April 14, 1844. Ezra Cornell to Mary Ann Cornell: "?for if I could get [Alonzo] a place at a dollar a day it would be better than some men could do, at any rate it would be better than loafing about fall Creek." April 21, 1844. Ezra Cornell to Mary Ann Cornell: "We are getting along with the telegraph to a good advantage, and it works well, we have got out 14.5 miles from Washington, and at that distance I can converce with Professor Morse as readily as though I was within two feet of him." April 25, 1844. F.O.J. Smith to Ezra Cornell: "In practical matters I do not think there ever was yoked into one team a pair of more decidedly unteachable asses than the Professor and [Vail] without your good common sense to temper their follies, the whole concern would have before this become a laughing stock to the country." Topics: Family correspondence; Mesmerism; plow business; Ithaca elections featuring Loco Foco and Abolitionist Parties; Whig Convention in Baltimore; telegraph; appropriations from Congress. Personal names: Cornell, E.B.; Smith, F.O.J.; Morse, Samuel F.B.; Burbank, David; Cornell, Mary Ann; Vail, Alfred Geography: Ithaca, N.Y.; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore