TELEGRAPHING IN THE UNITED STATES. 355 
might, if he would, have controlled all the lines in the land, shook his 
head at the proposal to take stock. " I will give Prof. Morse 100 dols. 
as a present," said the Great Bear of Wall street, " but not one dollar 
for investment." So the nation felt. A few men joined in the new in- 
vention, but they were as poor as the inventor. They had no money 
and but little influence. 
An enterprising man in Western New York, who ran the first stage- 
line West, and ran the earliest expresses, saw the future of the telegraph. 
He grasped it with his whole soul. Men laughed at his folly. He told 
the deriders that the telegraph would succeed the mail. Then his friends 
were sure he was mad. Confident in the invention as a success and a 
public benefactor, PrOf. Morse and his few friends clung to the great 
discovery. Poverty, like an armed man, came upon him. Inventors 
must eat, and those who manage the lightning cannot live on air. Men 
can now well afford to talk, and Prof. Morse, with his regal income, can 
afford to hear how he battled in those dark days to keep the wolf from 
the door, how poor was[his dress, how mean his shoes, how meagre his 
face. 
At last aid from the government" was promised to run an experi- 
mental line from Washington to Baltimore. But the discreet govern- 
ment was to pay nothing till the line was in actual working order, and 
a hona fide message sent over the wires from Baltimore to the Capitol. 
It was to be no bogus message, but one sent over the wires to the satis- 
faction of the government. So little faith had the leading men of the 
nation at that time, that the thing was at all practical. Mr. John C. 
Spencer was at the head of the Treasury. He was, certainly, of the 
average intelligence of the people. He was to pay the money when the 
message had really passed over the wires. He had not the least idea of 
what the invention was, and in a conversation with a gentleman, Mr. 
Spencer asked, " how large a bundle could be sent over the wires, and 
whether the mails could not be sent that way." Who wonders that an 
old lady carried her umbrella into the office at Buffalo with a request 
that it might be sent to Cleveland by lightning ? It was supposed by 
scientific men that a trench must be dug from Baltimore to Washington 
to complete the circuit, without which the lines could not be worked, 
and this delayed for a long time the completion of the trial lines to the 
National Capitol. Men were ignorant of the fact that the earth formed 
the most perfect circuit. 
All the preliminary troubles over, the inventor saw the work of his 
brain demonstrated and take its place among the most beneficent dis- 
coveries of the world, and himself placed high among the benefactors 
of his race, He saw himself and children raised to affluence, which was 
liberally shared by those heroic men who stood by him and partook of 
his trials, and with him breasted the storms of contumely and scorn. 
There is nothing like success. Stock could not be presented so fast 
as to meet the demand. Companies multiplied, wires spread under all 
