was equally unsuccessful in all, and he returned home
almost disheartened, but not entirely cast down. For four years he had
to struggle hard for a living. He was very poor, and, as one of his
friends has since declared, had literally "to coin his mind for bread."
His sturdy independence of character would not allow him to accept
assistance from any one, although there were friends ready and even
anxious to help him in his troubles. Alone and manfully he fought his
way through these dark days, still hopeful of success for his invention,
and patiently seeking to improve it wherever opportunity presented
itself. At length, in 1840, he received his long-delayed patent from the
General Government, and, encouraged by this, determined to make another
effort to bring his telegraph into use.

He was not able to do so until the session of Congress of 1842-43, when
he presented a second petition to that body, asking its aid in the
construction of an experimental line between Baltimore and Washington.
He had to encounter a great degree of skepticism and ridicule, with many
other obstacles, not the least of which was the difficulty of meeting
the expense of remaining in Washington and urging his invention upon the
Government. Still he persevered, although it seemed to be hoping against
hope, as the session drew near its close, and his scanty stock of money
grew daily smaller. On the evening of the 3d of March, 1843, he
returned from the Capitol to his lodgings utterly disheartened. It was
the last night of the session, and nothing had been done in the matter
of his petition. He sat up late into the night arranging his affairs so
as to take his departure for home on the following day. It was useless
to remain in Washington any longer. Congress would adjourn the next day,
and his last hope of success had been shattered.

On the morning of the 4th of March he came down to the breakfast-table
gloomy and despondent. Taking up the morning journal, he ran over it
listlessly. Suddenly his eye rested upon a paragraph which caused him to
spring to his feet in complete amazement. It was an announcement that,
at the very last hour of the session of the previous night, a bill had
been passed by Congress appropriating the sum of thirty thousand dollars
for the purpose of enabling Professor Morse to construct an experimental
line of telegraph between Baltimore and Washington. He could scarcely
believe it real, and, as soon as possible, hastened t