The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-18

| dividuality of the preacher forms q
very important part of the service and
| that could not be transferred over a
wire, at least not a telephone wire
Why, can you imagine Christ's sermon
on the Mount of Olives being transmit
ted over the telephone2
There is no doubt" continued Dr.
Parkhurst, that our church services
could practically be transferred by
telephone. for 1 remember there was a
lawyer named Beach who resided on
Fourth avenue that used to have the
late Henry Ward Beecher's sermons
transmitted by telephone or some
other manner to his house every Sun
day. Rev. DR.. John Hall has or had a
system of tubes in his church on Fifth
avenue by which his sermons were
transmitted TO pews owned by deaf
parishioners. In that case, however,
the worshipers both heard and saw the
preacher, and therefore received the
full benefit therefrorn. but the tele-
phone case is very different"
Rev PalmerS. Hubert. of the Marble
Collegiate church, Fifth avenue and
Twenty-ninth street: mo. sir, do
not believe in the worship OF God by
telephone, nor do believe it will ever
come into general practice. You can
not transmit the emphasis of the
preacher, his gestures nor the look in
his eye during the delivery of his SER
mon. Not even the full benefit of
service can be had, as the magic of the
human voice docs not go over the wire"
Rev. Father Ducey-''I do not care
to express my personal opinion as to
whether the full benefit of mass
could be transmitted to an invalid or
anyone else absolutely prevented from
attending church; I am here to preach
the word of God and administer the
rites of the Roman Catholic church ac-
cording to its regulations. It holds
distinctly that In order 20 receive mass
the attendant must be in sight of the
church or within sound of its bell.
That is all / wish to say"
Atthe office of tho metropolitan Tele-
phone and Telegraph company in New
York, it was said that the telephone
had never been introduced into any
churches in this country for the pur-
pose of transmitting sermons or church
music. That It could be utilized for
that opurpose there was little or no
doubt. just how many parishioners
could be connected with their favorite
house OF worship could not be told, as
no experiments in the matter had ever
been made.
1t would be necessary, the officers
said, to connect the pulpit with main
wire to a point some distance off, /
where the volume OF sound would /
be distributed on diverging wires TO /,
would vary the number of Subscribers /
that could be supplied from th' wire. |
but the maximum would hardly, so /
far as now known. be over twenty. /
1t would be feasible, however. to con-
meet the receiver with more than one /
main line. Each would receive nearly
the full volume of sound and trans
nit it to the point of distribution.
where again the sound in nearly
equal force would 90 to the Worship
ers- Music had often been transmitted
By telephone, it is said. 10 distant
points, as the public were aware, but
The transmitting of sound through the
telephone from one speaker To num-
Der of different hearers hal not been
fully developed. So far as the com
,aEy was concerned, they could see no
objection to the Introduction OF the
elcphoue il transmitting religious
services JAMES EEaTsALD SHIRLEY.