 again1 as  
when he planned the bridge1 he undertook
 to do what was commonly held to be     
impossible4 ,of course1 all the backers 
of the canal scheme opposed him         
bitterly4 ,new ,orleans was of that     
faction4 ,saint ,louis1 on the other    
hand1 upheld him because of his personal

 popularity and his signal success with 
the bridge4 ,the army engineers were    
against him as a civil engineer4 ,thus  
the controversy was sectional1 personal1
 and professional4 ,up to this time the 
government had invariably intrusted all 
works of river and harbor improvement to
 the military engineers2 and to hand    
over the most important one it had ever 
undertaken to a private citizen1 and to 
permit him to apply a method that had   
just been condemned in a report signed  
by six out of seven of the most         
distinguished army engineers1 met with  
decided opposition4 ,so the government  
hesitated4 ,certainly this was a        
proposal to make them consider1         
promising1 as it did1 an open river     
mouth1 at a cost much lower than that of
 the canal1 and in case of failure      
leaving the total loss to fall upon the 
contractor4 ,besides1 several eminent   
civil engineers supported ,eads's       
theory4 ,the ,house1 nevertheless1      
passed the canal bill2 but the ,senate1 

more thorough1 after calling ,eads and  
two of his principal opponents to state 
their views before a committee1 passed a
 bill appointing a commission to        
reconsider the entire subject once more4
 ,the discussion before the ,senate     
committee was one of the crises in      
,eads's life4 ,the fate of the jetty    
enterprise hung on the outcome of it4   
,fortunately for himself and for the    
good of the country1 he was a most      
magnetic and persuasive man4 ,his       
theories and arguments were sound and   
logical1 his experience of the river was
 vast2 and beyond his aptitude for      
making technical reasoning simple and   
clear1 his skill as a diplomatist was   
equal to his ability as an engineer4    
,so the commission was appointed2 and1  
ultimately1 on account of the           
far-reaching importance of the question 
of river-mouth improvement1 its members 
decided to go to ,europe to inquire into
 the matter4 ,about the same time1 and  
for the same purpose1 ,eads also went   

abroad1 and while there he made a       
careful study of the works at the mouths
 of the ,danube1 the ,rhone1 and several
 other ,european rivers4 ,what he saw   
there served only to strengthen his     
confidence in his own plans4 ,when he   
returned home1 there had been a         
noteworthy change in public sentiment4  
,though there still remained many either
 prejudiced or honest enemies to his    
plan1 and although the newspapers were  
still noisy with their cheap and        
ignorant opposition1 the country at     
large and ,congress were inclined to    
accept the offer1 which promised them so
 much at no risk at all4  ,the          
commission1 returning too from ,europe1 
where it had made as careful            
investigations as those of ,eads1       
reported1 by a majority of six to one1  
in favor of trying jetties in the ,south
 ,pass4 ,this pass1 the smallest of the 
three mouths1 had a depth of only eight 
feet on its bar1 and had besides a shoal
 at its head4 ,the ,south ,west ,pass1  

the one which ,eads had proposed to use1
 is not only two or three times as big1 
both in width and in volume of water1   
but it had fourteen feet on the bar1 and
 no shoal at its head4 ,eads argued and 
implored with all his strength to be    
allowed to use the larger pass1 as the  
only one adequate to the demands of     
commerce2 and so convincing were his    
reasons that the ,house passed a bill   
which called for jetties in the larger  
pass4 ,but the ,senate1 again more      
conservative1 was cautious in this      
experiment1 and insisted on the small   
pass4 ,finally1 the bill went through1  
and the grant was made for the          
improvement of ,south ,pass4 ,and       
notwithstanding the considerable        
difference in size1 as well as          
preliminary conditions altogether less  
promising than in the pass ,eads had    
asked for1 still1 the depth of thirty   
feet was to be obtained1--the same      
result under harder circumstances4 ,the 
payment promised1 however1 was not      

increased with the difficulty2 but on   
the contrary was to be a good deal less 
than the estimate of the commission4    
,the terms1 which required certain      
specified depths and widths of channel  
to be obtained and then maintained      
during twenty years1 were so arranged   
that ,eads should not receive any part  
of his payment till after the work      
covered by that part had been finished  
and approved4  ,hard as these conditions
 were1 they were based on his own       
proposal1 and he was glad even on such  
terms to undertake the great work he had
 longed to do4 ,he at once busied       
himself in raising money for beginning  
the ,jetties1 and here again his        
peculiar talents helped him4 ,one of his
 friends has said1 ,his powers of       
persuasion1 his charm of address1 and   
the magnetism of his personality opened 
the hearts and purses of whomever he    
pleaded with in support of his          
engineering devices4 ,he was a most     
lovable man4 ,moreover1 he was an       

