When, however, he told them it was not their sympathy he wanted, but their money to assist him in building a steamboat two hundred feet long, and that he had matured a plan for a railroad, so that they might ride from Nyack to New York in an hour, they became alarmed, put their heads together wisely, and declared the man mad beyond cure.
Here I must leave Chapman waiting to see his way clear.

He came of that old round-head stock which, wanting its way always, ready to meddle with everything, never contented, ready to play the sycophant to gain power, selfish and arrogant in the use of it, is, nevertheless, found giving shape, action, and momentum to all our great enterprises.

Out of all the trouble Chapman had caused Nyack, there had come some good that would be turned to account in the future.

Misfortune had bowed, not broken his spirit.

He was again prepared to invent a new religion, to build a church, to keep a boarding-house, to start a bank or run a steamboat--and all with modern improvements.
The little church bell was still ringing, and the crowd still kept increasing in numbers and cheerfulness.