ty:--

January 31, 1889.

I am sure I need make no apology to you, my dear madam, for returning the
three lottery tickets enclosed in the interesting note I have just had
the honor to receive from you, because I know you can fully appreciate
the motive which prompts me. In the measures taken some years since for
opposing the lottery system in the State of New York, and which issued in
its entire suppression, I took a very prominent part under the conviction
that the principle on which the lottery system was founded was wrong. But
while, on this account, I cannot, my dear madam, consistently take the
tickets, I must beg of you to put the price of them, which I enclose,
into such a channel as shall, in your judgment, best promote the
benevolent object in which you have interested yourself.

Poverty is a bitter lot, even when the habit of long endurance has
reconciled the mind and body to its severities, but how much more bitter
must it be when it comes in sudden contrast to a life of affluence and
ease.

I thank you for giving me the opportunity of contributing my mite to the
relief of such affliction, hoping sincerely that all their earthly wants
may lead the sufferers to the inexhaustible fountain of true riches.

With sincere respect and Christian regard I remain, my dear madam

Your most obedient servant
S.F.B. MORSE.

Before closing the record of this European trip, so disappointing in many
ways and yet so encouraging in others, it may be well to note that, while
he was in Paris, Morse in 1838 not only took out a patent on his
recording telegraph, but also on a system to be used on railways to
report automatically the presence of a train at any point on the line. A
reproduction of his own drawing of the apparatus to be used is here
given, and the mechanism is so simple that an explanation is hardly
necessary. From it can be seen not only that he did, at this early date,
realize the possibilities of his invention along various lines, but that
it embodies the principle of the police and fire-alarm systems now in
general use.

It is not recorded that he ever realized anything financially from this
ingenious modification of his main invention. Commenting on it, and on
his plans for a military telegraph, he gives this amusing sketch:--

"On September 10, 1838, a telegraph instrument constructed in the United
States on the same principles, but slightly modified to make it portable,
was exhibited to the Academy o