were brimming in his eyes and his voice faltered as he said: 'Excuse me
sir; but my memory was busy, as I contemplated this, the first pecuniary
reward I have ever received for all my exertions in adapting steam to
navigation. I should gladly commemorate the occasion over a bottle of
wine with you but really I am too poor for that just now; yet, I trust
we may meet again when this will not be the case.'

"Some four years after this," continues the writer of this reminiscence,
"when the Clermont had been greatly improved, and her name changed to
North River, and when two other boats, the Car of Neptune and the
Paragon had been built, making Mr. Fulton's fleet consist of three boats
regularly plying between New York and Albany, I took passage upon one of
these for the latter city. The cabin in that day was below, and as I
walked its deck, to and fro, I saw that I was very closely observed by
one, I supposed a stranger. Soon, however, I recalled the features of
Mr. Fulton; but without disclosing this, I continued my walk. At length,
in passing his seat, our eyes met, when he sprang to his feet and
eagerly seizing my hand, exclaimed, 'I knew it must be you, for your
features have never escaped me; and, although I am still far from rich,
yet I may venture that BOTTLE NOW!' It was ordered, and during its
discussion Mr. Fulton ran rapidly, but vividly, over his experience of
the world's coldness and sneers, and the hopes, fears, disappointments
and difficulties that were scattered through his whole career of
discovery up to the very point of his final crowning triumph, at which
he so fully felt he had at last arrived."

And in reviewing all these matters, he said: "I have again and again
recalled the occasion, and the incident of our first interview at
Albany; and never have I done so without renewing in my mind the vivid
emotion it originally caused. That seemed, and does still seem to me,
the turning point in my destiny, the dividing line between light and
darkness, in my career upon earth, for it was the first actual
recognition of my usefulness to my fellow-men." Why was it that Fulton
won renown. True it was that he possessed unusual genius. We know that
every one cannot be a Fulton, yet how few there are who would have
exercised the stick-to-it-ive-ness that he was obliged to do before
success came. How few would have passed through the trials and withstood
the sneers that Robert Fulton passed through. On the 24th of F