The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-01-01
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On Il colo morning in the year 1893
little family Of iour-a mother, two
daughters, and boy Of thirteen
stood shivcring and homeless upon
one Of the wharvcs Of Saint Louis.
They had come from Louisville, and
the boat upon which they had arrived
had caught fire just as she got into
port, with the result that all their
mcager baggage had been destroyed,
and they had been hurried ashore only
half-clothed. AS they stood there, a
forlorn, pcnniess group in strange
city, it would have seemed a bold
prophecy to make, that the little lad
was to be the most prominent man in
that city in years to come, and that at
the very spot where he now stood
should rise one Of the piers Of the great
bridge that was to be his memorial to
many generations. Yet so it was;
for the. boy was James B. Eads, to be a
famous engineer.
He showed his mcttlc, little fellow
as he was land understood at that by
setting to work valiantly to help pro-
vide for the family His father, who
had sent them ahead from Louisville
while he wound up his affairs there,
and was to follow and open a shop,
did not come for some time. \ letter,
in those days, was often week going
couple Of hundred miles, SO the news
Of the family catastrophe could not
reach the elder Eads for some time.
Mrs. Eads was woman of resource;
charitable people came to her help,
and she rented small house and took
boarders. while James peddled apples
about the streets until his father ar
rived. One does not wonder that one
of the boarders, Mr.. Williams, was
80 pleased with the lads pluck that
after this crises in the family fortunes
was happily passed, he offered James
position IN his. mercantile house, and
gave him the use Of his library.
For five years t.ads worked thus as
clerk BY day, and studied scientific
books at night Without Il teacher,
lie thus educated himself, gaining Il
theoretical knowledge pf engineering,
and putting 1t ii. practice in Il boyish
way Of building, in his odd nlinttes,
real steamboat, .x feet long, anl
navigating IL successfully OH Chou
tcaus Pond. liu, his health, never
strong, broke down At nineteen, and
he was forced to look for some posi-
tion where he could live in the open
air.
Now the mighty Mississippi had
always possessed peculiar fascna-
tion for this boy. Its currents, it's
vagarics, its wrecks, its floods, we're
intensely interesting to him. For
this reason, the position Of clerk upon
river steamer, which he now took,
was thor oughly to his taste. He
studied the mighty stream rs he had
studied his books, and to as good pur-
pose. ITO understand his life," says
his grandson, who has lately written
his biography, Zone must have some
idea of the huge river, which seems to
flow sluggishly or rapidly through his
whole career; fc: if ever nature played
prominent part in the life of man,
the Mississippi did in that of Eads."
Three years on the river steamboats,
taught the young clerk the oaprices
and dangers of the Father of Waters"
from end to end Of its navigable
course. The swift chocolate colored
current, washing off clay in every
bend and depositing it on every point
of the land; the tortuous channels,
changing every month; the bars for
ever forming suddenly and shifting
mysteriously; the terrific foods of
spring and ice gorgcs Of winter r-all these
Eads observed and pondered over, till
where others thought the rivers ap-
parent freaks this result of chance, he
came to know them as controlled by
laws as immutable as the Creator"
The disasters on the Mississippi in
those days were frequent, and every
week boats were wrecked and left
hopelessly, engines, boilers, cargoes
and all, to go to pieces on the bars,
swept by the ceaseless brown current.
Eads determined to leave his clerk
ship and turn his knowledge of the
river to practical account in raising
fLoso xpraoto TIE ;osurn,,o oo~