dreamland wonders of electricity and when but twenty had the theory
practically worked out and his patience and enthusiasm were simply
amazing. He actually tried more than two thousand experiments along a
single line before he was able to demonstrate the truth of one of his
own theories.

No one crosses the Atlantic Ocean these days who is not impressed with
the marvels of this wonderful discovery. Through it the seven seas have
became great whispering galleries. One of the greatest races the writer
ever saw he did not see at all. For three days and nights two great
ocean liners raced across the deep and never came in sight of each other
at all. Yet every few hours we all knew just which ship was gaining and
it was really a most exciting race. A few hours after Roosevelt was shot
in Milwaukee I heard the news by wireless although I was on board a ship
in the China Sea on the other side of the world.

The telephone was given second place in the list of modern wonders. It
is hard to realize that the telephone only dates back to 1875. It was
during that year that Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant, Thomas A.
Watson, were making experiments in a building in Boston. Mr. Watson was
in the basement with an instrument trying without success to talk with
Mr. Bell in the room above. Finally the latter made a little change in
the instrument and spoke and Mr. Watson came rushing upstairs greatly
excited, saying: "Why, Mr. Bell, I heard your voice distinctly and could
almost understand what you were saying."

The next year the imperfect telephone was exhibited at the Centennial in
Philadelphia, but for a time it was the laughing stock of most people
and hardly anyone ever dreamed that it would ever be more than a mere
plaything. One day Dom Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil, who knew Mr. Bell
personally, came in. With him was Sir William Thompson, the great
English scientist. The emperor was given the receiver and placed it to
his ear and was suddenly startled, saying: "My God, it speaks." This
amused all, but greatly interested the man of science and thus the
telephone was brought into prominence. While at the World's Fair in San
Francisco I sat with a receiver and heard a man speaking in New York as
plainly as though he were in the next room. Sitting within the sound of
the waves of the Pacific, I was connected up with Atlantic City and
heard the waves of the Atlantic.

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