The Beginner's American History Part 24

Suppose you take a straight and stiff piece of wire as long as your desk and fasten it in the middle so that the ends will swing easily.

Next tie a pencil tight to each end; then put a sheet of paper under the point of each pencil. Now, if you make a mark with the pencil nearest to you, you will find that the pencil at the other end of the wire will make the same kind of mark. Such a wire would be a kind of telegraph, because it would make marks or signs at a distance.

Mr. Morse said: I will have a wire a mile long with a pencil, or something sharp-pointed like a pencil, fastened to the further end; the wire itself shall not move at all, but the pencil shall, for I will make electricity run along the wire and move it. Mr. Morse was then a professor or teacher in the University of the City of New York.

He put up such a wire in one of the rooms of the building, sent the electricity through it, and found that it made the pencil make just the marks he wanted it should; that meant that he had invented the _electric telegraph_; for if he could do this over a mile of wire, then what was to hinder his doing it over a hundred or even a thousand miles?

[Ill.u.s.tration: PROFESSOR MORSE AT WORK MAKING HIS TELEGRAPH.]

[Footnote 3: Telegraph (tel'e-graf): this name is made up of two Greek words, the first of which means _far off_, and the second _to write_.]

223. How Professor Morse lived while he was making his telegraph.--But all this was not done in a day, for this invention cost years of patient labor. At first, Mr. Morse lived in a little room by himself: there he worked and ate, when he could get anything to eat; and slept, if he wasn't too tired to sleep. Later, he had a room in the university. While he was there he painted pictures to get money enough to buy food; there, too (1839), he took the first photograph ever made in America. Yet with all his hard work there were times when he had to go hungry, and once he told a young man that if he did not get some money he should be dead in a week--dead of starvation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A COPY OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH MADE IN AMERICA. (The tower of the Church of the Messiah, in New York. The church is no longer standing.)]

224. Professor Morse gets help about his telegraph; what Alfred Vail did.--But better times were coming. A young man named Alfred Vail[4]

happened to see Professor Morse's telegraph. He believed it would be successful. He persuaded his father, Judge Vail, to lend him two thousand dollars, and he became Professor Morse's partner in the work.

Mr. Vail was an excellent mechanic, and he made many improvements in the telegraph. He then made a model[5] of it at his own expense, and took it to Washington and got a patent[6] for it in Professor Morse's name. The invention was now safe in one way, for no one else had the right to make a telegraph like his. Yet, though he had this help, Professor Morse did not get on very fast, for a few years later he said, "I have not a cent in the world; I am crushed for want of means."

[Footnote 4: Alfred Vail: he was the son of Stephen Vail (commonly known as Judge Vail), owner of the Speedwell iron-works, near Morristown, New Jersey. Judge Vail built the engines of the _Savannah_, the first steamship which crossed the Atlantic.]

[Footnote 5: Model: a small copy or representation of something.

Professor Morse made a small telegraph and sent it to Washington, to show what his large telegraph would be like.]

[Footnote 6: Patent: a written or printed right given by the government at Washington to an inventor to make something; as, for instance, a telegraph or a sewing-machine. The patent forbids any one except the inventor, or holder of the patent, from making such a machine, and so he gets whatever money comes from his work. In order to get a patent, a man must send a model of his invention to be placed in the Patent Office at Washington.]

225. Professor Morse asks Congress to help him build a telegraph line; what Congress thought.--Professor Morse now asked Congress to let him have thirty thousand dollars to construct a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore. He felt sure that business men would be glad to send messages by telegraph, and to pay him for his work.

But many members of Congress laughed at it, and said they might as well give Professor Morse the money to build "a railroad to the moon."

Week after week went by, and the last day that Congress would sit was reached, but still no money had been granted. Then came the last night of the last day (March 3d, 1843). Professor Morse stayed in the Senate Chamber[7] of Congress until after ten o'clock; then, tired and disappointed he went back to his hotel, thinking that he must give up trying to build his telegraph line.

[Footnote 7: Senate Chamber: Congress (or the body of persons chosen to make the laws of the United States) is divided into two cla.s.ses,--Representatives and Senators; they meet in different rooms or chambers in the Capitol at Washington.]

226. Miss Annie Ellsworth brings good news.--The next morning Miss Annie G. Ellsworth met him as he was coming down to breakfast. She was the daughter of his friend who had charge of the Patent Office in Washington. She came forward with a smile, grasped his hand, and said that she had good news for him, that Congress had decided to let him have the money. Surely you must be mistaken, said the professor, for I waited last night until nearly midnight, and came away because nothing had been done. But, said the young lady, my father stayed until it was quite midnight, and a few minutes before the clock struck twelve Congress voted[8] the money; it was the very last thing that was done.

Professor Morse was then a gray-haired man over fifty. He had worked hard for years and got nothing for his labor. This was his first great success. He doesn't say whether he laughed or cried--perhaps he felt a little like doing both.

[Footnote 8: Voted: here this word means given or granted.]

227. The first telegraph line built; the first message sent; the telegraph and the telephone[9] now.--When, at length, Professor Morse did speak, he said to Miss Ellsworth, "Now, Annie, when my line is built from Washington to Baltimore, you shall send the first message over it." In the spring of 1844 the line was completed, and Miss Ellsworth sent these words over it (they are words taken from the Bible): "_What hath G.o.d wrought!_"[10]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHAT THE BIRDS THINK TELEGRAPH WIRES WERE PUT UP FOR.]

