This will be referred to at the proper time, but I have introduced him now to give point to the following extract from a letter of his to Morse, dated December 28, 1845:-- "Do you recollect a person who, while under your hands for a daguerreotype in 1840-41, broke accidentally an eight-dollar lens?
Tho' many tho't you 'visionary' in your ideas of telegraphic communication, that person, you may recollect, took a lively interest in the matter, and made some suggestions about the propriety of pressing the matter energetically upon Congress and upon public attention.

You seemed then to feel pleased to find a person who took so lively an interest in your invention, and you will see by the enclosed circular that that person (your humble servant) has not lost any of his early confidence in its value.

May you reap an adequate reward for the glorious thought!" It was one of life's little ironies that the man who could thus call down good fortune on the head of the inventor should soon after become one of the chief instruments in the effort to rob him of his "adequate reward," and his good name as well.

Morse had such bitter experiences with several persons, who turned from friends to enemies, that it is no wonder he wrote as follows to Vail some time after this date:-- "I am grieved to say that many things have lately come to my knowledge in regard to -- -- that show double-dealing.

Be on your guard.