Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-10-31
THE TELEPHONE UNMASKED.
The Danger which Turks i'm an Appa-
rently Harmless and Useful Inyen-
ton Pointed Out.
New York Times.

III Is ClDlo ludG tie dUTOClOuS nature OF
the telephone should be fully exposed,
and it's inventors, of whom there are
a quantity, held up to public execra-
ton.
When this notorious instrument was
first introduced, it was pretended that
it's purpose was an innocent one. We
were told that the telephone enabled
a man in New York to hear what
a man in Philadelphia might saw : and
though it was difficult to understand WHY
anybody should ever want to listen to
a Philadelphian's remark, which, no.
toriously, consist exclusively of illusions
to the Centennial exhibition and alleged
line of American steamships, = there
was nothing necessarily immoral in this
possible use of the telephone Then it
was claimed that by means of the tele-
phone conversations could be carried
on with other than Philadelphians, and
that political speeches delivered in
Washington could be heard in any city
of the continent AS the president was
at that time making speeches in Yer
mont instead of Washington, the public
was not alarmed by this announcement,
and it was not until the telephone con-
spirators mentioned that the uproar of
a Grassland could be transmitted to
any distance through the telephone that
any general feeling of uneasiness was
developed. Nevertheless, the vast cap
abilities for mischief of the telephone,
and the real purpose of it's unprinci-
pied inventors have been studiously
concealed, and it is only by accident
that the greatness and imminence of
the danger to which the public is ex-
posed have suddenly been revealed.
Suspicion ought to have been awak-
ened by the recent publication of the
fact that if the lamp-posts of our city
were to be connected by wires, every
confidential remark made to lamp
post by belated democratic statesman
could be reproduced by telephone
connected with any other lamp-post
1t is true that this publication was os-
tensibly made in the interest Of the
police force, and it was recommended
that patrolmen should use the lamp
posts as means of communication with
police headquarters 1t was evident,
however, that the result would be to
make every lamp-post a spy upon mid
night wayfarers. Men who had trusted
to friendly lamp-posts for years, and
embraced them with the utmost conf
dence in their silence and discretion,
would find themselves shamelessly be-
trayed, and their unsuspecting solilo-
quies literally reported to their indie-
nant families ; strange to say this sug-
gestive hint Of the powers of the tele-
rhnnn Of ot 0I Oft o,,1 hoc
ere this been in all probability for
gotten.
A series Of incidents which has lately
occurred in Providence has, however,
clearly shown the frightful capabilities
of the telephone. Two men, to whom,
SO far as is known, no improper motive
can be attributed, were recently expert
menting with telephone, the wire of
which was attached over the roofs of
innumerable buildings, and was esti-
mated to be fully four miles in length
They relate that on the first evening of
their telephone dissipation they heard
men and women singing songs and elo-
quent clergymen preaching ponderous
sermons and that they detected sew
eral persons in the act Of practicing
upon brass Instruments. This sort of
thing was repeated every evening, while
on Sunday morning perfect deluge Of
partially conglomerated sermons rushed
in upon them. These are the main
facts mentioned by the two men in what
may be called their official report of
their experiments, but 1t is asserted
that they heard other things which
they did not venture to openly repeat.
The remarks Of thousands of midnight
cats were borne to their listening ears.
The confidential conversation of hun
dreds of husbands and wives We're
whispered through the treacherous tele-
phone, and though the remarks of Mr.
and Mrs. Smith were. sometimes mex
tricably entangled with those of Mr.. and
Mrs. Brown, and it was frequently inn
possible to tell from what particular
wife came the direful threat, "Oh! I'll
just let you know" or from what strong
husband il his agony came the cry,
!" Leg go that hair p the two aston
ished telephone experinenters learned
enough of the secrets of the leading
families of Providence to render it a
hazardous matter for any resident of
that city to hereafter accept nominal
ton for any Office.
Now, it has been ascertained that the
wire of this telephone was not in con-
tact with any other wire, and thus the
hypothesis that the sounds heard by the
two men were messages in process Of
transmission by the usual Geographic
wires is untenable. Moreover, little
reflection will show that cats do not
send telegraph messages, and that lead
ing citizens do not transmit by telegraph
petitions to their wives advocating a
policy Of conciliation in respect to
hair. The scientific persons whom the
two men have consulted have no hesita-
ton in saying that the telephone wire
picked up all the sounds in it's neigh
borhood by the process Of induction.
When the wire passed over a church, it
took up the waves Of sound set in mo-
ton by the preacher and reproduced
them on the telephone. In like man
ner it collected the sounds from the
concert-halls and the dwelling-houses
over the roofs Of which it passed, and
the peculiar distinctness with which it
tranSpo1tto1 tho rom orE-S of cats was