The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1873-03-20
The True Story of the First
= aI0a telegram.

! The True Story of the First
II ~" Telegram.
/ The bill met with neither sneers
nor opposition in the Senate, but the
I business of that House went on with
discouraging sIowness. At twilight
! on the last evening Of the session
March 8, IS43) there were 119 bills
before it. As it seemed impossible
for it to be reached in regular course
before the hour of adjournment should
arrive, the Professor, who had anx-
!. iously watched the tardy movements
of business all day from the gallery Of
\ the Senate chamber, went with q sad
heart to his hotel and prepared to
leave for New York at an early hour
the nexaa morning. While at break
iiast, servant informed him that a
young lady desired to see him in the
parlor.
There he met Miss Annie Ellsworth,
then young school girl-the daugh-
ter of his intimate friend, Hon. Henry
L. Ellsworth, the first Commissioner
of Patents-who said, as she extend
ed her hand to him: 81 have come
to congratulate you"
'Upon what 2" inquired the Pro
fessor.
"Upon the passage of your bill,
she replied.
':ImpossibleI Its fate was sealed at
dusk last evening. You must be
mistaken"
'.Not at all, she responded. 'rFa-
ther 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 adjournment; and I am SO glad
to be the first one to tell you. Moth
er says, too, that you must come
home with me to breakfast"
The invitation was readily accepted,
and the Joy in the household was un-
bounded. Both Mr.. and Mrs. ELS
worth had fully believed in the pro
iect, and the former, in his confidence
in it, and in his warm friendship for
Prof. 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 personal and
official position.
Grasping the hand of his young
friend, the Professor thanked her
again and again for bearing him such
pleasant 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 mes
sage which Prof Morse referred to
the daughter, for her approval; and
this was the one subsequently sent.
A little more than a year after that
time, the line between Washington
and Baltimore was completed. Prof.
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
Clare depot, when the circuit being
perfect, Prof Morse sent to Miss
Ellsworth for her message, and it
came.
s'WHAT HATH GoD WROUGHT"
1t was sent in tripicate in the dot
and-line language of the instrument
to Baltimore, and was the first mes
sage e0er transmitted By a recording
telegraph. A fac-simile of that first
message, with Professor Morse's in
dorsement, is here given.
The story of this first message has
been often told, with many exaggera-
tions. It has roamed about the coun-
try with various romantic material at
tached 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 simply and literally
true. An inventor in despair receives
the news of his unexpected success
from his friends daughter, and he
makes her promise which he keeps,
and thus links her name with his
own, and with an invention which be
comes one of the controlling infu-
ences of civilization for all time
TScribner's for March.