he following editorial notice appeared in the New York
"Herald":--

MORSE'S ELECTRO-MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH

This important invention is to be exhibited in operation at Castle Garden
between the hours of twelve and one o'clock to-day. One telegraph will be
erected on Governor's Island, and one at the Castle, and messages will be
interchanged and orders transmitted during the day.

Many have been incredulous as to the powers of this wonderful triumph of
science and art. All such may now have an opportunity of fairly testing
it. _It is destined to work a complete revolution in the mode of
transmitting intelligence throughout the civilized world._

Before the appointed hour on the morning of the 19th, Morse hastened to
the Battery, and found a curious crowd already assembled to witness this
new marvel. With confidence he seated himself at the instrument and had
succeeded in exchanging a few signals between himself and Professor Gale
at the other end on Governor's Island, when suddenly the receiving
instrument was dumb. Looking out across the waters of the bay, he soon
saw the cause of the interruption. Six or seven vessels were anchored
along the line of his cable, and one of them, in raising her anchor, had
fouled the cable and pulled it up. Not knowing what it was, the sailors
hauled in about two hundred feet of it; then, finding no end, they cut
the cable and sailed away, ignorant of the blow they had inflicted on the
mortified inventor. The crowd, thinking they had been hoaxed, turned away
with jeers, and Morse was left alone to bear his disappointment as
philosophically as he could.

Later, in December, the experiment was repeated across the canal at
Washington, and this time with perfect success.

Still cramped for means, chafing under the delay which this necessitated,
he turned to his good friends the Vails, hoping that they might be able
to help him. While he shrank from borrowing money he considered that, as
they were financially interested in the success of the invention, he
could with propriety ask for an advance to enable him to go to
Washington.

To his request he received the following answer from the Honorable George
Vail:--

SPEEDWELL IRON WORKS,
December 31, 1842.
S.F.B. MORSE, Esq.,

DEAR SIR,--Your favor is at hand. I had expected that my father would
visit you, but he could not go out in the snow-storm of Wednesday, and,
if he had, I do not think anything could induce him to raise the needful
f