him have thirty thousand dollars to construct a telegraph line
from Washington to Baltimore. He felt sure that business men would
be glad to send messages by telegraph, and to pay him for his work.
But many members of Congress laughed at it, and said they might as
well give Professor Morse the money to build "a railroad to the moon."

Week after week went by, and the last day that Congress would sit
was reached, but still no money had been granted. Then came the last
night of the last day (March 3d, 1843). Professor Morse stayed in
the Senate Chamber[7] of Congress until after ten o'clock; then,
tired and disappointed he went back to his hotel, thinking that he
must give up trying to build his telegraph line.

[Footnote 7: Senate Chamber: Congress (or the body of persons chosen
to make the laws of the United States) is divided into two
classes,--Representatives and Senators; they meet in different
rooms or chambers in the Capitol at Washington.]

226. Miss Annie Ellsworth brings good news.--The next morning Miss
Annie G. Ellsworth met him as he was coming down to breakfast. She
was the daughter of his friend who had charge of the Patent Office
in Washington. She came forward with a smile, grasped his hand, and
said that she had good news for him, that Congress had decided to
let him have the money. Surely you must be mistaken, said the
professor, for I waited last night until nearly midnight, and came
away because nothing had been done. But, said the young lady, my
father stayed until it was quite midnight, and a few minutes before
the clock struck twelve Congress voted[8] the money; it was the very
last thing that was done.

Professor Morse was then a gray-haired man over fifty. He had worked
hard for years and got nothing for his labor. This was his first great
success. He doesn't say whether he laughed or cried--perhaps he felt
a little like doing both.

[Footnote 8: Voted: here this word means given or granted.]

227. The first telegraph line built; the first message sent; the
telegraph and the telephone[9] now.--When, at length, Professor
Morse did speak, he said to Miss Ellsworth, "Now, Annie, when my line
is built from Washington to Baltimore, you shall send the first
message over it." In the spring of 1844 the line was completed, and
Miss Ellsworth sent these words over it (they are words taken from
the Bible): "_What hath God wrought!_"[10]

[Illustration: WHAT THE BIRDS THINK TELEGRAPH WIRES WERE P