o, he
was in those war times. Besides inventing his own, he was also busy
examining Ericsson's inventions, in making improvements on them, in
applying steam in novel ways to the working of artillery and to the
rotating and raising of turrets; in sending models of his inventions
here and there, at home and abroad, to Germany, where the Prussian
minister, a friend with whom he often dined, "wished they could get
some of his boats on the Rhine;" having his turrets explained at a
Russian dinner in New York or Washington; and receiving from the Navy
Department an appointment as special agent to visit the navy yards in
Europe. At home he was just as busy. With his house so full of company,
he nevertheless found time somewhere for solid reading apart from his
work--the Attorney-General sent him Cicero's letters, and he lent the
Attorney-General King Alfred's works. There is a curious interest in
knowing what two men so engrossed, and upon such necessary duties, were
reading at such a time. While he was building the second batch of
gunboats, 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-building; that there and in other places he had as many as seventy
blacksmith fires at work for him, and that his men were all sheltered
from sun and rain. After those boats were finished, he went on planning
others, and we have a letter from Farragut in which the admiral asks if
some of them are not for his use at Mobile.

Eads, by this period in his strenuous life, knew a great many men, all
of whom he treated with a uniform dignity and courtesy, even when they
were unfriendly, and a few of whom he was on the most intimate terms
with. Among all of them he was admired; perhaps already he was as
prominent a citizen as there was in Saint Louis, and as it was still in
the good old times when the mayoralty there was a high honor to the
best men, it was suggested to him that he hold the office. Nor was this
the first honor offered to be thrust upon him; early in the war Bates
had wanted him appointed commissary of subsistence at Saint Louis, and
though it was unusual to appoint a civilian to that position, Lincoln
had been willing to do it to oblige Bates,--but Eads had not wished it.
More than a year later he was given a commission of lieutenant-colonel
by the governor, but he was never sworn in. Like all men in those
troublous times, he took a peculiar interest in