“Succeeding the hand-shaking the Director spoke again, and, in reply, Mr. Morse gratefully acknowledged the courtesy shown to him, adding:  ’It is very gratifying to me to hear you say that the Telegraph has been and is a means of promoting peace among men.  Believe me, gentlemen, my remaining days shall be devoted to this great object.’...

“The Director then led his visitors into a small, cosily furnished room, saying as they entered:  ’Here I have so often thought of you, Mr. Morse, but I never thought I should have the honor of receiving you in my own private room.’

“After they were seated the host, tapping upon a small table, continued:  ‘Over this passed the important telegrams of the war of 1866.’  Then, approaching a large telegraph map on the wall, he added:  ’Upon this you can see how invaluable was the telegraph in the war.  Here,’—­pointing with the forefinger of his right hand,—­’here the Crown Prince came down through Silesia.  This,’ indicating with the other forefinger a passage through Bohemia, ’was the line of march of Prince Friedrich Carl.  From this station the Crown Prince telegraphed Prince Friedrich Carl, always over Berlin, “Where are you?” The answer from this station reached him, also over Berlin.  The Austrians were here,’ placing the thumb on the map below and between the two fingers.  ’The next day Prince Friedrich Carl comes here,’—­the left forefinger joined the thumb,—­’ and telegraphs the fact, always over Berlin, to the Crown Prince, who hurries forward here.’  The forefinger of the right hand slipped quickly under the thumb as if to pinch something, and the narrator looked up significantly.

“Perhaps the patriotic Director thought of the July afternoon when, eagerly listening at the little mahogany-topped table, over which passed so many momentous messages, he learned that the royal cousins had effected a junction at Koeniggraetz, a junction that decided the fate of Germany and secured Prussia its present proud position, a junction which but for his modest visitor’s invention, the telegraph, ’always over Berlin,’ would have been impossible.”

Returning to Paris with his family, he spent some months at the Hotel de la Place du Palais Royal, principally in collecting all the data necessary to the completion of his report, which had been much delayed owing to the dilatoriness of those to whom he had applied for facts and statistics.  On April 14, 1868, he says in a letter to the Honorable John Thompson:  “Pleasant as has been our European visit, with its advantages in certain branches of education, our hearts yearn for our American home.  We can appreciate, I hope, the good in European countries, be grateful for European hospitality, and yet be thorough Americans, as we all profess to be notwithstanding the display of so many defects which tend to disgrace us in the eyes of the world.”

On May 18 he writes to Senator Michel Chevalier:  “And now, my dear sir, farewell.  I leave beautiful Paris the day after to-morrow for my home on the other side of the Atlantic, more deeply impressed than ever with the grandeur of France, and the liberality and hospitality of her courteous people, so kindly manifested to me and mine.  I leave Paris with many regrets, for my age admonishes me that, in all probability, I shall never again visit Europe.”