sent to and received by members of Congress containing information which could not have been previously agreed upon by Professor Morse and his assistants, and the spectators were more than convinced of the genuine transmission of messages by the electro-telegraph.

PRESIDENT POLK'S NOMINATION TELEGRAPHED.

Two days later the news of the nomination of James K. Polk for President of the United States was sent over the new line from Baltimore to Washington. It was the first dispatch of the kind ever sent, and its receipt in Washington created quite a sensation and went to swell the fame of Professor Morse.

No sooner had the invention proven a success than numerous telegraph companies were organized, and the stock found ready sale. It was but a few years until Professor Morse had accumulated a large fortune, which was immensely increased by the adoption of his invention abroad. Yale College conferred on him the degree of LL. D., and later he was made a member of many scientific and art academies in this and the old world. European monarchs seemed delighted and determined to do him honor, and nearly every one of them conferred upon him some honor or title before his death, which occurred in 1872.

HELPED LAY ATLANTIC CABLE.

The honor and credit for laying the first telegraph, or cable, under the Atlantic Ocean belongs to Cyrus W. Field, who conceived the idea after talking with a Mr. Frederick Gisborne, of Newfoundland, who had a plan to establish a telegraph line between New York and St. Johns, which latter place should be the western terminus of swift steamers to London or Liverpool. In this way ocean communication between the two countries could be reduced to a period of five or six days. From this conversation Mr. Field conceived the idea of laying a telegraph wire on the bottom of the Atlantic so there might be instant communication between the two countries. It was a gigantic proposition and one attended by many difficulties, dangers, delays and heart-breaking experiences before it was successfully accomplished.

Mr. Field's first step was to consult Professor Morse, who told him the plan was feasible, and who rendered him the most valuable assistance during his thirteen years of anxiety and ceaseless toil.

Professor Morse took a personal interest in the great work of laying the

Atlantic cable, and was present at every unsuccessful attempt, and took part in the final success on the 27th day of July, 1866. Except Mr. Field no man is entitled to more credit for the successful laying of the great ocean cable than Samuel Finley Breese Morse.

Few Americans who have risen from obscurity to fame have had so much to contend with as Professor Morse. Unlike Fulton he had no rich patron to put up the money to make the test of his invention. Unlike Whitney he had no rich friend to furnish him the means to live and buy material for him while he was at work on his models. He had to go it alone, and that without any encouragement; indeed, the reverse was the case, for those who knew what he was trying to do were more inclined to ridicule him than to help him

He was a fine illustration of what American brains and pluck can and will do when they are united, as they were in his case.

To-day the civilized world is covered with telegraph lines, on which the Morse code is used. This is true of the United States, of all continental Europe from the northern boundary of Russia to the southern boundaries of Italy and Spain, eastward through the Turkish Empire, south into Egypt and northern Africa, and through India, Australia and many parts of China.

DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT.

CHAPTER XXXII.

A MIDSHIPMAN AT NINE-AND-A-HALF YEARS OLD-FOUGHT
AS A BOY IN A FAMOUS BATTLE IN THE WAR OF 1812-
NAVAL HERO OF THE CIVIL WAR-CAPTOR OF
NEW ORLEANS-RUNNING THE BATTERIES

AT VICKSBURG-HIS GREAT VIC

TORY AT MOBILE BAY.

"N"

EVER mind the torpedoes! Go ahead! Four bells, Captain Drayton! Jouett, full speed!" cried Admiral Farragut from the port main rigging of his flagship, Hartford, as the squadron under his command was entering the channel of Mobile Bay.

Already one vessel of his squadron, the Tecumseh, had been blown up by a torpedo and sunk before his eyes. The vessel next ahead of him, the Brooklyn, was backing up to escape the line of torpedoes across the channel, and the rear vessels of the squadron were crowding on those in the van. For a moment confusion reigned and a great disaster seemed to be impending. The batteries of Farragut's squadron were silent, while Mobile Point, held by the enemy, was a sheet of living flame.

Then it was that the voice of the Admiral, as he stood lashed in the rigging, rang loud and clear above every other sound in his order to disregard the torpedoes and go ahead. With the word the Hartford, with Jouett's ship, the Metacomet, lashed to her side, shot ahead of the Brooklyn and led the way, through shot and shell, past the enemy's forts into Mobile Bay, where the most brilliant naval victory of the War of the Rebellion was won for the Union.

Years after an act of similar heroism and a daring disregard of mines and torpedoes was to be repeated by one of Admiral Farragut's pupils-George Dewey at the entrance of Manila Bay.

David Glasgow Farragut, the first Admiral of the United States Navy, was of Spanish descent on his father's side of the house, where he could trace

his ancestry back to Pedro Ferragut, who was Sergeant before the King, James I of Aragon, known as El Conquistador (the Conqueror) in the war for the expulsion of the Moors in the Thirteenth century.

The father of Admiral Porter died under the care and in the house of Admiral Farragut's father, and was nursed by Mrs. Farragut in his last illness. When Admiral Porter, then Commander of the Naval Station at New Orleans, learned this fact he visited the Farraguts and adopted young David, and placed him in school.

A MIDSHIPMAN WHEN LESS THAN TEN.

In Washington young Farragut met the Secretary of the Navy, Paul Hamilton, who promised to make him a midshipman when he became ten years of age. This promise was more than faithfully kept, for Farragut received his warrant when he was but nine years and five months old, and made his first cruise with Porter on the Essex when he took command in 1811.

He saw his first battle when scarcely thirteen years of age; the famous fight between the American ship Essex and the British ships Phoebe and Cherub outside the harbor of Valparaiso. In this action young Farragut performed the duties of Captain's aid, quarter gunner and powder boy.

In the war with the Barbary States young Farragut was with Commodore Bainbridge's squadron, which arrived too late to take part in the fighting, as Decatur had whipped the Algerians and made a treaty of peace with the Bey.

It was in the American civil war that Farragut gained his laurels both as a naval commander and a desperate fighter. When the war broke out he was living in Norfolk, Virginia. When he openly endorsed the seizure of forts and arsenals by President Lincoln, he was told that he could not live in Norfolk.

"Very well," he said, "I will live somewhere else."

CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS.

In January, 1862, he was put in command of the naval expedition against New Orleans. His fleet was made up of forty-eight wooden vessels, among them his flagship Hartford, which was also to serve him in his most glorious victory at Mobile Bay. Seventy miles south of New Orleans the river was defended by two forts, Jackson and St. Philip. These forts were on opposite sides of the river, and above them were the Confederate gunboats and rams.