excellent business man4 ,he had indeed a
 marvelous faculty for obtaining funds  
with which to carry on his works2 and in
 that time of financial distress such a 
faculty was very necessary4  ,the theory
 on which he based his jetties was      
really extremely simple4 ,he said that1 
other things being equal1 the amount of 
sediment which a river can carry is in  
direct proportion to its velocity4      
,when1 for any reason1 the current      
becomes slower at any special place1 it 
drops part of its burden of sediment at 
that place1 and when it becomes faster  
again it picks up more4 ,now1 one thing 
that makes a river slower is an increase
 of its width1 because then there is    
more frictional surface2 and            
contrariwise1 one of the things that    
make it faster is a narrowing of its    
width4 ,narrow the ,mississippi then1 at
 its mouth1 said ,eads1 and it will     
become swifter there1 and consequently  
it will remove its soft bottom by       
picking up the sediment 7of which it    

will then hold much more71 and by       
carrying it out to the gulf1 to be lost 
in deep water and swept away by         
currents2 and thus1 he said1 you will   
have your deep channel4 ,in other words1
 if you give the river some assistance  
by keeping its current together1 it will
 do all the necessary labor and scour   
out its own bottom4  ,today1 since this 
theory has been proved1 it seems as     
simple as ,a ,b ,c4 ,and it is almost   
impossible to believe what opposition it
 then aroused4 ,people were not only set
 on blocking the undertaking1 but they  
were actually ignorant enough to deny   
that the velocity of water had any      
connection with its sediment-carrying   
power4 ,even if the narrowing process   
should happen to give a channel through 
the present bar1 they said1 a new one   
would presently form beyond1 and so the 
jetties would have to be extended every 
year4  ,however1 ,eads had his contract 
and his backers and his ideas and his   
faith in them2 and he set to work on the

 little pass4 ,the actual delta of the  
,mississippi consists of nothing but    
water1 marsh1 and some sandy soil       
bearing willows4 ,at the sea end of     
,south ,pass ,eads extended the low     
banks out over the bar1 by driving rows 
of guide-piles and sinking willow       
mattresses close alongside them on the  
riverside4 ,the mattresses were sunk in 
tiers1 and each tier was weighted well  
with rock1 put in as soon as each       
mattress was in position4 ,as usual he  
invented many of the requisite          
mechanical appliances and contrivances  
himself1 and generally such good ones   
that his methods came to take the place 
of earlier ones4 ,the ,south ,pass was  
not only the smallest and shallowest of 
the mouths1 but it was besides more     
difficult than the other two in having a
 bar at its head as well as at its sea  
end4 ,and although by his contract ,eads
 was not required to remove that bar1 by
 the exigencies of the case he was4     
,like the other it had to be attacked   

with water1 guided by dikes and dams1   
which were similar in construction to   
the two parallel banks1 the jetties     
proper4 ,the scheme was always to force 
the river itself to do all the real     
work2 and though there was1 to be sure1 
a good deal of planning and building1   
the main idea1 as already explained1 is 
exceedingly simple4 ,eads never         
pretended to have originated this idea4 
,he had studied many jetties in ,europe4
 ,he had had the eye to see that they   
could be adapted to the ,mississippi1   
and the skill to adapt them4 ,for simple
 as the bald theory is1 there was need  
of the nicest appreciation of laws and  
forces in applying it1 and the result   
has been called the greatest engineering
 feat ever accomplished4 ,the problem of
 making the quantity of water needed run
 up into the smallest pass through a    
narrow1 artificially contracted channel1
 located immediately between two great  
natural outlets1--this problem being    
complicated by many occult              

conditions1--has been called1 by no mean
 engineer1 perhaps the most difficult   
problem ever dealt with successfully4   
,there is no instance1 indeed1 in the   
world where such a vast volume of water 
is placed under such absolute and       
permanent control of the engineer1      
through methods so economic and simple4 
,to the non-mechanical mind the control 
of such a multitude of abstruse1 minute1
 and exact details as combine in the    
making of a bridge seems perhaps more   
marvelous than the mere bending of      
nature's forces to serve the ends of    
man4 ,in ,eads the power to do both     
existed4  ,on piles in the marsh houses 
were built for the engineers and the    
workmen1 and the ,jetties were begun4   
,eads was not able to be there in person
 all the time1 but as usual his choice  
of competent and faithful lieutenants   
was noteworthy4 ,his plans were approved
 by an advisory board of very eminent   
engineers2 and by the end of one year   
the value of the work began to show4 ,as

 yet it was not very strong or solid1   
but it had deepened the water on the bar
 from nine to sixteen feet4  ,none the  
less the storm of detraction continued4 
,there were enough difficulties to meet 
without this1 but none of them was met  
more forcibly4 ,it was never ,eads's way
 to attack other people in a malicious  
spirit1 for he was never jealous2 nor   
did he often deign to answer purely     
personal attacks4 ,but in defense of his
 undertakings1 to protect them and the  
people who had put money into them1 he  
was ready to fight4 ,his defense        
commonly took the form of criticism of  
his critics1 and in such writing his pen
 was decidedly trenchant4 ,probably no  
man ever incurred more foolish          
criticism1 and probably none ever       
pointed out more plainly how foolish it 
was4 ,even the ablest of his adversaries
 confessed themselves afraid of his pen4
 ,besides this parrying of attack1 he   
was continually writing and talking to  
show the simplicity and feasibility of  

