32 Mr. John Lee on 



we are still speaking with two tin cans and a drum of parchment, 

 now shouting at the parchment and now turning our mouths 

 away and shouting through the pure air, "Could you hear that 

 Bill 1 " The favourite phrase is " Are yon there ?" It is an 

 emphasis of distance, a puerile phrase, an indication of vacuity 

 of mind, for indeed we should shudder if the answer " No ! " came 

 along. The word " Hello ! " which is regarded with disfavour 

 nowadays, took its origin in the convenient shout which made 

 the hills resound. We need other phrases, but much more than 

 that we need the psychological realization that the person to 

 whom we are speaking is close by. Until we get this psj'chological 

 realization we shall never use the telephone efficiently. . No 

 matter how Science may improve it, no matter how clearly and 

 distinctly the newer receiver may give us the distant voice, so 

 long as we have the framework of distance and of wonder as 

 the primary outfit of our minds, just so long shall we shout 

 " Hello ! " and " Are you there ? " and so long will the telephone 

 continue to be a tin can and a parchment diaphragm. 



This conception of distance vanishes from the mind of the 

 expert. I could show you a group of ladies speaking with infinite 

 ease from London to all the great towns of the country. They 

 pass from the Brighton subscriber to the Liverpool subscriber 

 with infinite ease. They speak in a soft, subdued voice, a 

 trained voice, as if they realized the new intimacy. They are 

 not overwhelmed with the wonder of the thing ; they are taught 

 to harness the lightning and not to shudder at it. They will 

 say "Liverpool" with a rising inflexion, which means "Please 

 tell me, Liverpool, if you are Avithin earshot ; " they will reply 

 "Liverpool" with a falling inflexion which says: "I am in 

 attendance ; I am Liverpool and not Newcastle-on-Tyne " ; but 

 it does not say or suggest " I am at Liverpool, two hundred miles 

 away." That intimate and trusting use of the telephone needs 

 to be cultivated and then the telephone will be really useful, but 

 it is not done in a generation. The framework of mind to 

 which we have grown accustomed is not readily changed. The 



