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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
39
During
the
voyage
of
six
weeks
the
artist
jotted
his
crude
ideas
in
his
sketch-book,
which
afterwards
became
a
testimony
to
their
date.
That
he
cherished
hopes
of
his
invention
may
be
gathered
from
his
words
on
landing,
'Well,
Captain
Pell,
should
you
ever
hear
of
the
telegraph
one
of
these
days
as
the
wonder
of
the
world,
remember
the
discovery
was
made
on
the
good
ship
Sully.'
Soon
after
his
return
his
brothers
gave
him
a
room
on
the
fifth
floor
of
a
house
at
the
corner
of
Nassau
and
Beekman
Streets,
New
York.
For
a
long
time
it
was
his
studio
and
kitchen,
his
laboratory
and
bedroom.
With
his
livelihood
to
earn
by
his
brush,
and
his
invention
to
work
out,
Morse
was
now
fully
occupied.
His
diet
was
simple;
he
denied
himself
the
pleasures
of
society,
and
employed
his
leisure
in
making
models
of
his
types.
The
studio
was
an
image
of
his
mind
at
this
epoch.
Rejected
pictures
looked
down
upon
his
clumsy
apparatus,
type-moulds
lay
among
plaster-casts,
the
paint-pot
jostled
the
galvanic
battery,
and
the
easel
shared
his
attention
with
the
lathe.
By
degrees
the
telegraph
allured
him
from
the
canvas,
and
he
only
painted
enough
to
keep
the
wolf
from
the
door.
His
national
picture,
'The
Signing
of
the
First
Compact
on
Board
the
Mayflower,'
was
never
finished,
and
the
300
dollars
which
had
been
subscribed
for
it
were
finally
returned
with
interest.
For
Morse
by
nature
was
proud
and
independent,
with
a
sensitive
horror
of
incurring
debt.
He
would
rather
endure
privation
than
solicit
help
or
lie
under
a
humiliating
obligation.
His
mother
seems
to
have
been
animated
with
a
like
spirit,
for
the
Hon.
Amos
Kendall
informs
us
that
she
had
suffered
much
through
the
kindness
of
her
husband
in
becoming
surety
for
his
friends,
and
that
when
she
was
dying
she
exacted
a
promise
from
her
son
that
he
would
never
endanger
his
peace
of
mind
and
the
comfort
of
his
home
by
doing
likewise.
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