"Soon after we commenced together to take portraits, causing a glass building to be constructed for that purpose on the roof of the University. As our experiments had caused us considerable expense, we made a charge to those who sat for us to defray this expense. Professor Draper's other duties calling him away from the experiments, except as to their bearing on some philosophical investigations which he pursued with great ingenuity and success, I was left to pursue the artistic results of the process, as more in accordance with my profession. My expenses had been great, and for some time, five or six months, I pursued the taking of portraits by the Daguerreotype as a means of reimbursing these expenses. After this object had been attained, I abandoned the practice to give my exclusive attention to the Telegraph, which required all my time."
Before leaving the subject of the Daguerreotype, in which, as I have shown, Morse was a pioneer in this country, it will be interesting to note that he took the first group photograph of a college class. This was of the surviving members of his own class of 1810, who returned to New Haven for their thirtieth reunion in 1840.
It was not until August of the year 1839 that definite news of the failure of the Russian agreement was received, and Morse, in a letter to Smith, of August 12, comments on this and on another serious blow to his hopes:—
"I received yours of the 2d inst., and the paper accompanying it containing the notice of Mr. Chamberlain. I had previously been apprised that my forebodings were true in regard to his fate…. Our enterprise abroad is destined to give us anxiety, if not to end in disappointment.
"I have just received a letter from M. Amyot, who was to have been my companion to Russia, and learn from him the unwelcome news that the Emperor has decided against the Telegraph…. The Emperor's objections are, it seems, that 'malevolence can easily interrupt the communication.' M. Amyot scouts the idea, and writes that he refuted the objection to the satisfaction of the Baron, who, indeed, did not need the refutation for himself, for the whole matter was fully discussed between us when in Paris. The Baron, I should judge from the tone of M. Amyot's letter, was much disappointed, yet, as a faithful and obedient subject of one whose nay is nay, he will be cautious in so expressing himself as to be self-committed.
"Thus, my dear sir, prospects abroad look dark. I turn with some faint hope to my own country again. Will Congress do anything, or is my time and your generous zeal and pecuniary sacrifice to end only in disappointment? If so, I can bear it for myself, but I feel it most keenly for those who have been engaged with me; for you, for the Messrs. Vail and Dr. Gale. But I will yet hope. I don't know that our enterprise looks darker than Fulton's once appeared. There is no intrinsic difficulty; the depressing causes are extrinsic. I hope to see you soon and talk over all our affairs."
Mr. Smith, in sending a copy of the above letter to Mr. Prime, thus explains the reference to Mr. Chamberlain:—
"The allusion made in the letter just given to the fate of Mr. Chamberlain, was another depressing disappointment which occurred to the Professor contemporaneously with those of the Russian contract. Before I left Paris we had closed a contract with Mr. Chamberlain to carry the telegraph to Austria, Prussia, the principal cities of Greece and of Egypt, and put it upon exhibition with a view to its utilization there. He was an American gentleman (from Vermont, I think) of large wealth, of eminent business capacities, of pleasing personal address and sustaining a character for strict integrity. He parted with Professor Morse in Paris to enter upon his expedition, with high expectations of both pleasure and profit, shortly after my own departure from Paris in October, 1838. He had subsequently apprised Professor Morse of very interesting exhibitions of the telegraph which he had made, and under date of Athens, January 5, 1839, wrote as follows: 'We exhibited your telegraph to the learned of Florence, much to their gratification. Yesterday evening the King and Queen of Greece were highly delighted with its performance. We have shown it also to the principal inhabitants of Athens, by all of whom it was much admired. Fame is all you will get for it in these poor countries. We think of starting in a few days for Alexandria, and hope to get something worth having from Mehemet Ali. It is, however, doubtful. Nations appear as poor as individuals, and as unwilling to risk their money upon such matters. I hope the French will avail themselves of the benefits you offer them. It is truly strange that it is not grasped at with more avidity. If I can do anything in Egypt, I will try Turkey and St. Petersburg.'"
Morse himself writes: "In another letter from Mr. Chamberlain to Mr. Levering, dated Syra, January 9, he says: 'The pretty little Queen of Greece was delighted with Morse's telegraph. The string which carried the cannon-ball used for a weight broke, and came near falling on Her Majesty's toes, but happily missed, and we, perhaps, escaped a prison. My best respects to Mr. Morse, and say I shall ask Mehemet Ali for a purse, a beauty from his seraglio, and something else.'" And Morse concludes: "I will add that, if he will bring me the purse just now, I can dispense with the beauty and the something else."
Tragedy too often treads on the heels of comedy, and it is sad to have to relate that Mr. Chamberlain and six other gentlemen were drowned while on an excursion of pleasure on the Danube in July of 1839.