it for their efforts to benefit humanity, but
history is silent in regard to William Longstreet. In one book about
Georgia the remark is made that "James Longstreet is said to have
invented the steamboat in 1793," but in this instance neither the name
nor the date is correct.

In old St. Paul's churchyard in Augusta there is a tombstone which
bears the inscription, "Sacred to the memory of William Longstreet, who
departed this life September 1, 1814, aged 54 years, 10 months, and
26 days." Below this runs the pleasant legend, "All the days of the
afflicted are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual
feast." We are thus left to infer that William Longstreet was a man of a
merry heart; and that fact is certified to by the cleverness with which
his son, the author of "Georgia Scenes," has preserved for us some of
the quaint characters that lived and moved and had their being on the
borders of Georgia society directly after the Revolution.

[Illustration: William Longstreet and his Steamboat 172]

Being an inventor, a man of ingenious ideas, and somewhat ambitious of
serving the public in that way, William Long-street certainly had need
of a merry heart; for, as he himself says, the way of the projector
is hard. The term itself is used in Georgia to this day to express a
certain sort of good-natured contempt. Go into the country places and
ask after some acquaintance who has not prospered in a worldly way, and
the answer will be, "Oh, he's just a prodjikin around."

It is certain that William Longstreet knew that steam could be used as
a motive power long before it was so applied; and because he employed
a good deal of his time in trying to discover the principle, he was
ridiculed by his neighbors and friends, and the more thoughtless among
them didn't know whether he was a crank, a half-wit, or a "luny." From
all accounts, he was a modest, shy, retiring man, though a merry one. He
had but little money to devote to the experiments he wished to make, and
in this was not different from the great majority of inventors.

For a long time Longstreet's zeal and enthusiasm attracted the attention
of a few of his wealthy friends, and these furnished him such money as
he wanted; but no very long time was needed to convince those who
were spending their money that the idea of propelling a boat by steam,
instead of by sails or oars, was ridiculous. Longstreet made many
experiments, but he had not hit upon the method