his method2 and one man phrased what it 
is likely many exemplified1 that a few  
minutes' conversation with ,eads had    
done more to convert him to the ,jetties
 than any amount of writing and of      
talking with other people could have    
done4 ,always modest and unassuming1 he 
was so thoroughly in earnest that he    
convinced others by his own conviction4 
,never was a man less afraid to work4   
,years before1 in the diving-bell days1 
he had set himself the precedent of     
never asking an employee to do what he  
himself would fear to do4 ,and1 on the  
other hand1 he did not hesitate to ask  
an employee to do as much work as he    
himself would have done4 ,his former    
confidential clerk has told me that     
sometimes1 after evenings of discussion1
 ,eads on starting to bed1 perhaps at   
midnight1 would say to him1 ,now1 have  
that figured out for me in the morning1 
which meant three or four hours of      
scrupulous figuring or writing to be    
done by eight the next morning4         

,undoubtedly he could not have worked so
 hard as he did himself had he not been 
able to throw aside his cares and       
problems when he was not actively       
engaged with them4 ,a very sociable man1
 he liked not only to be with people1   
but to be making them enjoy themselves4 
,thus he was both generous and jovial4  
,no one loved more to give presents2 no 
one knew more droll stories and more    
poetry4 ,nor was his joviality by any   
means a descent2 for not only before    
royalty was he dignified1 but in the    
most democratic assembly4 ,his was not1 
however1 a forbidding dignity4          
,simple-hearted as a child1 he was fond 
of children1 and they were fond of him4 
,of course1 he kept up his miscellaneous
 reading4 ,he was specially devoted to  
poetry2 and loved not only to recite    
verse upon verse aloud1 but also to read
 to his friends and associates4 ,as     
usual1 his enthusiasm spread to others4 
,one old lady has told me that she never
 had thought much of poetry till she    

heard him read it4 ,burns and ,edwin    
,arnold and ,tennyson were favorites2   
and there is a letter written by ,eads  
to ,tennyson1 apparently to send him a  
clipping in which the one was described 
reciting from the other's poems4 ,eads  
excuses himself for intruding with his  
tribute1 and remarks that both of them  
have built works destined to outlive    
their authors4 ,he says it quite        
modestly and candidly1 as equal comes to
 equal2 throne to throne4  ,yet despite 
the confidence of their builder1 despite
 his cheerfulness1 the ,jetties were not
 getting along well4 ,to be sure1 they  
were steadily deepening the channel1 and
 thereby proving to all ingenuous       
persons who were undeceived that jetties
 were what had long been needed1 and    
that they should be helped along and    
finished4 ,but the ,jetties were        
situated far off in a remote marshland  
where few people saw them2 consequently 
nearly everybody was either deceived or 
was disingenuous4 ,people who had no    

business to interfere did interfere4    
,every hitch was shouted abroad1 every  
success was concealed or twisted4       
,concrete difficulties were enormous4   
,sudden storms at just the wrong time   
delayed and undid the work4 ,the need   
for more money was pressing1 and it     
could be borrowed only at exorbitant    
rates of interest4 ,the newspapers were 
clamoring that the rash experiment was a
 failure2 and though1 of course1 it was 
not a failure1 still it might have      
fallen through1 when one day the        
,cromwell liner1 ,hudson1 drawing over  
fourteen feet of water1 came in through 
the ,jetties1 and they were saved4      
,although the prestige of the           
undertaking was thus established1 ,eads 
realized that his contract with the     
government was too severe4 ,not that he 
asked to be paid beforehand for his     
work1 but he did ask to be paid as the  
work was actually done4 ,so evident were
 his energy1 skill1 and good faith that 
,congress promptly voted him an advance 

of a million dollars4 ,it also sent a   
commission to inspect and to report on  
the progress and efficiency of the      
works4 ,this commission1 while reporting
 favorably1 advised against any further 
advance payments4 ,but ,congress1       
nevertheless1 voted him three-quarters  
of a million more4 ,it is said that this
 is the only instance where the         
government has voted money to an        
individual in advance of the specific   
terms of his agreement4 ,moreover1 his  
contract was re-arranged so as to be    
less oppressive4  ,it has been said that
 if ,eads had failed with the ,jetties  
he would not only have destroyed his    
reputation1 but he would have been a    
beggar1--though1 some one added1 he     
would still have deserved everlasting   
gratitude for his efforts and           
sacrifices4 ,and now he had already     
succeeded in changing the little pass   
into a grand channel of commerce        
sufficient for the largest shipping that
 visited ,new ,orleans4 ,yet the violent

