The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-04-25

conferred upon him as a scientist, that
/ he derives the title always associated
with his name
A few years later we find Prof. Morse
sailing for Europe to execute several
/ copying commissions. And on his re-
turn from this stay abroad the idea of
! the telegraph suggested itself to him.
1t is hard for US today to realize it, but
the fact remains that there was quite
as much curiosity and incredulity and
/ fable attached to this inventors first
4 experiment as to those Of Marconi of
our own time, and only the hardest
kind of labor and the most strenuous
I fighting on the part of those who be-
lieved in Morse secured to US his valu
able invention.
OF the exact way in which the first
! telcgrap hic wizard conceived his
great idea various accounts have been
I given, the one usually accepted being
4 that while on board the packet ship
Sully. returning from the European trip
/ Just referred to, Morse heard a fellow
passenger relate some experiments he
had witnessed in Paris with the electro
magnet, a recital that made such an
impression upon the artist that he
walked the deck the whole night.
This is very pretty, but it is not alto
gether convincing. If the talk had been
about Il great picture Morse might have
walked the deck, but he never got too
much stirred up over his inventive
side. That grew almost by accident, as
it were.
Prof. Norse,s own statement was that
he gained his knowledge Of the work
ing of the electro magnet while attend
/ ing the lectures Of Dr. J. Freeman
Dana, then professor of chemistry in
the University of New York. lectures
which were delivered before the New
York Atheneum.
Yet after the inventor had made his
discovery he had the greatest possible
a. ..I-- -
strate its worth. Heartsick with de-
spondency. and with means utterly ex-
hausted, he finally applied to the TWEEN
ty-seventh congress for aid IN putting
ton, and his petition was carried
through with majority of only two
votes. These two votes to the good
We're enough, however, and with the
$4,000 appropriated by congress wires
were soon stretched from Washington
to Baltimore; wires, because d line to
go and a line to return was at first be-
lieved necessary, the principle of ground
circuit not being then established.
To the man who had been so poor
that only by a constant struggle could
he supply bread for his three motherless
children came now abundant success.
The impecunious artist was literally re
Warded for his clever invention. In 1S47,
when he was Sc he married for his sec
ond wife Miss Sarah z. Griswold, a
woman of % and the daughter Of his
cousin. In spite of the great difference
in age, however, the two lived very hap
PLY together on the 200-acre farm ne
had bought near Poughkeepsie, and
there in 1857 their artist son was born.
Even as a boy young Morse studied
drawing, and when only ten years old
he copied in the Louvre in Paris. being
4 the youngest art aSpirant who =P 20
that time had ever set up an easel
there. Graduating from Yale being
part of the family heritage, however,
4 ne left his painting long enough to gain
4 his B. A. with the class of 1878 and 1t
was not until 1884 that he began what
he calls "the serious study of art.
MY first masters were Profs- Paul
/ Thumann and Carl Gussow of Berlin. "
he said to a Herald representative IN
! reca Hing his art career, and then
4 studied under Max Thedy in Weimar.
/ Later I attended the Julian school in
Paris, and worked in the class OF the
great william Bourgereau and Of
/ Gabriel Ferrier.
I exhibited in the Paris salon of
1928 and after my return TO this coun-
j try that same year, as well AS several
/ times since. 7 have shown my pictures
at the New York. PhiladelpnlA ana
/ Chicago exhibitions.
The pictures on the walls of my
studio are all mine with the exception
of the copy my father made of Tin
roretto's Miracle of the Slave like
/ that portrait at he end of the room
under the baIccny because it shows
me always my master in Berlin, Prof
/ Carl Gussow And the one beyond the
/ freDlace is mine of eX-President Tim
othv Dwight of Yale. The carved and
burnt wood panel over the fireplace is,
/ however. by William Fuller Curtis But
surely I have told You enough about
my life 1t is of my father you must
write For he always greatly loved
art. boston Herald.