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MORRISON              1266               MORSE

Enough, Fall of the Niblungs and translations from the Icelandic. His socialistic writings and speeches occupied him of late years to the exclusion of poetry. [image of WILLIAM MORRIS] His name is also identified with the household decorations, wall-papers, tiles and stained glass manufactured by the establishment founded by him in 1863, which are well-known in all art circles. His lectures on Hopes and Fears for Art were published in 1882. He died at London, Oct. 3, 1896. See Bibliography by T. Scott and Lives by Gary and Mackail.

Mor'rison, Robert, the founder of Protestant missions in China, was born in Northumberland, England, Jan. 5, 1782. He was sent out in 1807 by the London Missionary Society to Macao and Canton. In 1814 he had translated into Chinese and printed the New Testament, and four years later the Old Testament, with the help of an assistant. In 1823, as translator for the East India Company, he printed the Chinese dictionary at an expense of $60,000. It was the work of 16 years, and in working on it he collected a library of 10,000 Chinese books. The dictionary was afterward translated into Japanese. He established an Anglo-Chinese college at Malacca. He visited England in 1824 and presented his Chinese library to University College, London. While acting as interpreter to Lord Napier, he died at Canton, Aug. i, 1834. See Memoirs by Mrs. Morrison and Robert Morrison by Townsend.

Mor'ristown, N. J., the capital of Morris County and a place of much histoiic interest during the Revolutionary War, is situated in northern central New Jersey, 30 miles west of New York City. It is at a high elevation, and is the home of a number of New York merchants. Here is the famous Ford mansion, occupied by General Washington, now the property of the state's Historical Society. It is reached by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. At Morris Plains near by, is the New Jersey Lunatic Asylum. It is a city of schools, seminaries, hospitals, churches, libraries and banks, and has all the equipment of a growing civic center. Population 12,507.

Morse, Samuel F. B. "I wish that in one instant I could tell you of my safe arrival, but we are 3,000 miles apart and must wait four long weeks to hear from each other." [image]

Finley Morse, a 20-year-old, homesick boy, wrote this sentence in a letter to his mother in 1811. She was in the house where he had been born, and he had taken a long and final flight from the home nest to London, to study art. Twenty-one years went by before a chance conversation aboard ship brought the idea of the electromagnetic recording telegraph to the mind of its inventor, and 55 years before the first cable-message flashed under the Atlantic. The record of that long life of 81 years is one of courage, integrity, patience and faith; of poverty and struggle nobly endured; of obscurity and ridicule nobly chosen; of success and honor hardly won and nobly worn. In time, wireless telegraphy may supersede the present method, but Morse's life must continue to inspire others to great deeds.

Fulton was in London with the idea of the steamboat taking shape in his mind, and Whitney in the senior class in Yale and soon to invent the cotton gin, when, in 1791, Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born in a Congregational parsonage in Charleston, Massachusetts. Samuel Finley, great-grandfather, had been president of Princeton College; his grandfather was a judge on the bench; and his father was a famous divine who counted among his friends and correspondents no less a person than General Washington. So four honored names were bestowed on the baby, and it was taken for granted that he should distinguish himself in some one of the learned professions. From babyhood he was used to the society of famous men and gracious ladies, and the greatest care was taken of his education. There were no public schools at that time, so, after he was seven, Finley was at home only during vacations. He went to Andover grammar-school, to the Phillips Academy and to Yale, where Pres. Timothy Dwight took a personal interest in him. Courteous, studious, with his father's dignity and his mother's gracious manners, young Morse commended himself to teachers and students alike. So deeply did he become interested in chemistry and natural philosophy, especially in electromagnetism, that he remained in New Haven throughout one vacation in order to experiment in the laboratory.

Like Fulton, Morse combined a talent for art with aptitude in physics and skill in mechanics. These are not so far apart as one might think. All imply the possession of imagination and creative power of a high order. To miniature-painting Morse early turned as a means of earning money. It was a keen disappointment to his father when his oldest son, the bearer of so many honored names, chose to be an artist, for art in New England was looked upon at that time as a

WILLIAM MORRIS

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE