Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals: In Two Volumes, Volume IIMorse, Samuel Finley Breese
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Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals: In Two Volumes, Volume II
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791-1872; Telegraph
Morse must have penned these words with peculiar satisfaction, for they
epitomized his own sublime faith in his future. In 1837 he also was
passing through some of his darkest hours, but he too had had faith, and
now, thirty years afterwards, his dreams of glory had been triumphantly
realized, he was an honored guest of that other man of destiny, and his
name was forever immortalized.
The spring and early summer of 1867 were enjoyed to the full by the now
venerable inventor and his family. The Exposition was a source of
never-ending joy to him, and he says of it in a letter to his son-in-law,
Edward Lind:--
"You will hear all sorts of stories about the Exposition. The English
papers (some of them), in John Bull style, call it a humbug. Let me tell
you that, imperfect as it is in its present condition, going on rapidly
to completion, it may without exaggeration be pronounced the eighth
wonder of the world. It is the world in epitome. I came over with my
children to give them the advantage of thus studying the world in
anticipation of what I now see, and I can say that the two days only in
which I have been able to glance through parts of its vast extent, have
amply repaid me for my voyage here. I believe my children will learn more
of the condition of the arts, agriculture, customs, manufactures and
mineral and vegetable products of the world in five weeks than they could
by books at home in five years, and as many years' travel."
He was made an Honorary Commissioner of the United States to the
Exposition, and he prepared an elaborate and careful report on the
electrical department, for which he received a bronze medal from the
French Government. Writing of this report to his brother Sidney, he
says: "This keeps me so busy that I have no time to write, and I have so
many irons in the fire that I fear some must burn. But father's motto
was--'Better wear out than rust out,'--so I keep at work."
In a letter to his friend, the Honorable John Thompson, of Poughkeepsie,
he describes one of his dissipations:--
"Paris now is the great centre of the World. Such an assemblage of
sovereigns was never before gathered, and I and mine are in the midst of
the great scenes and fêtes. We were honored, a few evenings ago, with
cards to a very select fête given by the emperor and empress at the
Tuilleries to the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Prince of Wales and
Prince Alfred, to the Queen of Portugal, the Grand Duchess Marie of
Russia, sister of the late Emperor Nicholas, a noble looking woman, the
Princess Metternich of Austria, and many others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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