as unusual, but I asked
no questions and made no remarks. But on Saturday evening, sitting by our
evening lamp, he seemed lost in thought, till suddenly he remarked: 'The
mails in our country are too slow; this French telegraph is better, and
would do even better in our clear atmosphere than here, where half the
time fogs obscure the skies. But this will not be fast enough--_the
lightning would serve us better_.'

"These may not be the exact words, but they convey the sense, and I,
laughing, said: 'Aha! I see what you have been after, you have been
examining the French system of telegraphing.' He admitted that he had
taken advantage of the kind offer of one in authority to do so....

"There was, on one occasion, another reference made to the conveyance of
sound under water, and to the length of time taken to communicate the
letting in of the water into the Erie Canal by cannon shots to New York,
and other means, during which the suggestion of using keys and wires,
like the piano, was rejected as requiring too many wires, if other things
were available. I recollect also that in our frequent visits to Mr. J.
Fenimore Cooper's, in the Rue St. Dominique, these subjects, so
interesting to Americans, were often introduced, and that Morse seemed to
harp on them, constantly referring to Franklin and Lord Bacon. Now I,
while recognizing the intellectual grandeur of both these men, had
contracted a small opinion of their moral strength; but Morse would
uphold and excuse, or rather deny, the faults attributed. Lord Bacon,
especially, he held to have _sacrificed himself to serve the queen in her
aberrations_; while of Franklin, 'the Great American,' recognized by the
French, he was particularly proud."

Cooper also remembered some such hints of a telegraph made by Morse at
that time, for in "The Sea Lions,"[1] on page 161, he says:--

[Footnote 1: The Riverside Press, 1870.]

"We pretend to no knowledge on the subject of the dates of discoveries in
the arts and sciences, but well do we remember the earnestness, and
single-minded devotion to a laudable purpose, with which our worthy
friend first communicated to us his ideas on the subject of using the
electric spark by way of a telegraph. It was in Paris and during the
winter of 1831-82 and the succeeding spring, and we have a satisfaction
in recording this date that others may prove better claims if they can."

Curiously enough, Morse himself could, in after years, never remem