. Wit bought, or, A New York boy's adventures when the empire state was young . his enemies, leav-ing behind him thousands of hearts to mournhis untimely fate. The day after we passed West Point wesaw something coming up the river, paddlingthrough the water, and smoking away at agreat rate. Mat said it must be a Dutchman,and a cousin to our Captain Volcano ; but wewere soon told that it was a steamboat! I hadheard of such a thing, but had never seenone. There had been a good deal said in thenewspapers about one Robert Fulton, whowas trying to make vessels go by fire andwater, instead of wind.
. Wit bought, or, A New York boy's adventures when the empire state was young . his enemies, leav-ing behind him thousands of hearts to mournhis untimely fate. The day after we passed West Point wesaw something coming up the river, paddlingthrough the water, and smoking away at agreat rate. Mat said it must be a Dutchman,and a cousin to our Captain Volcano ; but wewere soon told that it was a steamboat! I hadheard of such a thing, but had never seenone. There had been a good deal said in thenewspapers about one Robert Fulton, whowas trying to make vessels go by fire andwater, instead of wind. Most people thoughtFulton either crazy or a fool, to attempt sohopeless a task. But Fulton was a great man, whose mindwas set upon a great object. So, letting theworld make itself merry at his expense, hewent calmly and patiently on. If he met ROBERT FULTON. 115 with a difficulty he laboured till he overcameit; sneers, scoffs, gibes, could not turn himfrom his purpose. He persevered, and atlast he triumphed. The engine began to turnthe crank, the wheels went round, the pad-. dles took hold of the wave, the boat movedforward, and steam navigation was accom-plished. This was perhaps the greatest invention ofmodern times. I am speaking of what hap- 116 WIT BOUGHT. pened in 1808. The journey of a week is atpresent but the trip of a day—a voyage of twomonths is but the passage of a fortnight. Itused to be often a fortnights work to get avessel from New York to Albany; now asteamboat with five hundred passengers willaccomplish it in twelve hours ! The little steamboat approached us in my life haVe I felt a deeper excite-ment than at that moment! All the peopleon board our sloop were leaning over theside, straining their eyes to watch this won-der of the water. On she came, cutting thecurrent and seeming like a thing of life,moving by her own power. I have seenother steamboats since ; those that were tentimes as large; but never one that touchedmy imagination like that
Size: 1765px × 1416px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidwitboughtorn, bookyear1887
