Nevertheless, many people believed that such a journey would strain a ship so much that it would never float afterwards. On the other hand, there is so imposing an array of names of distinguished engineers, shipbuilders, and seamen, who declared that the plan was feasible in every particular, that it is hard to think they could all have been mistaken in thus supporting the leading engineer of the day. It may easily be supposed that every other imaginable and unimaginable objection was raised, but to one and all Eads gave an answer that sounded conclusive.
As usual he was willing to back up his ideas with money, and he had the most elaborate surveys made, and remarkable models prepared to show the working of the ship-railway. He preached this new crusade of science with his customary vigor. So many men were financially interested in the project, or were ready to be, that it would at all events have been tested, had not its leading spirit, the very life of it, died.
Even though he was at the same time engaged in investigations so important as those at the Mersey and at Galveston, Eads devoted the last six years of his life mainly to this daring and tremendous enterprise. In 1885, after obtaining from the Mexican government a modification of his concession, guaranteeing one third of the net revenue per annum, he had a bill introduced in Congress, whereby, when the ship-railway should be entirely finished and in operation, the United States was to guarantee the other two thirds. Though this bill was favorably reported, Eads finally decided to withdraw it, and to ask after all for a simple charter, which would doubtless have been granted. During those six years there was perhaps not another man in the country who was so able to persuade others of the scientific, financial, commercial soundness of his projects. If, more than any one else, he could make a scheme appeal, it was not that it was in any sinister sense a scheme, but because his tact and his address were pleasing, his reputation firmly grounded for honesty and common-sense as well as for thorough scientific knowledge, so that his enthusiasm was contagious. His enemies might call him a lobbyist, but his sole means of persuasion were the soundness of his views, the clearness of his arguments, and the fervor of his wish to benefit his country.
For this undertaking, as for his previous ones, Eads invented many devices. All in all he held nearly fifty patents from the United States and England for useful inventions in naval warfare, bridge foundations and superstructure, dredging machines, navigation, river and harbor works, and ship-railway construction.
In January, 1887, when his bill was to come up, he went to Washington. He was in such poor health that he was not able to remain there, but on his doctor's advice he went with his wife and one daughter to Nassau. While sick there, he was still at work on improvements for his ship-railway. He was wont to say to his intimate friends, "I shall not die until I accomplish this work, and see with my own eyes great ships pass from ocean to ocean over the land." But in Nassau it was soon known that he was dying; and still he said, "I cannot die; I have not finished my work."
He died March 8, 1887, not quite sixty-seven years of age. No one has finished his work.
In any career there are three main elements of success: talent, education, work. Eads's life, like that of so many other self-made men, seems to show us that education is less important than the other two. But while it is true that he had not the formal education of an engineer, he had a certain very broad training gained in experience, and had read hard. Education, after all, is nothing but a summary method of teaching the lessons of life; therefore, while less insistent, it is often swifter than practical experience. And there is no doubt that a man like Eads would be the first to deplore a young man's failing to appreciate its value. When he himself was young, he never supposed that he was a genius; but if he had thought this, he would have striven to be the best-read and the best-equipped of geniuses; believing that though he might be mistaken about his talent he could make sure of his culture.
The Riverside Press
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Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.