CHAPTER V.
THE TELEGRAPH.
ELECTRIC WIRES.
On the second day of April, 1872, in the city of New York, the life of a benefactor of his race, an aged man who had seen more than fourscore years of mingled trial and triumph, was ended. That man was Prof. Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph. His name is as widely known the world over as that of Washington, or Cæsar, or Aristotle. His long life had been extremely checkered. He had passed through troubles, trials, anxieties, disappointments, bereavements; he had been subject to persecutions, losses, poverty, toil, discouragements; he had met with successes, gains, wealth, luxury, honors, fame; and finally the homage of republics, kingdoms, empires had been laid at his feet. He was never cast down, never unduly elated. He bore all his poverty and disappointments and wore all his honors and wealth with the "grace of a Christian and the calmness of a philosopher."
Professor Morse was born at the foot of Breed's Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 27th, 1791. He was the oldest of three brothers. His father was a very distinguished man in his day; for more than thirty years the pastor of a church in Charlestown, a noted preacher, a good historian, the author of many books, and, particularly, the father of the science of geography in the United States. Professor Morse inherited from both his father and his mother those traits of character which enabled him to succeed in his great life work, in spite of discouragements, obstacles, and opposition. His ancestors were all noted for their "intelligence, energy, original thinking, perseverance, and integrity."
How we would like to step into the little schoolroom and see Samuel at his first school. He was four years of age. His teacher was known as "Old Ma'am Rand," an invalid who could not leave her chair. She governed the uneasy little urchins with a long rattan that would reach across the small room where she kept her school. At seven years of age Samuel was sent to Andover to a preparatory school, kept by Mr. Foster; here he fitted for Phillips Academy and, in that famous institution, under the direction of Mark Newman, he prepared for Yale College, where he was graduated in 1810.
While in college he was under the instruction of Jeremiah Day in natural philosophy and paid great attention to the subject of electricity, getting everything that was known about it at that time. Professor Day said: "Morse was often present in my laboratory during my preparatory arrangements and experiments, and thus was made acquainted with them." On leaving college Morse had a burning ambition to be a portrait painter. He put himself under the instruction of Washington Allston, and went with him to England to pursue his favorite study. Is it not a little singular that Morse, who invented the telegraph, was a student under Allston, and that Robert Fulton, who invented the American steamboat, was a student under West, another famous American painter?
One day Mr. Allston introduced young Morse to Benjamin West, whose fame at that time was as wide as the world of art. West was in his studio painting his "Christ Rejected." After a time he began a critical examination of Mr. Morse's hands and at length said: "Let me tie you with this cord, and take that place while I paint the hands of our Saviour." Morse of course complied; West finished his work and, releasing him, said, "You may say now, if you please, you had a hand in this picture."