Part 21 (1/2)

”Would ten dollars be of any service?” asked the pupil, now seeing that the situation was serious.

”Ten dollars would save my life,” was the reply of the poor man, who had been without food for twenty-four hours. You may be sure that Strothers promptly handed him the money.

But in spite of heavy trials and many discouragements, he had by 1837 finished a machine which he exhibited in New York, although he did not secure a patent until 1840.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Operation of the Modern Railroad is Dependent upon the Telegraph.]

Then followed a tedious effort to induce the government at Was.h.i.+ngton to vote money for his great enterprise. Finally, after much delay, the House of Representatives pa.s.sed a bill ”appropriating thirty thousand dollars for a trial of the telegraph.”

As you may know, a bill cannot become a law unless the Senate also pa.s.ses it. But the Senate did not seem friendly to this one. Many believed that the whole idea of the telegraph was rank folly. They thought of Morse and the telegraph very much as people had thought of Fulton and the steamboat, and made fun of him as a crazy-brained fellow.

Up to the evening of the last day of the session the bill had not been taken up by the Senate. Morse sat anxiously waiting in the Senate Chamber until nearly midnight, when, believing there was no longer any hope, he left the room and went home with a heavy heart.

Imagine his surprise the next morning, when a young woman, Miss Ellsworth, congratulated him at breakfast upon the pa.s.sage of his bill. At first he could scarcely believe the good news, but when he found that she was telling him the truth his joy was unbounded, and he promised her that she should choose the first message.

By the next year (1844) a telegraph-line, extending from Baltimore to Was.h.i.+ngton, was ready for use. On the day appointed for trial Morse met a party of friends in the chambers of the Supreme Court at the Was.h.i.+ngton end of the line and, sitting at the instrument which he had himself placed for trial, the happy inventor sent the message selected by Miss Ellsworth: ”What hath G.o.d wrought!”

The telegraph was a great and brilliant achievement, and brought to its inventor well-earned fame. Now that success had come, honors were showered upon him by many countries. At the suggestion of the French Emperor, representatives from many countries in Europe met in Paris to decide upon some suitable testimonial to Morse as one who had done so much for the world. These delegates voted him a sum amounting to eighty thousand dollars as a token of appreciation for his great invention.

In 1872 this n.o.ble inventor, at the ripe age of eighty-one, breathed his last. The grief of the people all over the land was strong proof of the place he held in the hearts of his countrymen.

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

1. Tell all you can about John Fitch's steamboats.

2. Give examples which indicate young Fulton's inventive gifts. Imagine yourself on the banks of the North River on the day set for the trial of the Clermont, and tell what happened.

3. What and where was the National Road?

4. In what ways was the Erie Ca.n.a.l useful to the people?

5. Describe the first railroads and the first trains.

6. Tell what you can about Morse's twelve toilsome years of struggle while he was working out his great invention. How is the telegraph useful to men?

7. What do you admire about Morse?

8. Are you making frequent use of your map?

CHAPTER XIV

THE REPUBLIC GROWS LARGER

SAM HOUSTON

In a preceding chapter you learned how the great territories of Louisiana and Florida came to belong to America. We are now to learn of still other additions, namely, the great regions of Texas and California.