 opposition and the calumnies still     
continued4 ,there was a wonderful       
persistency in the false reports which  
came from bitter opponents who would not
 be convinced4 ,the foolishness and     
ignorance of their arguments are almost 
incredible4 ,but however foolish1 they  
had to be disproved2 and ,eads set      
himself patiently to work to point out  
the errors in logic and in physics2 and 
in doing so he wrote what those who know
 call one of the greatest works on river
 hydraulics4  ,while there were so many 
men's hands against ,eads1 it is        
pleasant to record that there were also 
many for him4 ,it was the ,scientific   
,american which first suggested his name
 for the presidency4 ,it advocated him  
as a fearless1 honest1 and forceful man2
 but the peculiar compliment in it was  
that this was a technical paper that    
upheld him4 ,the proposal was repeated  
in many newspapers1 but ,eads had no    
more intention now than ever of going   
into politics4 ,he knew in what line he 

could do most for his country1 and had  
an ambition rather to be a supremely    
useful engineer than to be president4   
,another of his admirers was the late   
,emperor of ,brazil1 ,dom ,pedro ,,ii41 
who1 after a visit to the ,jetties1     
first tried to persuade ,eads to go to  
,brazil to do some very important work  
for him1 and who then1 failing that1    
sent him a personal letter asking him to
 recommend an engineer4 ,and he engaged 
the one whom ,eads recommended4  ,in    
#ahgi1 a little over four years from the
 time the ,jetties were begun1 the      
,united ,states inspecting officer there
 reported the maximum depth of thirty   
feet and the required width and depths  
throughout the channel4 ,thereupon all  
the remainder of the price agreed was   
paid over to ,eads1 excepting a million 
dollars1 which was kept1 at interest1 as
 a guarantee1 during twenty years'      
actual maintenance of the channel4      
,omitting from the count every day of   
deficient channel1 these twenty years   

are now 7#aijj7 almost over2 the results
 in the channel and in the part of the  
gulf just beyond the ,jetties have been 
precisely and entirely what the         
projector of the works predicted when he
 began them4 ,the bar has never formed  
again4 ,the ,jetties themselves1 so far 
from having to be lengthened1 are       
shorter than they were originally       
designed4 ,in a word1 the sole          
legitimate objection that can be made to
 them is that they do not furnish a     
great enough depth4 ,of course they     
furnish the required depth1 and as great
 a depth undoubtedly as can possibly be 
had in the little ,south ,pass4 ,ships1 
however1 now draw more water than they  
did twenty-five years ago1 and a still  
deeper channel is needed4 ,the best     
proof of the success of the present one 
is that the government is preparing to  
apply the same plan to the big ,south   
,west ,pass1 which ,eads begged to open 
and was not allowed to4 ,it is said that
 in that pass he would have produced    

thirty feet in one year4 ,but nothing is
 more useless to discuss than what might
 have been4 ,what ,eads has accomplished
 with his ,jetties is certain4  ,one    
result of his achievement was a quick   
improvement in prices4 ,every acre1     
mill1 farmhouse in the whole of the     
,mississippi ,valley was increased in   
value by the impetus which the open     
river-mouth gave to commerce4 ,new      
,orleans rose from the eleventh to the  
second export city in the country4      
,consequently there was a great increase
 in the number of lines of ships going  
there1 and in their tonnage4 ,and as a  
result of that there was a rapid        
increase in railway facilities4 ,in     
twenty years from the commencement of   
the ,jetties there was a gain of one    
hundred per cent4 in the total commerce 
of ,new ,orleans1 nearly all of it due  
to these works4 ,this boom has1 despite 
the marvelous multiplication of         
railways1 preserved the river traffic2  
and the river traffic1 as always1 has by

 competition lowered freight rates4 ,the
 effect has spread to remote districts2 
and by this reduction in rates and      
prices there is no doubt that the       
,jetties have made living cheaper on the
 ,atlantic seaboard as well as in the   
,mississippi ,valley4  ,even more3 in   
another way they have made living       
cheaper4 ,the half-rail-and-half-water  
route from the ,pacific coast to ,new   
,york via ,new ,orleans1 which the      
,jetties first made possible1 forced the
 transcontinental railways to cut down  
their time for shipping freight over one
 half4 ,the tonnage by this newer route 
has increased enormously1 and its       
competition has affected commerce by    
reducing all rates from the ,mississippi
 ,valley and the ,west and the ,pacific 
slope to the ,atlantic seaboard and to  
,europe4 ,as a consequence bread has    
been made cheaper to all the great      
populations that require the food       
products of the central zone and the    
,pacific slope4  ,another very different

