Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-06-12
M1isfellaueuns &eadiug,
STORY OF THE FIRST TELEGRAM.

The bill met with neither sneers nor oppo-
sition in the Senate, but the business of that
House went on with discoursging slownsss
At twilight on the last evening of the session
(March 3, 1843) there were 1l9 bills before
it. As it seemed impossible for it to be reach
ed in regular course before the hour of ad-
journment should arrive, the Professor, who
had anxiously watched the tardy movements
of business all day from the gallery of the
Senate chamber, went with sad heart to his
hotel and prepared to leave for New York at
an early hour the next morning. While at
breakfast, a servant informed him that q
young lady desired to see him in the parlor
There he met Miss Annie Ellsworth, then a
young school girl-the daughter of his init
mate friend, Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth, the
first Commissioner of Patents-who said, as
she extended her hand to him: II have come
to congratulate you."
upon what ?" enquired the Professor.
upon the passage of your BILL" she re-
piled.
"Impossible! Its fate was sealed at dusk
last evening. You must be mistaken"
"Not at all" she responded. "Father sent
me to tell you that your bill was passed. He
remained until the session closed, and yours
was the last bill but one acted upon, and it
was passed just five minutes before the ad-
journment; and lam so glad to be the first one
to tell you. Mother says, too, that you must
come home with me to breakfast"
The invitation was readily accepted, and
the joy in the household was unbounded.
Both Mr.. and Mrs. Ellsworth had fully be-
lieved in the project, and the former, in his
confidence in it and in his warm friendship
for Professor Morse, had spent all the closing
hours of the session in the Senate chamber,
doing what he could to help the bill along,
and giving it all the influence of his high per-
sonal and official position.
Grasping the hand of his young friend, the
Professor thanked her again and again for
bearing him such good tidings, and assured
her that she should send over the wires the
first message, as her reward. The matter was
talked over in the family, and Mrs. Ellsworth
suggested message which Professor Morse
referred to the daughter, for her approval ;
and this was the one which was subsequently
sent
A little more than year after that time,
the line between Washington and Baltimore
was completed. Professor Morse was in the
former city, and Mr.. Alfred Vail, his assistant
in the latter; the first in the chamber of the
Supreme Court, the last in the Mount Glare
depot, when the circuit being perfect, Profes-
sor Morse sent to Miss Ellsworth for her mes
sage and it came.
"What hath God wrought"
1t was sent in triplicate in the dot-and-line
language Of the instrument to Baltimore, and
was the first message ever transmitted by re-
cording telegraph.
The story of the first message has been
often told with many exaggerations. 1t has
roamed about Europe, with various romantic
material attached to it, originating mainly in
the French imagination, and has started up
anew, from time to time, in our own country,
under fresh forms, but the above story is sim
ply and literally true. An inventor in des-
pair receives the news of his unexpected sue
cess from his friends daughter, and he makes
her a promise which he keeps, and thus links
her name with his own, and with an invention
which becomes one of the controlling instru-
ments of civilization for all time.-Seribner'
MonthIy.