found the Iroquois form of the tradition, derived from the verbal narrations. of an Onondaga chief. Into this tradition I have woven other curious Indian legends, drawn chiefly from the various and valuable writings of Mr. Schoolcraft, to whom the literary world is greatly indebted for his indefatigable zeal in rescuing from oblivion so much of the legendary lore of the Indians. The scene of the poem is among the Ojibways, on the southern shore of Lake Superior, in the region between the Pictured Rocks and the Grand Sable."

The publication of this poem led Mr. Schoolcraft a year later to give to the world "The Myth of Hiawatha and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American Indians," which he dedicated to Mr. Longfellow. The poem soon became so popular that "Hiawatha," and "Minnehaha," or "Laughing Water," soon became household words. The name of the latter is now borne by many ships, and has been bestowed upon several beautiful waterfalls upon the American continent.

HIAWATHA AND THE KALEVALA.

No man who is before the public, however great or good, can hope to escape criticism, and this great poem brought more criticism on the head of Mr. Longfellow than anything else that he had written.

Soon after it appeared a writer pointed out that the meter and general form of the poem was the same as the Kalevala, the great epic poem of Finland. The poet never made any reply to these charges, and indeed there was no need to do so, for while the Finnish poem may have suggested the idea of writing Hiawatha, there is no resemblance in the subjects of which the poems treat.

Another characteristic American poem of Longfellow's is the "Courtship of Miles Standish," a narrative which contains a splendid picture of the old Puritan days when the people went to church with a rifle in one hand and a prayer-book in the other.

There is an incident worth repeating that is called to mind by Longfel low's poem beginning, "I stood on the bridge at midnight." The bridge. that the poet refers to spans the Charles river between Cambridge and Boston. Longfellow took many walks across this bridge, which became historic in connection with a crime as well as through the poem. One of the professors at Harvard killed a fellow professor for his money. The crime was committed with a knife. It was upon this bridge that the murderer stood and threw the bloody weapon into the Charles river.

The cheerfulness and beauty of Longfellow's life were saddened by two great bereavements. His first wife, Mary Storer Potter, had a great influence upon his early career. Some years after her death he married Frances Elizabeth Appleton, the young woman he had met in Switzerland, and who became the heroine of one of his romances, under the name of Mary Ashburton. She, too, died all too early.

APPEALS TO CHILDREN.

Longfellow's fame grows as the years go by. He was a man that was fond of children, and children who read his poems or hear them read seem to have an instinctive knowledge of this fact. His poetry appeals to them. They seem to understand it, with a sympathetic understanding, and it is for this reason as well as for its intrinsic literary value that it finds such a prominent place in the readers used in the public schools.

Although Longfellow was a scholarly man and gave his writings a polish that made them admired by other scholars, yet, at the same time, they appeal to the simplest understanding, and hence the writer has won popularity as well as a reputation for learning, and for skill in expression. He is the people's poet as well as the singer of the more cultured.

Probably the poet who comes nearest to being Longfellow's rival in the affections of the people is the good old Quaker poet Whittier. The Quaker poet, strange to say, had more humor than Longfellow, and sometimes he had more fire, as, for instance, in his poems on slavery. There is where Whittier shone like a blazing light to guide the feet of the people in the right path, but in depth and beauty of thought the world has given Longfellow a place ahead of all American poets.

At the time of his death, March 24, 1882, he had reached the full measure of his fame. It is said of him: "In the pure, amiable, homelike qualities that reach the heart and captivate the ear no person can place Longfellow's second. He taught the whole people, he chastened all minds, lifting even the blacksmith at the forge, the woodman on the frontier, as well as the student in his laboratory. His volumes became a university for the poor and ignorant—and they remain."

ROBERT FULTON.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

EXCITING TRIAL TRIP OF THE FIRST STEAMBOAT-HOW FULTON GOT HIS IDEA FOR STEAM NAVIGATION WHILE FISHING-INVENTOR OF THE TOR

PEDO AND THE MONITOR.

"S

HE MOVES! She moves!" cried thousands of voices in chorus as a queer-looking craft left its moorings in the Hudson River, belching volumes of black smoke from a tall stack, while the paddle wheels dashed the white spray high in the air. The immense crowd that thus gave vent to its feelings had gathered to witness the trial trip of the first steamboat. Very few, if any, in that assemblage believed that a boat could be propelled through the water by machinery operated by steam. They had come to scoff and laugh at what seemed to them a certain failure.