 but curious change is probably largely 
due to the ,jetties4 ,before their      
construction only very light-draught    
ships could safely reach ,new ,orleans2 
but it was so favorite a cotton port    
that many owners would build vessels of 
unusually light draught1 in order that  
they might make one trip a year to ,new 
,orleans with them1 although the rest of
 the time they sailed to deeper ports4  
,as soon as it became known over the    
shipping world that ,new ,orleans was   
now open to deep-draught vessels1 a     
great many new ones were built4 ,thus   
the ,jetties1 as much as any other      
cause1 brought in the era of great      
ships4  ,it has been calculated from    
statistics1 which it is not necessary to
 give here1 that the annual saving to   
producers of the ,mississippi ,valley   
brought about by the fall of rates1 the 
saving in marine insurance1 and the     
saving in time1 due to the ,jetties1 is 
#e1jjj1jjj2 and it is furthermore       
calculated that the annual money value  

of the ,jetties to the people of the    
country at large is1 by a very          
conservative estimate1 #be1jjj1jjj4     
,even the ,jetties1 however1 were not   
the end of ,eads's efforts toward the   
improvement of the ,mississippi4 ,for   
several years before their completion he
 had been delivering addresses urging   
the application of the same system to   
the entire alluvial basin of the river  
from the gulf to ,cairo4 ,people were in
 despair as to what to do to prevent the
 breaking of the levees 7the results of 
which are as terrible to the dwellers on
 those flats as the avalanche to people 
who live on the sides of steep          
mountains71 and the distress and        
prostration created by the awful spring 
floods4 ,most people thought there were 
two possible remedies1--to build more   
and higher levees1 and to drain off some
 of the volume of the river through the 
,louisiana bayous4 ,but ,eads insisted  
that the requisite move was to reduce   
the excessive width of certain stretches

 of the river with willow mattresses2 by
 uniformity of width to produce         
uniformity of depth1 and consequently   
uniformity of current4 ,this would      
facilitate the discharge of floods1 and 
would tend to lessen the need of any    
levees1 whereas drawing off any of the  
volume of water1 he said1 would increase
 the elevation of its surface slope1 and
 thus necessitate higher levees4  ,his  
arguments on the question are clear and 
forcible2 and it is likely that his     
plan1 if carried out1 would solve the   
important question of the ,mississippi4 
,but enough money to try it thoroughly  
has never been appropriated2 and so     
little effect has patching had1 that at 
this very day there are still advocates 
of the scheme of drawing off some of the
 water1--a scheme which ,eads blasted   
years ago4  ,in #ahgi the ,mississippi  
,river ,commission was created1         
consisting of one civilian and six      
military and civil engineers1 of whom   
,eads was one4 ,but for him the         

government would not have undertaken1 at
 any rate at that time1 its very        
comprehensive system of river           
improvement1 founded primarily on his   
theory4 ,besides giving a regular1      
deepened channel1 and putting an end to 
overflows1 he contended that his system 
would reclaim about #cj1jjj square miles
 of rich alluvial lands subject to      
inundation4 ,for two years he served on 
this commission3 for many years before  
he had been working and fighting for the
 same grand result1--grand though almost
 fruitless4 ,he had no selfish interest 
to subserve in this2 no contract to     
execute2 nothing himself to gain4 ,but  
when1 on returning from a trip to       
,europe1 he found that the work was no  
longer being carried on as he thought it
 should be1 he resigned from the        
commission4 ,deploring the wrong methods
 used1 he still was most deeply         
interested in this great work up to the 
time of his death4 ,if1 some day1 the   
,mississippi is conquered1 it will      

doubtless be through the means he       
pointed out4     ,v  ,,the              
,,ship-,,railway   ,when the ,jetties   
were finished and paid for1 ,eads found 
himself in a very good situation4 ,not  
only was his bold scheme proved to be a 
complete success1 but it had in the end 
paid him well2 and he was promised still
 further payment for maintaining his    
works twenty years longer4 ,his         
reputation was world-wide4 ,he was now  
fifty-nine years old4 ,five years later1
 in #ahhd1 he went to live in ,new      
,york4 ,it is not hard to imagine why so
 busy a man wished to be more in the    
centre of things1 though1 for that      
matter1 he had not for some years past  
spent much of his time at home4 ,there  
was too much to make him travel4        
,besides the frequent voyages which he  
was ordered to take for the sake of his 
health1--and which1 as he was a very bad
 sailor1 he said were real medicine1--he
 was in demand here and there1 in places
 miles apart1 for professional services2

 and then1 too1 he visited many         
engineering works in various remote     
lands1--river improvements1 docks1 the  
,suez ,canal4 ,it was not alone that his
 curiosity was always healthy1 but also 
that his education--the broad1 useful   
education that he gave himself--was     
never ended4  ,we have seen how he      
refused to go to ,brazil4 ,he was also  
wanted at ,jacksonville1 ,florida1 where
 the citizens called him in #ahgh to    
examine the mouth of the ,saint ,john's 
,river1 and to report on the            
practicability of deepening the channel 
through the bar with jetties4 ,he went  
there1 and1 after a personal            
examination1 presented a very elaborate 
report4 ,in #ahhj the governor of       
,california had requested him to act as 
consulting engineer of that ,state1 and 
he accordingly visited the ,sacramento  
,river1 and reported upon the plans for 
the preservation of its channel and the 
arrest of debris from the mines4 ,in    
#ahha he was consulted by the ,canadian 

