Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-04-09
TELEPHONE BELL.
AN INVENTORS REMARKABLE
AND ROMANTIC C.IREER.
beginning Life as an Unknown
Teacher-Now a Famous and
Wealthy Inventor-His Inter
est in Deafand Dumb People.

l write of Telephone Bell and his mil
lions, writes Washington correspondent
of the Baltimore Nelcs. Twelve years
ago the poor teacher of deaf and dumb
school in Boston, his quarters some sec
Ond floor rooms in a private boarding
house, his pockets empty and his name
unknown; now the famed inventor. his
home one of the finest mansions in Wash
ington, his check good for millions, and
his society courted by savants and states
men. Then a lone bachelor, without
great expectations, and in love with a
rich mans daughter, whose dumb lips
he was teaching to utter human speech
Now the wealthy husband of this beauti-
full girl, his home is blessed with chill
dren, and his invention has increased
many times his father-in- laws wealth.
Telephone Bell is now between forty
and fifty years of age. He is a Scotch
man, with the dark complexion of a
Spaniard. His face is full and regular
and his forehead very high and whittier
than the rest of his fare His hair is thick
and its color is that of ole ebony. His
face is covered with full, black beard,
which curls and twists, and his eyes are
a soft, velvety black. He dresses usually
in business clothing and he is democratic
in his manners.
Telephone Bells house is on Scott
circle, in the most fashionable part of the
fashionable northwest section of Wash
ington. The Bell house is an immense
one, and its material is pressed brick of
Pompeian red. The front door opens
into the porte cochere. The interior of
the house is elegant and rich, and its
furnishings have been brought from the
four quarters of the earth AS the door
opens, just in front of you and across a
roomy hall appears the entrance to the
music room. The portieres of rich hang
lngs are parted, and a marble psyche,
with a bird perched upon her shoulder
and singing in her ear, looks out from in
front of the grand piano Telephone Bell
is an accomplished musician, and he plays
the finest of the elias steal music at sight.
He is passionately fond of music, and
his musicales are noted in Washington
society.
Mr.. Bell is fond of good society, and
his wife is one of the most accomplished
ladies of Washington She is very pretty
and though stone deaf she can under
stand perfectly by noticing the move
ment of the lips of the persons addressing
her, She was the daughter of the rich
Gardiner Hubbard, of Boston. She lost
her hearing when she was five years old,
and her father feared she would become
a deaf mute. He sent her to school in
Germany, to the deaf and dumb profess
sors there, and after she returned to Amer
lea, at the age Of fifteen, she went to Mr.,
Bells school in Boston. Bell fell in love
with her, and they were finally married.
When he completed his invention his
father-in-law was taken into partnership
with him, and the two organized the OIL
gantic telephone monopoly. The Bell
mansion, however, belongs to Mrs. Bell,
and it is present to her from her father
1t cost more than $780, 00
Telephone Bells library is in the top
of the house, and he works away here
NIGHT after night until all the world is
asleep. His working hours are from 1
o'clock p. NJ. until in the morning, and
he spends these hours in study almost as
regularly as the days 90 round. He is a
great student, and his scientific re-
searches take a wide range. He is finely
educated, speaks French and knows
German. The library is made up of two
large rooms the walls of which are lined
/ with books. At d common flat walnut
desk, sitting on an Office chair cushioned
with green leather, Mr.. Bell works The
desk is covered with books and papers.
A porcelain hand with letters pasted
upon it lies at one SIDE and this, am
/ told. is an invention for teaching dea
children to converse with each other by
touching certain spots on the hand, which
represent letters. The deaf person asso
ciates these spots with the letters, and
Mr.. Bells secretary tells me that Mr.
Bell can stand back to back with dea
child of Washington, and bv the dea
child putting his hand behind him 81
that Bell can touch its PALM he can tall
to him at the rate of ninety words
minute. These hands are used in Mr.
Bells private school for the deaf.
The education of the deaf is one 0
Telephone Bells hobbies, and he has spen
a great deal of money upon it. He hat
for time deaf and dumb school her
at Washington, where at his own eXDenst
he taught n number Of little deaf ant
dumb children. Some of these children
are being taught under his direction
yet, though the main branch of tn
school has been discontinued.
Mr.. Bell does not believe in deaf an
dumb asylums, and says that the associ
alton of the deaf mutes together in thes
is rapidly forming race of deaf mute
in the United States. He tells me Their
are 80, S1S deaf mutes in the United
States, or one for every 1900 of the pop
ulation. He states that the vocal organ
of deaf people are usually perfect, ant
that their inability to speak comes from
their not being able to hear and thus i'm
itate sounds. He has shown that dea
mutes can be taught to speak.
Professor Bell keeps up his electrical
experiments, though he is very close
mouthed about what he is doing. FIJI
laboratory has been. until last month, in
little dilapidated brick building amon
the trees, on Connecticut avenue Thi
laboratory haS been known as the Volt
laboratory, and it was founded with tn
Volta prize money of $4,000, which tn
French Academy awarded Bell for tn
telephone. What Bell is worth now N
one knows. I heard the figure put a
So, 900, 900, and I suppose his father-in
law, Gardiner Hubbard, is worth at leas
as much more.