idea how lovely this spot is. Not
a day passes that I do not feel it. If I have trouble abroad, I have
peace, and love, and happiness at home. My sweet wife I find, indeed, a
rich treasure. Uniformly cheerful and most affectionate, she makes
sunshine all the day. God's gifts are worthy of the giver."

It was in the early days of 1849 that a gift of another kind was received
by him which could not fail to gratify him. This was a decoration, the
"Nichan Iftikar" or "Order of Glory," presented to him by the Sultan of
Turkey, the first and only decoration which the Sultan of the Ottoman
Empire had conferred upon a citizen of the United States. It was a
beautiful specimen of the jeweller's art, the monogram of the Sultan in
gold, surrounded by 130 diamonds in a graceful design. It was accompanied
by a diploma (or _berait_) in Turkish, which being translated reads:--

IN THE NAME OF HIM
SULTAN ABDUL HAMID KHAN
Son of Mahmoud Khan, son of Abdul Hamid Khan--may he ever be victorious!

The object of the present sovereign decoration of Noble Exalted Glory, of
Elevated Place, and of this Illustrious World Conquering Monogram is as
follows:

The bearer of this Imperial Monogram of exalted character, Mr. Morse, an
American, a man of science and of talents, and who is a model of the
Chiefs of the nation of the Messiah--may his grade be increased--having
invented an Electrical Telegraph, a specimen of which has been exhibited
in my Imperial presence; and it being proper to patronize knowledge and
to express my sense of the value of the attainments of the Inventor, as
well as to distinguish those persons who are the Inventors of such
objects as serve to extend and facilitate the relations of mankind, I
have conferred upon him, on my exalted part, an honorable decoration in
diamonds, and issued also this present diploma, as a token of my
benevolence for him.

Written in the middle of the moon Sefer, the fortunate, the year of the
Flight one thousand two hundred and sixty-four, in Constantinople the
well-guarded.

The person who was instrumental in gaining for the inventor this mark of
recognition from the Sultan was Dr. James Lawrence Smith, a young
geologist at that time in the employ of the Sultan. He, aided by the
Reverend C. Hamlin, of the Armenian Seminary at Bebek, gave an exhibition
of the working of the telegraph before the Sultan and all the officers of
his Government, and when it was proposed to decorate him for his tro