,minister of ,public ,works on the      
improvement of the harbor of ,toronto1  
which he also examined4 ,this was the   
first instance in which the ,canadian   
government had ever employed an         
,american engineer4 ,when he was in     
,mexico1 the government there asked him 
for reports on the harbors of ,vera     
,cruz and ,tampico and suggestions for  
their improvement4 ,although he did not 
examine these two harbors personally1 he
 drew up plans on surveys furnished by  
engineers whom he sent there2 and the   
work which has since been carried out   
after his instructions has proved       
eminently satisfactory4 ,again1 it was  
the people of ,vicksburg who sent for   
him to tell them how to better their    
harbor2 and at another time he was      
consulted about the ,columbia ,river in 
,oregon and about ,humboldt ,bay4 ,in   
#ahhe the ,brazilian ,emperor made a    
second attempt to secure his services   
for an examination of the ,rio ,grande  
del ,sul1 but ill health and pressing   

business prevented his acceptance of the
 offer2 nor was he able to undertake the
 examination of the harbor of ,oporto   
requested by the ,portuguese government4
 ,it seems superfluous to say that all  
the reports he did make were exhaustive 
and eminently instructive in their      
treatment of the subjects discussed4    
,perhaps the two most important         
professional cases submitted to him were
 those in #ahhd on the estuary and bar  
of the ,mersey ,river and on ,galveston 
,harbor4 ,in the case of the ,mersey he 
was called in1 at the solicitation of   
the ,mersey ,docks and ,harbor ,board of
 ,liverpool1 to settle a dispute4       
,appearing before a committee of the    
,house of ,lords1 he gave his testimony 
as to the effect which the proposed     
terminal works of the ,manchester ship  
canal would have upon the estuary of the
 ,mersey and the bar at ,liverpool4 ,he 
brought to the solution of this question
 that same keen insight into hydraulics 
and the same close application that had 

made him so successful in this country4 
,he showed so plainly what would        
inevitably be the deleterious results of
 the proposed plans that the committee  
decided against them4 ,subsequently they
 were changed to conform to his         
suggestions4 ,for this report he        
received ,l#cejj1 said to have been the 
largest fee ever paid to a consulting   
engineer4  ,in the ,galveston case1 the 
same year1 he was requested1 not only by
 the city but by the state legislature1 
to formulate a plan and to take a       
contract from the ,united ,states       
government for improving that harbor4   
,the government had already been        
carrying on works there for several     
years and accomplishing nothing4        
,indeed1 it was the jetty method--by    
this time more highly thought of than   
ten years before--which was being       
attempted1 but not in proper form4      
,eads1 after long and careful study of  
the situation1 made a plan1 which he    
offered to carry out on conditions very 

similar to those adopted in the case of 
the ,mississippi ,jetties1 but ,congress
 was not willing to grant the contract4 
,since then1 however1 the works there   
have been altered according to his      
suggestions1 and have consequently been 
more successful4  ,for a good many      
years1 owing to the weakness of his     
lungs and to other illness1 ,eads had   
not only had to travel much for his     
health1 but to take special care of     
himself generally2 and yet1 to judge    
from the following account1 in the first
 person1 of how he had spent the year   
#ahhj1 it seems that his wondrous energy
 had not failed3 ,i inspected the ,river
 ,danube about #hjj miles of its course2
 and investigated the cause and extent  
of the frightful inundation at          
,szegedin1 in ,hungary1 which involved  
an examination of #aej miles of the     
,theiss ,river4 ,i also examined the    
,suez ,canal1 to familiarize myself more
 thoroughly with the question of a ship 
canal across the ,american isthmus1     

having previously visited the ,amsterdam
 ship canal and the one at the mouth of 
the ,river ,rhone4 ,as a member of the  
,mississippi ,river ,commission ,i also 
aided in perfecting the plans for the   
improvement of that river1 and the      
preparation of its report now under     
consideration before ,congress4 ,as     
consulting engineer of the ,state of    
,california ,i made a thorough          
inspection of the ,sacramento ,river1 to
 consider the best method of repairing  
the injury to its navigation caused by  
the hydraulic mining operations there1  
and submitted a lengthy report upon it4 
,on my way back ,i visited the wonders  
of the ,yellowstone ,park1 crossing the 
,rocky ,mountains in that excursion six 
different times4 ,within this time ,i   
have thrice visited the ,jetties at the 
mouth of the ,mississippi1 besides my   
visit to the city of ,mexico1           
,tehuantepec1 and ,yucatan4444 ,i have  
also1 at the request of the mayor and   
council of ,vicksburg1 twice visited    

