Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-02-23
Gales aud Sketfhfs.
Inventor Morse's Daughter.
SoME UNHAPPY INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH
HER LIFE IN PoRTo Rico.

The suicide of lady supposed to be Susan
Morse, daughter of 5. F. B. Morse, inven'
tor of the telegraph, by jumping from tine
| Spanish Mail steamer, between Porto Rico
and Havana, has brought to light some inter-
estinp facts relating to Mr.. Morse. Susan
Morse was daughter of Mr.. Morse by his
frs, wife, and about 1889 married Mr.. Lind.
Prof. Antonio NJ. Molia native of Porto
Rico, who now lives at 104 East One Hun
dred and Twenty fourth street, said in sub
stance last night:
"Mr. Lind came to the little town OF Ar
royo, Porto Rico, and became the superin-
tendent of large sugar plantation. In due
time he became owner of the plantation,
through his business thrift, though popular
tradition, amazed at his success, declared he
found fortune in an old tree, where early
Spanish buccaneers had secreted it. Arroyo
is the seaport of the large town of Guyana,
and is almost made up of English and Amer
lean business men. Almost all of them came
with the intention of making money and then
quitting the country. Mr.. Lind, however,
had come to stay, and he built a magnificent
house on his plantation, about two miles out
in the country, and surrounded it with beau
tiful grounds. full of flowers, fountains, and
statuary.
"Here Mr.. Morse came while yet the cleo
trio telegraph was ticking only in his lmagin-
alton. In the quiet of MIR. Lind's palatial
residence he thought out his invention. Hr
Lind had an office in the town of Arroyo
Mr.. Morse had wire strung from the plan
tation to this office, and over that wire, in the
little Spanish colony of Porto Rico. the first
message ever sent BY electricity flashed its
way The Porto Ricans are very proud of
this and say that the Yankees are clever fell
lows, but they had to come to Porto Rico TO
invent the telegraph. And yet. strange
enough, the country in which the first tele.
graph was sent was among the last countries
to adopt the telegraph system.
THE history of the Lind family Is sad
one. Mr.. Lind had great wealth, and his on
ly child, boy, was sent to Europe to be ed
ucated. All the plantations in Porto Rico
prior to 1873 were worked by slave labor.
Mr. Lind owned many slaves, and when, in
1878, the Spanish republic was proclaimed,
the slaves were at the same time emancipat-
ed. The planters thought they could not
make sugar without slaves, Mr.. Lind among
them, so the cane fields lay idle Just before
the emancipation one of the droughts peculi-
ar to Porto Rico occurred and Mr.. Lind, with
other capitalists, secured an engineer from
London, and set about turning one of the
mountain streams from its course for irriga.
ton.
when a great deal of money had thus
been spent the Spanish government forbade
the work to go on except under a Spanish en-
gineer. The company refused to employ
one. The drought and the emancipation ru-
ined Mr.. Lind. About this time his sor
came home from Europe and tried to save
, the wreck of the family fortune. His father
BY this time, from his losses, was half in.
} sane. The young man was high tempered
| and believed in the new order of things, while
his father was welded to the old regime.
Zone day after dinner. a discussion arose
and the father in passion, struck the son
The young man said nothing, but at once LEFT
g the garden where the quarrel occurred.
moment later a pistol shot was heard from
3 his room and he was found dead upon hi,
} bed. Within year Mr.. Lind died of soften
ing of the brain, and when the creditors came
to settle the estate they found it hopelessly
involved. There was nothing left for the
. widow.
, ''They agreed, however, out of considera-
, , ton for her and her distinguished father, to
allow her to remain in undisturbed possession
of the plantation where the tragedy occurred.
There she had lived in the utmost seclusion,
seeing no one, though the plantation, celebra-
ted for its beauty, is still resort of visitors.
: The son who shot himself was artist OF
merit, and left many valuable paintings.
J 'Mr. Morses daughter Lena, married
Franz Rummel four years ago, and is living
, in England or Scotland ~ 7. Sun.