id sum shall be appropriated for trying Mesmeric
experiments under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury."

Mr. Mason arose to a question of order. He maintained that the
amendment was not _bona fide,_ and that such amendments were
calculated to injure the character of the House. He appealed to
the Chair, the House being then in committee of the whole, to rule
the amendment out of order.

The Chairman said that it was not for him to judge of the motives of
members who offered amendments, and that he could not therefore
undertake to pronounce the amendment not _bona fide._ Objection
might be raised to it on the ground that it was not sufficiently
analogous in character to the bill under consideration; but, in
the opinion of the Chair, it would require a scientific analysis
to determine how far the magnetism of mesmerism was analogous to
that employed in telegraphs. He therefore ruled the amendment
in order.

The amendment was rejected. The bill was subsequently reported
favorably to the House, and two days later passed by the close vote
of eighty-nine to eighty-three.

The bill then went to the Senate, and was placed upon the calendar.
A large number of bills were ahead of it, and Mr. Morse was assured
by a kindly Senator that there was no possible chance for its
consideration. All hope seemed to forsake the great inventor, as,
from his seat in the gallery, he was a gloomy witness of the waning
hours of the session. Unable longer to endure the strain, he sought
his humble dwelling an hour before final adjournment. On
arising the next morning, a little girl, the daughter of a faithful
friend, ran up to him with a message from her father, to the effect
that in the hurry and confusion of the midnight hour, and just
before the close of the session, the Senate had passed his bill,
which immediately received the signature of the President.

With the sum thus appropriated at his command, Morse now earnestly
resumed the experiments, which a few months later resulted so
successfully. Referring to the homeward voyage from Europe, in
1832, his biographer says:

"One day Dr. Charles S. Jackson of Boston, a fellow passenger,
described an experiment recently made in Paris by means of which
electricity had been instantaneously transmitted through a great
length of wire; to which Morse replied, 'If that be so, I see no
reason why messages may not instantaneously be transmitted by
electricity.'"

The key-note