that city during the last year1 to      
examine its harbor with a view to its   
improvement4  ,in #ahhd ,eads received  
perhaps the most distinguished honor of 
his career--the award of the ,albert    
,medal4 ,as it came only two or three   
months after the report on the ,mersey1 
it was undoubtedly due to that as its   
immediate cause1 although the ,jetties  
were almost specifically named as the   
reason for this honor1--and ,eads had   
not by any means lacked even earlier    
appreciation in ,england4 ,three years  
before1 at a meeting of the ,british    
,association1 he had been urged1 nay    
pressed1 to deliver an impromptu address
 on his works1 both completed and       
projected4 ,nevertheless1 it was not    
until after the ,mersey report that the 
,albert ,medal was conferred upon him4  
,this medal1 founded in #ahfb in memory 
of the ,prince ,consort1 is awarded     
annually by the ,society for the        
,encouragement of ,arts1 ,manufactures1 
and ,commerce4 ,it was in ,eads's case  

awarded as a token of their appreciation
 of the services he had rendered to the 
science of engineering1 to the engineer 
whose works have been of such great     
service in improving the water          
communications of ,north ,america1 and  
have thereby rendered valuable aid to   
the commerce of the world4 ,he was the  
second ,american citizen and the first  
native-born ,american to receive this   
medal4  ,of course he belonged to many  
scientific organizations4 ,he was a     
member of the ,engineers ,club of ,saint
 ,louis1 and for two years president of 
the ,academy of ,science there2 he was  
also a member of the ,american          
,geographical ,society1 of the          
,institution of ,civil ,engineers1      
,great ,britain1 and of the ,british    
,association1 and of the ,society for   
the ,encouragement of ,arts1            
,manufactures1 and ,commerce2 a fellow  
of the ,american ,association for the   
,advancement of ,science2 and a member1 
fellow1 and for a year vice-president of

 the ,american ,society of ,civil       
,engineers4  ,he was now a person whose 
return from ,europe1 with plans for     
river improvement1 and news about a     
fresh engineering scheme1 was an item in
 the small as well as the large         
newspapers4 ,for1 since the ,jetties    
were finished1 he had a new scheme1--a  
decidedly new one it seemed to most     
people1--though1 as formerly1 he made no
 pretense of having originated the idea4
 ,instead of resting content1 now that  
he was almost sixty1--rich1 and honored1
 and frail1--instead of resting content 
on his laurels of the gunboats1 the     
,bridge1 the ,jetties1 he was as active 
as ever1 with the hope of opening more  
roads to commerce and prosperity4 ,the  
publication of the proceedings of ,de   
,lesseps's ,interoceanic ,canal         
,congress in #ahgi gave ,eads an        
opportunity to propose1 in a letter to  
the ,new ,york ,tribune1 his own project
 for spanning the isthmus4 ,the         
,tehuantepec route from the ,gulf of    

,mexico to the ,pacific would be1 in the
 general lines of travel1 about #bjjj   
miles shorter than the ,panama route1 or
 #aejj miles shorter than the           
,nicaragua4 ,and it was at ,tehuantepec 
that ,eads proposed building1 not a     
canal1 but a ship-railway4 ,the         
proposition was astounding4 ,it         
certainly suggested very picturesque    
visions of transportation2 but at first 
sight it did not sound very practicable4
 ,however1 ,eads held that it presented 
six great and purely practical          
advantages3 ,first1 it could be built   
for much less than the cost of a canal4 
,secondly1 it could be built in one     
quarter of the time4 ,thirdly1 it could1
 with absolute safety1 transport ships  
more rapidly4 ,fourthly1 its actual cost
 could be more accurately foretold4     
,fifthly1 the expense of maintaining it 
would be less than for a canal4         
,sixthly1 its capacity could be easily  
increased to meet future requirements4  
,in #ahhj he appeared before a committee

 of the ,house1 and in reply to ,de     
,lesseps1 who was advocating the ,panama
 ,canal1 he stated his plan for the     
ship-railway4 ,a few months later he    
went to ,mexico1 where the government   
gave him1 besides a very valuable       
concession for building the             
ship-railway1 its cordial assistance in 
his surveys4 ,it was at this time that  
,mexico requested his aid in improving  
its two harbors1 and when he returned   
home1 sent him in the ,mexican          
man-of-war1 the ,independencia4 ,the    
next year he proposed to ,congress to   
build the ship-railway at his own risk1 
and to give the ,united ,states special 
privileges1 which had been arranged for 
in his ,mexican charter1 provided the   
government would1 as he proved the      
practicability of his plan by actual    
construction and operation1 guarantee   
part of the ship-railway's dividends4   
,although this arrangement would have   
laid as little risk on the government as
 the jetty arrangement had1 it was not  

