TOWN DRUDGERY. 235 



perfected phonograph, and there can be no 

 reasonable doubt as to its future perfection, 

 whether this is achieved a year or twenty years '*** Htn 

 hence, will not only give us books at a cost m-^*^- * 

 significant as compared to that of ink ancr^* ^ 

 paper, but in a far pleasanter form ; it will be a^.*^ 

 pleasant reader always ready to read by the 

 hour or the day. Not only this, but it will give,^. 

 us music of any kind the latest song or the^^f ^ 

 newest orchestral symphony in a manner to be 

 enjoyed even by experts. So much has been 

 accomplished with the phonograph that nothing 

 seems to be too extraordinary to claim for it. 

 It is no dream to say that as a means of com- 

 municating thoughts and words, the phono- 

 graph will do more for the world as an educa- 

 tor than printing. In the future, authors will/^*-*-' 

 not write their books they will read them, and ' Jl *n ' 

 phonographic copies of the result will be so " tu ' 

 cheap that our books of to-day will seem ex- 

 travagantly dear in comparison. With music 

 it will be the same thing, only that the phono- 

 graph will do in this field what it has never 

 been possible to do before. To provide for the 

 intellectual food of man was formerly more 

 difficult than to provide for his physical suste- 



