The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-12-27

travel in stages moved by steam at fifteer
to twenty miles an hour. A carriage will
leave washington in the morning. break
fast In Baltimore, dine in Philadelphia
RAILWAYS will be laid on iron or wood
or on smooth paths of brossh 3. ma III
gravel. to travel as well by night as by
day. Posterity will not be able to discover
give the inventor such projection aS
might have enabled him to put these great
improvements in operation sooner. he hay.
ing asked neither money nor monopoly
of any existing thing
Evans was right. Posterity has not beer
able to discover the why or wherefore
larger hundred years hence. The way OF
the inventor Is up hill all the time past
present and future.
Evans was dead and buried nearly a
down from New York City with an en-
CINE he had built at his glue factory, and
proved to the managers of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad that an engine could
successfully run over the crooked thir-
teen miles of their track. And he had
been under ground n quarter of century
before his dream of n road between New
York and Philadelphia, came true.
GRANTED RIGHT OF WAY.
In 1855 the Legislature of MARYLAND
granted him the right of way over roads
in that State for his horselcss wagon,
but it was not until 1904 that the actual
horseless wagon was demonstrated. In
that year the Philadelphia Board of
Health wanted the water cleaned about
me docks. and Evans was given a COM
pose. He put his ideas into iron and
turned out his "Orakter Amphibolos," or
Digger, horseless carriage on the
ROAD and sailless vessel on the water.
He had become SO poor that his wife
was compelled to spin tow cloth and sell
1t for the family sustenance, and now,
when his wagon was made, it was too
heaVy, and to reconstruct Ii the work.
men offered their services free to help
MIN out. AT last the wagon. the first ati-
tomopile In America, was completed, and
i Iva, was put on exhibition at Central
stands. Here 1t vas run around the square
daiiy and the pukIic was invited to pay a
smiling n head to look at 1t. one-haif the
half to the inventor, not for his s1,nnor gf
ments.
After the Digger" had proved that 1t
We. run down to the Schuylkili. where n
wheel was rugged at It's stern. and IL
LOOK to the water. going down to the
D,eiaWare River and to its destination.
sixteen miles, passing all sailing yesseis
on the way. SseiS
The Digger answered the purposa fo-
which IT was built, but 1t did not omen the
pS;SSIKetpooks Of the capitalists, and Evans
,Spectacled and gray at 10. he was wrin-
veg and old row, but the spirit was strong
within him. and he kept on.
by some means he secured a shop. where
ne did er CINE repairing, when he was not
ousy with his dreams. and he made n
'Scmfortsble living for his family. But
ms vas too good luck. and on April II.
destroying all his papers and hts patterns.
t was fatal stroke to this man of sor-
,ows, but he met It btavely, and went at
gs * em f h9nse f secure means for
There the reaction came and the New |
FORK Commercial Advertiser of April 1s. |
sg contained. under the head Of |
'bGaths. this notice.:
Yesterday, at the house of Elijah
Grf. Oliver Evans, Esu, of PhiladeI-
mia, in the siytv-fourth year Of his age |
.tn =. + this afternoon at 4 O'Clock. from
70 % Bo*ery."
INVENTOR FoRaorTEN NOW.
That was The end. The body was buried
t the old Zion bnrying ground, whence
nany years later It was removed to Cy-
grave
Oliver Evans is forgotten. but his works
We after him. and the autcmobilists OF /
.meriea should find h S resting-piace and T
rect over Ii monument worthy of the
nan.
visited the little town of Newport in
aea Of the facts concerning its greatest
roduct. 1t is plain country place on
he banks of he Delaware. and, although
early 20 years old, 1t has accumulated a
opulaticn of only 500 people. albeit one
lay truthfully say of tho town that II it
ad fulfilled the promise OF its youth 1t
ould have been the Wilmington of Della
-ure.
In the. earlier days 1t was great ship
rg and receiving point. and vessels from
very. part of the world lay at its docks.
irryfng all kinds of merchandise. not the ,
ast OF which were cargoes of slaves
His old home was there. changed now
ito quite modern cottage in pleasant
rect. and occupied by John r. w. XIII.
IRE. whose father. Joseph. bought the |
ace seventy years ago.