kansas, and the
Ohio,--and to keep their channels open for a term of years. A bill to
that purpose passed the House, but in the Senate it was defeated by
Jefferson Davis and others. The next year, on account of poor health,
Eads retired from business, but he carried with him a fortune. He had
not succeeded in his purpose at Washington, but his name was known
there and remembered.

Meanwhile his wife had died, and two years later he had married the
widow of a first cousin. With his second wife he made his first trip to
Europe,--the first of very many he was destined to make. In 1857, being
thirty-seven years old, he retired, as I have said, from business.

His youthful hopes, the ordinary ambitions of men, were realized. He
had been a poor boy: at only thirty-seven he was rich,--very rich for
the times and for the place. From his proposals to the government, we
may imagine that he now had broader dreams of usefulness. But his first
proposition toward river improvement had been checked. He had bought a
large house and grounds. He made for himself a rose-arbor, and for four
years he was as much unoccupied as his lively mind permitted. He was at
any rate what is called a man of leisure.

Then, four years being passed, he received from Washington, from his
friend Attorney-General Bates, a letter written three days after the
surrender of Fort Sumter, which said: "Be not surprised if you are
called here suddenly by telegram. If called, come instantly. In a
certain contingency it will be necessary to have the aid of the most
thorough knowledge of our Western rivers, and the use of steam on them,
and in that event I advised that you should be consulted."

The government was thinking of placing gunboats to occupy and to defend
the Western waters.

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 condition. A border slave State,
Missouri contained a great many persons of Southern birth and Southern
sympathies; and besides a good many strong Northern men, Saint Louis
had also a considerable German population, all stanch Unionists. But
excepting the Germans and one or two dauntless clear-seeing men, who
read the future, few persons in either party wished to fight if
fighting could possibly be avoided. The governor, a Southern man, while
hesitating at actual secession, wished and tried to control the power
of the State so that at need it mig