us
on the subject? I will not say there is not until after the next session
of Congress. But, if there is any cause for national exultation in being
not merely _first_ in the invention as to time, but _best_ too, as
decided by a foreign tribunal, ought the inventor to be suffered to work
with his hands tied? Is it honorable to the nation to boast of its
inventors, to contend for the credit of their inventions as national
property, and not lift a finger to assist them to perfect that of which
they boast?

"But I will not complain for myself. I can bear it, because I made up my
mind from the very first for this issue, the common fate of all
inventors. But I do not feel so agreeable in seeing those who have
interested themselves in it, especially yourself, suffer also. Perhaps I
look too much on the unfavorable side. I often thus look, not to
discourage others or myself, but to check those too sanguine expectations
which, with me, would rise to an inordinate height unless thus reined in
and disciplined.

"Shall you not be in New York soon? I wish much to see you and to concoct
plans for future operations. I am at present much straitened in means, or
I should yet endeavor to see you in Portland; but I must yield to
necessity and hope another season to be in different and more prosperous
circumstances."

Thus the inventor, who had hoped so much from the energy and business
acumen of his own countrymen, found that the conditions at home differed
not much from those which he had found so exasperating abroad. Praise in
plenty for the beauty and simplicity of his invention, but no money,
either public or private, to enable him to put it to a practical test.
His associates had left him to battle alone for his interests and theirs.
F.O.J. Smith was in Portland, Maine, attending to his own affairs;
Professor Gale was in the South filling a professorship; and Alfred Vail
was in Philadelphia. No one of them, as far as I can ascertain, was doing
anything to help in this critical period of the enterprise which was to
benefit them all.

When credit is to be awarded to those who have accomplished something
great, many factors must be taken into consideration. Not only must the
aspirant for undying fame in the field of invention, for instance, have
discovered something new, which, when properly applied, will benefit
mankind, but he must prove its practical value to a world
constitutionally skeptical, and he must persevere through tri