III
WORK IN CIVIL ENGINEERING AND STUDY IN EUROPE
THE trouble with my throat described on page 40, really changed the whole plan of my life, as I had then marked it out. I had formed the purpose of studying for the ministry. Some of my most intimate college friends were already pursuing theological studies in the Andover Theological Seminary, where I used to visit them. I had formed the acquaintance of the eminent Professors, Park, Edwards, and Phelps. I had even gone so far as to engage my room for the autumn. But the trouble with my throat continued for weeks so obstinate that I deemed it wise to consult a noted Boston specialist on diseases of the throat. He informed me that I must not indulge in the hope of being able to pursue any profession in which I should have to speak in public. He said it would not be prudent for me even to attempt to teach. He advised me to choose some outdoor employment. This announcement was a bitter disappointment. It seemed for a time that every door to a career in which I had any interest was shut in my face.
I asked myself what out-of-door employment is there in which I can profit by the education I have had. I decided that civil engineering gave the best promise of fulfilling that condition. Fortunately some of my friends knew Mr. E. S. Chesboro, a former resident of Providence, and then City Engineer of Boston. In answer to their inquiries he expressed a willingness to take me into his office. I reported to him for duty in August, 1851. The work on the Cochituate water supply in Boston was not then completed, and I was employed mainly on that. In those days few men in the engineering offices had received a technical or even a mathematical education in the schools. They had usually worked their way up from the position of rodman, and they accomplished what they did by rule-of-thumb work or by the mechanical use of formulae the rationale or origin of which they did not know. It proved that I was the only one in the office from the chief down who had studied the Calculus, and as a real knowledge of some of the formulae for water problems involved that study, I presently found them turned over to me. As one recalls how slender were the opportunities in those days for training in engineering studies and observes the large number of excellent engineering schools in our country, one may say that in no branch of education has there been more rapid and helpful development than in that of engineering in all its applications.
The Grand Trunk road from Montreal to Boston was opened while I was in the office. I assisted in making an immense map, which was stretched in the tent on the Common when the celebration of this event was held. Lord Elgin, the Governor-general of Canada, and President Fillmore were present. I remember that as Mr. Fillmore was said to be unaccustomed to riding, I saw two negroes holding his horse carefully by the bits as the animal slowly walked in the procession. We all agreed that he was a very handsome man, but not much of a cavalier.
At one time complaint was made of the impurity of the Cochituate water in Boston. Mr. Chesboro invited me to walk with him through about two miles of the conduit, from which the water had been partially drawn off, somewhere west of Cambridge. And there on this subterranean excursion I made the acquaintance of Professor Horsford of Harvard, whose friendship I afterwards enjoyed through his life. The walking on the bottom of an egg-shaped conduit in which about a foot of water had been left was not altogether easy or agreeable. It was decided that some vegetable deposit had found its way into the water.
One day near the end of November, Mr. Chesboro assigned to me the task of making a survey and a map of Boston Common, showing every path and every tree on it. This was to be made at the request of some dweller on Beacon Street, who for many years had daily walked around the Common. I began in the corner just in front of the State House. While I was at work I received a letter from my friend Hazard saying that he was still having trouble with his lungs and that his father had decided to send him to Southern Europe for the winter and wished me to accompany him. He begged me to come to his home immediately and confer with him. I did so, and it was decided that we should sail at once. I went back to Boston, and took my leave of Mr. Chesboro, to whose kindness I was greatly indebted. So ended my work in engineering. After a brief visit to my parents, I joined Mr. Hazard and we sailed from New York for Havre on the steamship Arago, Captain Lines, on December 13.