But when the "Clermont," for such was the name of the boat, moved out from her pier into the channel of the broad, beautiful Hudson and against wind and stream began her first journey from New York to Albany the enthusiasm of the spectators could no longer be restrained, and cheer after cheer greeted the ears of the inventor, Robert Fulton, as he stood beside his patron and father-in-law, the great Chancellor Livingston, directing the movements of the boat.

Suddenly the vessel stopped in mid-stream, and a silence fell upon the watching multitude. Again the spectators became incredulous, and many unhesitatingly declared that the Clermont was a failure, and that she was unable to proceed further. Again there were scoffing and laughter and jeering remarks, which were suddenly brought to an end as the Clermont resumed the journey up stream at a faster rate of speed than she had at first traveled.

Fulton had discovered that the paddles of his wheels were too long and took too deep a hold on the water. He had stopped the boat to shorten

them, and started ahead again at increased speed. The first actual test of speed by this new method of navigation was made on the return trip from Albany, which the Clermont completed in thirty hours, or at the rate of five miles per hour.

Robert Fulton's fame was secure; steam navigation had undergone a practical test, and the result was a success. The theory upon which the inventor had spent years of study had at last been given a practical application-and in the practical and useful lie the greatest measures of success.

Except to the close observer of character there was little in the early career of Robert Fulton to indicate that he would become a distinguished inventor and win everlasting fame. His father was a farmer in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and, like most of the farmers of that period, was poor. Robert was not even a "bright boy," in the general acceptation of that term. On the contrary, he was a very dull scholar at school, and seldom knew his lesson. His great ambition as a boy-indeed it seemed the greatest ambition of his after life—was to be an artist. His studies were often neglected while he drew pictures on his slate.

FIRST IDEA FOR A STEAMBOAT.

When he was not making pictures he was studying and examining machinery, or else was indulging in his favorite recreation-fishing. These fishing excursions of which he was so fond were made in an old flatboat which the boys pushed up and down the river with a pole. It was on one of these excursions that Fulton first got the idea for the practical application of steam to navigation.

It was no easy task to push that old flatboat up and down the river with a pole. It made Robert's arms tired and his back ache, so his active mind began to seek some less laborious method of propelling the boat. He finally made two paddle wheels, which he attached to cranks and hung over the sides of the boat. By turning the crank the paddles were made to revolve, and thus pushed the boat along. The success of this experiment caused Fulton to speculate upon how larger boats could be propelled through the water by larger wheels and by a stronger motive power than the arms of willing boys.

But the old ambition to be a great painter had not left him, and instead of setting to work immediately to give his idea practical form he determined to be a great artist.

The great American painter, Benjamin West, was then in London, and

his pictures had made him famous in both hemispheres. Fulton wished to study art under West. He had already painted and sold a number of pictures and had made some money through the manufacture of lead pencils and toys. In fact, he had earned enough to buy his mother a little farm, on which she was self-supporting (the elder Fulton having died), and Robert went first to Philadelphia to study art. There he formed the acquaintance and won the friendship of Benjamin Franklin, and at the age of twentyone he sailed for England to complete his art studies under the painter, West. He succeeded very well as an artist, and might have continued in that profession had he not met James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine. He became intensely interested in Watt's new invention, and abandoned his art studies to become an engineer.

In his new profession his plans for a steamboat were revived. From London he went to Paris as the guest of Mr. Joel Barlow, then the American Minister to France (1797). In Paris Fulton added much to his fund of learning, acquired a knowledge of the French language, and made a number of minor inventions.

WRECK OF THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.

When Mr. Barlow was succeeded by Robert R. Livingston (generally called Chancellor Livingston) Fulton's plans for a steamboat began to take definite and practical shape. A strong friendship sprang up between the diplomat and the inventor, which culminated in the marriage of Livingston's daughter, Harriet, to Fulton. Livingston became deeply interested in Fulton's plans, and together they built a steamboat, which was to be tried on the River Seine. This boat was equipped with paddle wheels, and was ready for the test early in 1803. But the trial trip never was made. On the morning of the day set for the test Fulton was roused out of bed by one of his employes, who informed him that the boat had broken in half, directly in the middle, by reason of the heavy machinery, and had sunk to the bottom of the river.

Fulton succeeded in raising the boat and saving the machinery. He rebuilt the vessel, and in August of the same year made a trial trip on the river, which was witnessed by members of the French National Institute. The trip was not a glowing success, but it was sufficiently successful to prove that the scheme was not impracticable. It was at least an improvement on all experiments that had preceded it.

More enthusiastic than ever concerning the final result of their plan,