Chief among these were Mr. Cyrus W. Field and his brother David Dudley Field.
The story of the cable laid across the Atlantic is a long one.
But Mr. Morse lived to see this, too, a success.
When Mr. Morse was eighty years of age, his statue was erected in Central Park, New York.
This was done by the telegraph operators of the country.
It represented Mr. Morse as sending the first message of the telegraph, "What hath G.o.d wrought."
Mr. Morse was present when the statue was unveiled.
In 1872 he became very ill.
His busy life was at an end.
The whole country mourned, as news flashed over the wires that Professor Morse was dying.
The light was going out of those bright, kind eyes.
The fingers that harnessed the steed, Lightning were powerless.
The great brain, that had worked so hard for the world, was ready for rest.
The great heart, that never kept an unkind thought, ceased to beat.
All America mourned for him.
Messages were received from Europe, Asia and Africa, paying tribute to the dead.
Few men have lived such lives as did Samuel Finley Breese Morse.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration: PETER COOPER.]
PETER COOPER.
On the seventh of April, in 1883, the great city of New York was in mourning. Flags were at half-mast. The bells tolled.
Shops were closed, but in the windows were pictures of a kind-faced, white-haired man.
These pictures were draped in black.
All day long tens of thousands of people pa.s.sed by an open coffin in one of the churches.
Some of these people were governors, some millionaires.
There were poor women, too, with little children in their arms.
There were workmen in their common clothes.
There were ragged newsboys.
And all these people had aching hearts.
The great daily papers printed many columns about the sad event.
People in England sent messages by the Atlantic cable that they, too, had sad hearts.
Who was this man for whom the world mourned on that April day?
Was he a president? Oh, no.
A great general? Far from it.
Did he live magnificently and have splendid carriages and fine diamonds?
No, he was simply Peter Cooper, a man ninety-two years old, and the best loved man in America.
Had he given money?
Yes, but other men in our country do that
Had he traveled abroad, and so become widely known?
No, he would never go to Europe because he wished to use his money in a different way.
Why, then, was he loved by so many?
One of the New York papers gave this truthful answer:
"Peter Cooper went through his long life as gentle as a sweet woman, as kind as a good mother, as honest as a man could live, and remain human."
Some boys would be ashamed to be thought as gentle as a girl, but not so Peter Cooper.
He was born poor, and was always willing that everyone should know it.
He despised pride.
When his old horse and chaise came down Broadway, every cartman and omnibus driver turned aside for him.