Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-27

that the primal Nh NJ
need of lovers
is communication. Lovers have SO deep distrust
OF each others love that they need to be assured
OF IT from hour to hour. To the philosopher it may
well seem strange that this gertrude of all certudes
should thus be in need of progressive confederation,
But SO it is, and the pampered modern lover may
well wonder how his great-grandfather and great
grandmother supported the days, even kept their
love alive on such famine rations letter once
month. A letter once a MONTH They must have
had enormous faith in each other, those lovers of
old-time, or they must have suffered
hardly bear to think ofwe, who write to each other
twice day, telegraph three times, telephone six and
transmit photographic record of our signs to each
other night and morn. The telephone has made
toy of distance and made of absence, in many
cases sufficient presence 1t is almost worth while
to be apart occasion just for the sake of bringing
each other so magicaly near 1t is the Arabian
Nights come true. As in them you have only to say
word and the Jim of the electric fire is waiting for
your commands. The word has changed. Once it
was Abracadabra Now it is Central" But
the miracle is just the
One might almost venture upon the generalization
that most tragedies have about from lack of a
telephone Of course there are exceptions but as a
rule tragedies happen through delays in communica-
ton
If there had been telephone in Mantua Romeo
would never have bought poison of the apothecary
Instead, he would have asked leave use his long
distance telephone Calling up Verona, he would
first cautiously disguise his voice IT, as usual the
old nurse answered, all well; but if bearded voice
SET all tne wires a-terlDFng ne WOuldi; OF course
hastily ring off, and abuse Central for giving him
the wrong number. And Central" would under
stand. Then Romeo would wait hour or two till
he that Lord Capulet had gone to the Coun-
Gil and ring up again This time he would probably
get the and confde to her his number in
Mantua. Next morning Juliet and her nurse had
only to drop in at the nearest drug store and conde
to Romeo the whole plot which Balthazar so sadly
bunged. All that was needed was a telephone and
Romeo would have understood that Juliet only
feigning death for life with him.
But, as in the case of our Danish knight there was
not a payStaton yet in all che wide world,
and it fully FIVE hundred years to the nearest
telegraph Office. Another point in this tragedy is
worth considering by the modern mind that not
only would the final catastrophe have been averted
by the telephone, but that those beautiful speeches
perate risk to both lovers had the telephone only
been in existence, could have been made in com
pete security from the secluSion of their distant
apartments
Seriously speaking there are few love tragedies
few serious historic crises of any kind, that
might not have been averted by the tele-
% phone. Strange indeed. when one considers
81 a little, is that falacy of senti-
* mentalism which calls science the
! !. ]
~CFsE r LII az enemy of love.
II M q Far from being its enemy.
/N3 science is easily to be its
IA NJ u most romantic servant; for all
M 81 it's strenuous and delicate learning
W iii it brings to the feet of love for a
IAr%A) plaything. Not only will it carry
><~S3| the voice of love space and
49, time, but it will even bring it back
to YOU from eternity 1t will not only carry to
your ears the voices of the living, but it
will also keep safe for you the sweeter voices of the
dead In fact, it would almost though
science had made all its discoveries for the sake of