His arguments on the question are clear and forcible; and it is likely that his plan, if carried out, would solve the important question of the Mississippi. But enough money to try it thoroughly has never been appropriated; and so little effect has patching had, that at this very day there are still advocates of the scheme of drawing off some of the water,--a scheme which Eads blasted years ago. In 1879 the Mississippi River Commission was created, consisting of one civilian and six military and civil engineers, of whom Eads was one. But for him the government would not have undertaken, at any rate at that time, its very comprehensive system of river improvement, founded primarily on his theory. Besides giving a regular, deepened channel, and putting an end to overflows, he contended that his system would reclaim about 30,000 square miles of rich alluvial lands subject to inundation. For two years he served on this commission: for many years before he had been working and fighting for the same grand result,--grand though almost fruitless. "He had no selfish interest to subserve" in this; "no contract to execute; nothing himself to gain." But when, on returning from a trip to Europe, he found that the work was no longer being carried on as he thought it should be, he resigned from the commission. Deploring the wrong methods used, he still was most deeply interested in this great work up to the time of his death. If, some day, the Mississippi is conquered, it will doubtless be through the means he pointed out. V THE SHIP-RAILWAY When the Jetties were finished and paid for, Eads found himself in a very good situation. Not only was his bold scheme proved to be a complete success, but it had in the end paid him well; and he was promised still further payment for maintaining his works twenty years longer. His reputation was world-wide. He was now fifty-nine years old. Five years later, in 1884, he went to live in New York. It is not hard to imagine why so busy a man wished to be more in the centre of things, though, for that matter, he had not for some years past spent much of his time at home. There was too much to make him travel. Besides the frequent voyages which he was ordered to take for the sake of his health,--and which, as he was a very bad sailor, he said were real medicine,--he was in demand here and there, in places miles apart, for professional services; and then, too, he visited many engineering works in various remote lands,--river improvements, docks, the Suez Canal. It was not alone that his curiosity was always healthy, but also that his education--the broad, useful education that he gave himself--was never ended.