"Ten dollars would save my life," was the reply of the poor man, who had
been without food for twenty-four hours. You may be sure that Strothers
promptly handed him the money.
But in spite of heavy trials and many discouragements, he had by 1837
finished a machine which he exhibited in New York, although he did not
secure a patent until 1840.
[Illustration: The Operation of the Modern Railroad is Dependent upon the
Telegraph.]
Then followed a tedious effort to induce the government at Washington to
vote money for his great enterprise. Finally, after much delay, the House
of Representatives passed a bill "appropriating thirty thousand dollars
for a trial of the telegraph."
As you may know, a bill cannot become a law unless the Senate also passes
it. But the Senate did not seem friendly to this one. Many believed that
the whole idea of the telegraph was rank folly. They thought of Morse and
the telegraph very much as people had thought of Fulton and the steamboat,
and made fun of him as a crazy-brained fellow.
Up to the evening of the last day of the session the bill had not been
taken up by the Senate. Morse sat anxiously waiting in the Senate Chamber
until nearly midnight, when, believing there was no longer any hope, he
left the room and went home with a heavy heart.
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