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Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
49
'Next
week!'
repeated
Morse.
'I
shall
be
dead
by
that
time...
dead
of
starvation.'
'Would
ten
dollars
be
of
any
service?'
inquired
the
student,
both
astonished
and
distressed.
'Ten
dollars
would
save
my
life,'
replied
Morse;
and
Strother
paid
the
money,
which
was
all
he
owned.
They
dined
together,
and
afterwards
the
professor
remarked,
'This
is
my
first
meal
for
twenty-four
hours.
Strother,
don't
be
an
artist.
It
means
beggary.
A
house-dog
lives
better.
The
very
sensitiveness
that
stimulates
an
artist
to
work
keeps
him
alive
to
suffering.'
Towards
the
close
of
1841
he
wrote
to
Alfred
Vail:
'I
have
not
a
cent
in
the
world;'
and
to
Mr.
Smith
about
the
same
time
he
wrote:
'I
find
myself
without
sympathy
or
help
from
any
who
are
associated
with
me,
whose
interests,
one
would
think,
would
impell
them
at
least
to
inquire
if
they
could
render
some
assistance.
For
nearly
two
years
past
I
have
devoted
all
my
time
and
scanty
means,
living
on
a
mere
pittance,
denying
myself
all
pleasures,
and
even
necessary
food,
that
I
might
have
a
sum
to
put
my
telegraph
into
such
a
position
before
Congress
as
to
insure
success
to
the
common
enterprise.
I
am
crushed
for
want
of
means,
and
means
of
so
trifling
a
character
too,
that
they
who
know
how
to
ask
(which
I
do
not)
could
obtain
in
a
few
hours....
As
it
is,
although
everything
is
favourable,
although
I
have
no
competition
and
no
opposition--on
the
contrary,
although
every
member
of
Congress,
so
far
as
I
can
learn,
is
favourable--yet
I
fear
all
will
fail
because
I
am
too
poor
to
risk
the
trifling
expense
which
my
journey
and
residence
in
Washington
will
occasion
me.
I
WILL
NOT
RUN
INTO
DEBT,
if
I
lose
the
whole
matter.
So
unless
I
have
the
means
from
some
source,
I
shall
be
compelled,
however
reluctantly,
to
leave
it.
No
one
call
tell
the
days
and
months
of
anxiety
and
labour
I
have
had
in
perfecting
my
telegraphic
apparatus.
For
want
of
means
I
have
been
compelled
to
make
with
my
own
hands
(and
to
labour
for
weeks)
a
piece
of
mechanism
which
could
be
made
much
better,
and
in
a
tenth
part
of
the
time,
by
a
good
mechanician,
thus
wasting
time--time
which
I
cannot
recall,
and
which
seems
double-winged
to
me.
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