'Well, William ?' he said, looking up,
as the boy entered; and when the message was delivered he started to his
feet. In a few minutes he was standing in the experimental-room, and
the apparatus was explained. Calling for a piece of paper he wrote upon
it the words, 'A PATIENT WAITER IS NO LOSER,' and handed it to Alfred,
with the remark, 'If you can send this, and Mr. Morse can read it at the
other end, I shall be convinced.' The message was transmitted, and for
a moment the judge was fairly mastered by his feelings.
The apparatus was then exhibited in New York, in Philadelphia, and
subsequently before the Committee of Congress at Washington. At first
the members of this body were somewhat incredulous about the merits of
the uncouth machine; but the Chairman, the Hon. Francis O. J. Smith, of
Maine, took an interest in it, and secured a full attendance of the
others to see it tried through ten miles of wire one day in February.
The demonstration convinced them, and many were the expressions of
amazement from their lips. Some said, 'The world is coming to an end,'
as people will when it is really budding, and putting forth symptoms of
a larger life. Others exclaimed, 'Where will improvements and
discoveries stop?' and 'What would Jefferson think should he rise up and
witness what we have just seen?' One gentleman declared that, 'Time and
space are now annihilated.
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