Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-08
THE TELEGRAPH'S RISE.
THE FIRST MESSAGE THAT EVER
 WENT OVER A WIRE.

WENT OVER A WIRE.
 Reminiscences of Professor Morse Given to the Public by One of His Earliest from John W. Kirk.
 Morse had possessed himself of little room in the east end of the Capitol, and there, ab- stracted but active, the new attache of the postoffice department found him, a thin. spare, careworn, anxious man, in the midst of confusing heaps of wire and pots and ap- parent debris. A congressional committee was on its way to see him and examine in practical operation the machine which he had promised would transmit intelligent messages between points miles apart. The line which started toward Baltimore was built about five miles without the Washing ton limits, and the metallic circuit' (before the day of ground wires) was in working or der. The committee came. The statesmen approached his instrument cautiously, as if suspecting that it might suddenly get into an exploding fit. But finally they ranged them selves as closely as they dared beside the ami mated electrician and awaited his experi- ments.
 "Now, gentlemen, what shall we send over the wire" ejaculated the old man. "Pick out your own message and I'll show you how simple this whole thing is and how it accom- plishes everything that I've claimed"
 The gentlemen were hardly expecting a challenge like this, but finally congressional genius asserted itself, and one of the party proposed that this startlingly original in formation be flashed along
 "Mr. Brown, of Indiana, is here"
 Prof. Morse bent over his instrument and begged away. Tick, tick, tick-tick-tick went the electric tapping, and then moment later came the same rattling line of signals upon an adjoining machine-the indentation Morse register.
 The old man grabbed the slip of paper as it came released from the instrument, scanned it eagerly, and then, with the air of an em- peror whose crown is self-won, he thrust the f1uttering white scrap forward
 'Seen-and he displaced another sheet on which his dot and dash sign manual ap- peared-
 ''See! Take this for guide and you'll find printed there the very words you asked trans mitted."
 The delegation did as directed, and sure enough they spelled out SO the sensational go- ings-on of "Mr Brown of Indiana" Converted! Those congressman convertedl Well, hardly. This is the recollection of MT. Kirk: ''One of them hunched me and winked in superior and knowing sort of way, while another whispered: That's what I call pretty thin! and third remarked right out loud It won't do! That doesn't prove anything. Poor Morses heart was almost broken His triumph was turned all to bitterness. Every one Of his visitors went away more slseptical than ever"
 Morse worked only the harder after his foI IIr1rsn fN <l,~~ gress by the test of his five mile loop Day by day more poles were set and more wire was stretched, and Annapolis Junction way to Baltimore-was just about reached when the Whig national convention of May, 1S44, opened in Baltimore. Here, at the suggestion of his friend, MT. John W. Kirk Morse saw opportunities beyond any that had come to him before. On the morning that the convention organized he was able by dint of work by night as we'll as by day, to get connection through to Annapolis june. l tion from his little Washington machine shop. He had placed a bright young fellow at the Annapolis Junction, and with in- structions to get information of what the convention had done just as soon as the after noon Baltimore train arrived at the junction and telegraph it at once to Washington.
 Of course the capital was Ill a ferment: every citizen was anxious for the news from Baltimore; but till trains should arrive from the scene it was recognized that nothing could be known. The earnest old fellow spent that eventful afternoon all alone, save for the companionship of John Kirk.
 Suddenly there came an animated clicking. He who was most interested bent forward as if intent on fairly consuming the strip of pa- per that crept out from the register There was almost agony in his face as, snail like, the paper halted and hestated, spurted Q little. stood still, made false starts and then spurted more till-the message completed Morse rose erect, looked proudly about him, and said as grandly as though he were dis tributing kingdoms:
 "Mr. Kirk, the convention has adjourned The train for Washington has just left An napolis junction. And the ticket"-he hesi- tated, holding final proof of his victory be- yond all disputing-''the ticket-the ticket is Clay and Frelinghuysen."
 "You are quizzing us," was the quick re- tort he heard when this was proclaimed out side. "It's easy enough for you to guess that Clay is at the head of the ticket, but Freling- huysen-who the devil is Frelinghuysens" II only know," was the digniied answer, ''that it is telegraphed me so from Annapolis Junction, where my operator had the news five minutes ago from the train that is bound thlS way bringing the delegates"
 In those days the twenty miles from An napolis Junction to Washington made up a trip of an hour and a quarter for the excep- tionally fast trains, such as that which was bringing the Whig delegates to Washington. Long before the journey was over the news papers -enterprising even in those days-had extras on the streets, and the newsboy was crying Justify the chronicle that Morse had caught flashing through twenty miles of air. A great crowd of people was at the station.
 The extras, with their cabalistic legend "By
 Telegraph" had whetted public curiosity to
 keenest edge. Out of the jammed train
 came the delegates piling, each anxious to
 be foremost in sending abroad to friends the l inspiriting news that fortune was with Harry l of the west. And how dumbfounded they
 were, finding in very type before them the | story they believed exclusively their own How but by miracle could the news have gained such headwaya By telegraph" SC they read in the headlines of the journals s'By telegraph" That pestiferous Morse
 They had seen the wires stretching along the track all the way from Annapolis Junction into Washington; they had seen it, and they
 had joked about it glibly. Phew! It wa:
 hard to realize But-but-but what can
 man do when he can't do anythingl The
 doubters and scoffers became enthusiastically 1 dumb