accepted4  ,strange and even unnatural  
as the idea itself appeared1 it was     
adapted from perfectly simple           
ship-railways already in existence and  
in satisfactory use4 ,science1 he said1 
could do anything1 however tremendous1  
if it had enough money4 ,in the         
magnified form contemplated1 the plan   
provided for a single track of a dozen  
parallel rails1 and a car with #aejj    
wheels4 ,on this car was to be a huge   
cradle into which any ship might be     
floated and carefully propped4 ,the car 
having then been hauled up a very slight
 incline out of the water1 and monster1 
double-headed locomotives hitched to it1
 by gentle grades it and the ship were  
to be drawn across to the other ocean a 
hundred miles away1 where the ship could
 be floated again4 ,to obviate any      
chance of straining the ships1 all      
curves were to be avoided by the use of 
turn-tables4  ,nevertheless1 many people
 believed that such a journey would     
strain a ship so much that it would     

never float afterwards4 ,on the other   
hand1 there is so imposing an array of  
names of distinguished engineers1       
shipbuilders1 and seamen1 who declared  
that the plan was feasible in every     
particular1 that it is hard to think    
they could all have been mistaken in    
thus supporting the leading engineer of 
the day4 ,it may easily be supposed that
 every other imaginable and unimaginable
 objection was raised1 but to one and   
all ,eads gave an answer that sounded   
conclusive4  ,as usual he was willing to
 back up his ideas with money1 and he   
had the most elaborate surveys made1 and
 remarkable models prepared to show the 
working of the ship-railway4 ,he        
preached this new crusade of science    
with his customary vigor4 ,so many men  
were financially interested in the      
project1 or were ready to be1 that it   
would at all events have been tested1   
had not its leading spirit1 the very    
life of it1 died4  ,even though he was  
at the same time engaged in             

investigations so important as those at 
the ,mersey and at ,galveston1 ,eads    
devoted the last six years of his life  
mainly to this daring and tremendous    
enterprise4 ,in #ahhe1 after obtaining  
from the ,mexican government a          
modification of his concession1         
guaranteeing one third of the net       
revenue per annum1 he had a bill        
introduced in ,congress1 whereby1 when  
the ship-railway should be entirely     
finished and in operation1 the ,united  
,states was to guarantee the other two  
thirds4 ,though this bill was favorably 
reported1 ,eads finally decided to      
withdraw it1 and to ask after all for a 
simple charter1 which would doubtless   
have been granted4 ,during those six    
years there was perhaps not another man 
in the country who was so able to       
persuade others of the scientific1      
financial1 commercial soundness of his  
projects4 ,if1 more than any one else1  
he could make a scheme appeal1 it was   
not that it was in any sinister sense a 

scheme1 but because his tact and his    
address were pleasing1 his reputation   
firmly grounded for honesty and         
common-sense as well as for thorough    
scientific knowledge1 so that his       
enthusiasm was contagious4 ,his enemies 
might call him a lobbyist1 but his sole 
means of persuasion were the soundness  
of his views1 the clearness of his      
arguments1 and the fervor of his wish to
 benefit his country4  ,for this        
undertaking1 as for his previous ones1  
,eads invented many devices4 ,all in all
 he held nearly fifty patents from the  
,united ,states and ,england for useful 
inventions in naval warfare1 bridge     
foundations and superstructure1 dredging
 machines1 navigation1 river and harbor 
works1 and ship-railway construction4   
,in ,january1 #ahhg1 when his bill was  
to come up1 he went to ,washington4 ,he 
was in such poor health that he was not 
able to remain there1 but on his        
doctor's advice he went with his wife   
and one daughter to ,nassau4 ,while sick

 there1 he was still at work on         
improvements for his ship-railway4 ,he  
was wont to say to his intimate friends1
 ,i shall not die until ,i accomplish   
this work1 and see with my own eyes     
great ships pass from ocean to ocean    
over the land4 ,but in ,nassau it was   
soon known that he was dying2 and still 
he said1 ,i cannot die2 ,i have not     
finished my work4  ,he died ,march #h1  
#ahhg1 not quite sixty-seven years of   
age4 ,no one has finished his work4     
99      99      99      99      99  ,in 
any career there are three main elements
 of success3 talent1 education1 work4   
,eads's life1 like that of so many other
 self-made men1 seems to show us that   
education is less important than the    
other two4 ,but while it is true that he
 had not the formal education of an     
engineer1 he had a certain very broad   
training gained in experience1 and had  
read hard4 ,education1 after all1 is    
nothing but a summary method of teaching
 the lessons of life2 therefore1 while  

less insistent1 it is often swifter than
 practical experience4 ,and there is no 
doubt that a man like ,eads would be the
 first to deplore a young man's failing 
to appreciate its value4 ,when he       
himself was young1 he never supposed    
that he was a genius2 but if he had     
thought this1 he would have striven to  
be the best-read and the best-equipped  
of geniuses2 believing that though he   
might be mistaken about his talent he   
could make sure of his culture4   ,the  
,riverside ,press  ,electrotyped and    
printed by ,h4 ,o4 ,houghton  ,co44     
,cambridge1 ,mass41 ,u4 ,s4 ,a4