University of Virginia Library

23. CHAPTER XXIII.

PHILIP and Harry reached New York in very different
states of mind. Harry was buoyant. He found a letter
from Col. Sellers urging him to go to Washington and confer
with Senator Dilworthy. The petition was in his hands.
It had been signed by everybody of any importance in Missouri,
and would be presented immediately.

“I should go on myself,” wrote the Colonel, “but I am
engaged in the invention of a process for lighting such a city
as St. Louis by means of water; just attach my machine to
the water-pipes anywhere and the decomposition of the fluid
begins, and you will have floods of light for the mere cost of
the machine. I've nearly got the lighting part, but I want
to attach to it a heating, cooking, washing and ironing apparatus.
It's going to be the great thing, but we'd better keep
this appropriation going while I am perfecting it.”

Harry took letters to several congressmen from his uncle
and from Mr. Duff Brown, each of whom had an extensive
acquaintance in both houses where they were well known as
men engaged in large private operations for the public good,

and men, besides, who, in the slang of the day, understood
the virtues of “addition, division and silence.”

Senator Dilworthy introduced the petition into the Senate
with the remark that he knew, personally, the signers of it,
that they were men interested, it was true, in the improvement
of the country, but he believed without any selfish
motive, and that so far as he knew the signers were loyal.
It pleased him to see upon the roll the names of many colored
citizens, and it must rejoice every friend of humanity
to know that this lately emancipated race were intelligently
taking part in the development of the resources of their
native land. He moved the reference of the petition to the
proper committee.

Senator Dilworthy introduced his young friend to influential
members, as a person who was very well informed about
the Salt Lick Extension of the Pacific, and was one of the
Engineers who had made a careful survey of Columbus River;
plans and to show the connection between the public treasury,
the city of Napoleon and legislation for the benefit of
the whole country.

[ILLUSTRATION]

PHILIP STUDYING.

[Description: 499EAF. Page 215. In-line image of a man standing and using a compass to draw a circle.]

Harry was the guest of Senator Dilworthy. There was
scarcely any good movement in which the Senator was not
interested. His house was open to all the laborers in the
field of total abstinence, and much of his time was taken up
in attending the meetings of this cause. He had a Bible class
in the Sunday school of the church which he attended, and
he suggested to Harry that he might take a class during the
time he remained in Washington; Mr. Washington Hawkins
had a class. Harry asked the Senator if there was a class
of young ladies for him to teach, and after that the Senator
did not press the subject.

Philip, if the truth must be told, was not well satisfied
with his western prospects, nor altogether with the people he
had fallen in with. The railroad contractors held out large
but rather indefinite promises. Opportunities for a fortune
he did not doubt existed in Missouri, but for himself he saw
no better means for livelihood than the mastery of the profession
he had rather thoughtlessly entered upon. During the
summer he had made considerable practical advance in the

science of engineering; he had been diligent, and made himself
to a certain extent necessary to the work he was engaged on.
The contractors called him into their consultations frequently,
as to the character of the country he had been over, and the
cost of constructing the road, the nature of the work, etc.

Still Philip felt that if he was going to make either reputation
or money as an engineer, he had a great deal of hard
study before him, and it is to his credit that he did not shrink
from it. While Harry was in Washington dancing attendance
upon the national legislature and making the acquaintance of
the vast lobby that encircled it, Philip devoted himself day
and night, with an energy and a concentration he was capable
of, to the learning and theory of his profession, and to the
science of railroad building. He wrote some papers at this
time for the “Plow, the Loom and the Anvil,” upon the
strength of materials, and especially upon bridge-building,
which attracted considerable attention, and were copied into
the English “Practical Magazine.” They served at any rate
to raise Philip in the opinion of his friends the contractors,
for practical men have a certain superstitious estimation of
ability with the pen, and though they may a little despise the
talent, they are quite ready to make use of it.

Philip sent copies of his performances to Ruth's father and
to other gentlemen whose good opinion he coveted, but he
did not rest upon his laurels. Indeed, so diligently had he
applied himself, that when it came time for him to return
to the West, he felt himself, at least in theory, competent to
take charge of a division in the field.