all this time the inventor was kept in suspense as to the
final outcome, and often the future looked very dark indeed, and he was
hard pressed to provide for the present.

On March 5, 1850, he writes to a friend who had requested a loan of a few
hundred dollars:--

"It truly pains me to be obliged to tell you of my inability to make you
a loan, however small in amount or amply secured. In the present
embarrassed state of my affairs, consequent upon these never-ending and
vexatious suits, I know not how soon all my property may be taken from
me. The newspapers, among their other innumerable falsehoods, circulate
one in regard to my 'enormous wealth.' The object is obvious. It is to
destroy any feeling of sympathy in the public mind from the gross
robberies committed upon me. 'He is rich enough; he can afford to give
something to the public from his extortionate monopoly,' etc., etc.

"Now no man likes to proclaim his poverty, for there is a sort of
satisfaction to some minds in being esteemed rich, even if they are not.
The evil of this is that from a rich man more is expected in the way of
pecuniary favors (and justly too), and consequently applications of all
kinds are daily, I might say for the last few months almost hourly, made
to me, and the fabled wealth attributed to me, or to Croesus, would not
suffice to satisfy the requests made."

And, after stating that, of the 11,607 miles of telegraph at that time in
operation, only one company of 509 miles was then paying a dividend, he
adds: "If this fails I have nothing. On this I solely depend, for I have
now no profession, and at my age, with impaired eyesight, I cannot resume
it.

"I have indeed a farm out of which a farmer might obtain his living, but
to me it is a source of expense, and I have not actually, though you may
think it strange, the means to make my family comfortable."

In a letter to Mr. Kendall of January 4, 1851, he enlarges on this
subject:--

"I have been taking in sail for some time past to prepare for the storm
which has so long continued and still threatens destruction, but with
every economy my family must suffer for the want of many comforts which
the low state of my means prevents me from procuring. I contrived to get
through the last month without incurring debt, but I see no prospect now
of being able to do so the present month.... I wish much to know, and,
indeed, it is indispensably necessary I should be informed of the precise
co