A Mr. Fry of Philadelphia had also made an offer, and, referring to this,
he wrote to Smith from New York, on July 17: "A letter from Mr. Fry, of
Philadelphia, in answer to the proposals which you sent, I have just
received. I wish much to see you, as I cannot move in this matter until I
know your views. I am here for about a fortnight and wish some
arrangements made by which our business can be transacted without the
necessity of so much waiting and so much writing."

All these negotiations seem to have come to nothing, and I have only
mentioned them as showing Morse's willingness to part with his interest
for much less than he knew it was worth, in order that he might not prove
an obstacle in the expansion of the system by being too mercenary, and so
that he might obtain some measure of freedom from care.

Mr. F.O.J. Smith, while still proving himself a thorn in the flesh to
Morse in many ways, had compiled a Telegraph Dictionary which he called:
"The Secret Corresponding Vocabulary, adapted for Use to Morse's
Electro-Magnetic Telegraph, and also in conducting Written Correspondence
transmitted by the Mails, or otherwise." The dedication reads as follows:

_To Professor Samuel F.B. Morse, Inventor of the Electro-Magnetic
Telegraph_

Sir,--The homage of the world during the last half-century has been, and
will ever continue to be, accorded to the name and genius of the
illustrious American philosopher, Benjamin Franklin, for having first
taught mankind that the wild and terrific ways and forces of the electric
fluid, as it flies and flashes through the rent atmosphere, or descends
to the surface of the earth, are guided by positive and fixed laws, as
much as the movements of more sluggish matter in the physical creation,