great benefit, should receive the chief measure of the praise
which it has brought to all connected with it.

[Illustration: ROBERT FULTON.]

III.

INVENTORS

CHAPTER XIII.

ROBERT FULTON.

One of the pleasantest as well as one of the most prominent places in
the city of New York is the grave-yard of old Trinity Church. A handsome
iron railing separates it from Broadway, and the thick rows of
grave-stones, all crumbling and stained with age, present a strange
contrast to the bustle, vitality, and splendor with which they are
surrounded. They stare solemnly down into Wall Street, and offer a
bitter commentary upon the struggles and anxiety of the money kings of
the great city. Work, toil, plan, combine as you may, they seem to say,
and yet it must all come to this.

Not far from the south door of the church, and shaded by a venerable
tree, is a plain brown stone slab, bearing this inscription: "The vault
of Walter and Robert C. Livingston, sons of Robert Livingston, of the
manor of Livingston." A stranger would pass it by without a second
glance; yet it is one of the Meccas of the world of science, for the
mortal part of Robert Fulton sleeps in the vault below, without monument
or legendary stone to his memory, but in sight of the mighty steam
fleets which his genius called forth. Very few visitors ever see this
part of the churchyard, and the grave of Fulton is unknown to nine out
of ten of his countrymen. Yet this man, sleeping so obscurely in his
grave without a name, did far more for the world than either Napoleon or
Wellington. He revolutionized commerce and manufactures, changed the
entire system of navigation, triumphed over the winds and the waves, and
compelled the adoption of a new system of modern warfare. Now he lies in
a grave not his own, with no monument or statue erected to his memory in
all this broad land.

ROBERT FULTON was born in the township of Little Britain (now called
Fulton), in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1765. He was of Irish
descent, and his father was a farmer in moderate circumstances. He was
the eldest son and third child of a family of five children. The farm
upon which he was born was conveyed by his father in 1766 to Joseph
Swift, in whose family it still remains. It contains three hundred and
sixty-four acres, and is one of the handsomest farms in Lancaster
County.

After disposing of his farm, Mr. Fulton, senior, removed to the town of
Lancaster, whe