For nearly a year after that the telegraph was free to all who wished to use it; then a small charge was made, a very short message costing only one cent. On the first of April, 1845, a man came into the office and bought a cent's worth of telegraphing. That was all the money which was taken that day for the use of forty miles of wire. Now there are about two hundred thousand miles of telegraph line in the United States, or more than enough to reach eight times round the earth, and the messages sent bring in over seventy thousand dollars every day; and we can telegraph not only clear across America, but clear across the Atlantic Ocean by a line laid under the sea. Professor Morse's invention made it possible for people to write by electricity; but now, by means of the telephone, a man in New York can talk with his friend in Philadelphia, Boston, and many other large cities, and his friend listening at the other end of the wire can hear every word he says. Professor Morse did not live long enough to see this wonderful invention, which, in some ways, is an improvement even on his telegraph.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOW A MESSAGE BY TELEGRAPH IS SENT.[11]]

[Footnote 9: Telephone (tel'e-fone): this name is made up of two Greek words, the first of which means _far off_, and the second, _a voice or sound_. The telephone was invented by Professor Alexander G. Bell of Boston; he completed it in 1876. Professor Bell now lives in Washington.]

[Footnote 10: See Num. xxiii. 23.]

[Footnote 11: When the b.u.t.ton at Chicago is pressed down, the electricity pa.s.sing over the wire to Denver presses the point there down on the paper, and so makes a dot or dash which stands for a letter on the roll of paper as it pa.s.ses under it. In this way words and messages are spelled out. The message on the strip of paper above is the question, _How is trade?_]

228. Summary.--Professor Morse invented the Electric Telegraph. He received much help from Mr. Alfred Vail. In 1844 Professor Morse and Mr. Vail built the first line of telegraph in the United States, or in the world. It extended from Washington to Baltimore. The telegraph makes it possible for us to send a written message thousands of miles in a moment; by the telephone, which was invented after Professor Morse's death, we can talk with people who are several hundreds of miles away and hear what they say in reply.

Tell how they sent the news of the completion of the Erie Ca.n.a.l. What did Samuel Morse say to himself? Tell about Morse as a painter. What did he want to find? What was he talking about on his voyage back to America? What is a telegraph? How can you make a small wire telegraph? What did Professor Morse make? How did he live? What did he do in 1839? How did he get help about his telegraph? What did he ask Congress to do? What did some men in Congress say? What news did Miss Annie Ellsworth bring him? What was the first message sent by telegraph in 1844? How many miles of telegraph are there now in the United States? Is there a telegraph line under the sea? What is said about the telephone?

GENERAL SAM HOUSTON (1793-1863)

229. Sam Houston and the Indians; Houston goes to live with the Indians.--When General Jackson whipped the Indians in Alabama,[1]

a young man named Sam Houston[2] fought under Jackson and was terribly wounded. It was thought that the brave fellow would certainly die, but his strong will carried him through, and he lived to make himself a great name in the southwest.

Although Houston fought the Indians, yet, when a boy, he was very fond of them, and spent much of his time with them in the woods of Tennessee.

Long after he became a man, this love of the wild life led by the red men in the forest came back to him. While Houston was governor of Tennessee (1829) he suddenly made up his mind to leave his home and his friends, go across the Mississippi River, and take up his abode with an Indian tribe in that part of the country. The chief, who had known him as a boy, gave him a hearty welcome. "Rest with us," he said; "my wigwam is yours." Houston stayed with the tribe three years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAM HOUSTON.]

[Footnote 1: See paragraph 216.]

[Footnote 2: Sam Houston (Hew'ston): he always wrote his name Sam Houston; he was born near Lexington in Rockbridge County, Virginia.]

230. Houston goes to Texas; what he said he would do; the murders at Alamo[3]; the flag with one star; what Houston did; Texas added to the United States; our war with Mexico.--At the end of that time he said to a friend, "I am going to Texas, and in that new country I will make a man of myself." Texas then belonged to Mexico; and President Andrew Jackson had tried in vain to buy it as Jefferson bought Louisiana. Houston said, "I will make it part of the United States." About twenty thousand Americans had already moved into Texas, and they felt as he did.

War broke out between Texas and Mexico, and General Sam Houston led the Texan soldiers in their fight for independence. He had many noted American pioneers[4] and hunters in his little army: one of them was the brave Colonel Travis[5] of Alabama; another was Colonel Bowie[6]

of Louisiana, the inventor of the "bowie knife"; still another was Colonel David Crockett of Tennessee, whose motto is a good one for every young American--"Be sure you're right, then--_go ahead_."

These men were all taken prisoners by the Mexicans at Fort Alamo--an old Spanish church in San Antonio--and were cruelly murdered.

Not long after that General Houston fought a great battle near the city which is now called by his name.[7] The Mexicans had more than two men to every one of Houston's; but the Americans and Texans went into battle shouting the terrible cry "_Remember the Alamo!_" and the Mexicans fled before them like frightened sheep. Texas then became an independent state, and elected General Houston its president. The people of Texas raised a flag having on it a single star. For this reason it was sometimes called, as it still is, the "Lone Star State."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "LONE STAR" FLAG.]

Texas was not contented to stand alone; she begged the United States to add her to its great and growing family of states. This was done[8]

in 1845. But, as we shall presently see, a war soon broke out (1846) between the United States and Mexico, and when that war was ended we obtained a great deal more land at the west.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map showing the extent of the United States after we added Texas in 1845. The black and white bars show that the ownership of the Oregon country was still in dispute between the United States and Great Britain.]

[Footnote 3: Alamo (Al'a-mo).]

[Footnote 4: Pioneers: those who go before to prepare the way for others; the first settlers in a country are its pioneers.]