The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
909 
This Picture 
from an actual photograph. It 
shows Messrs. Bingham, Farns¬ 
worth and Follett listening to Mr. 
Edison's Realism Test in the Edison 
Shop on Fifth Avenue, New York. 
Famous Psychologists 
Try the REALISM TEST 
Scientists from American universities find that strange things happen during 
Mr. Edison’s new musical test. Wouldn't vou like to try the same test? 
T HERE S no woman in this picture. 
Anybody can see that. Yet these 
three men declared they heard her. 
I was there when they made their astound¬ 
ing statements—in the Edison Shop, on 
Fifth Avenue, New York. 
In the rear ot this temple of music is a 
gioat hall, where there’s usually a concert 
going on. On this particular day its doors 
were half open. Inside it was half dark— 
and silent as a church at midnight. 
then a voice floated to my ears from 
within. It was an exquisite voice,singing just 
a sweet, simple song. It had that appealing 
sort ot beauty that reaches down inside you 
and makes you teel lumpy in your throat. 
I looked through the doors to see the 
singer. Rut I saw no singer at all—just 
three men seated with their backs toward a 
phonograph. Their heads were bowed. The 
magic beauty of the ballad had fixed them 
with its spell. 
I lie music died away. The three men did 
not stir. They seemed lost to the world. 
finally one found his voice: “l could 
nne sworn theie was a living singer behind 
me. It was marvelous. Carried me back to 
a certain summer I spent in my youth.” 
Hie second man said: “I felt the pres¬ 
ence of a living singer. She was singing— 
free and unrestrained. The accompaniment 
seemed by a separate instrument.” 
The third then spoke up:‘ ‘The music filled 
my mind with thoughts of peace and beauty.” 
I didn't know what to make of it until 
some one explained. It was Mr. Edison’s 
famous Realism Test. These three dis¬ 
tinguished men of art and science had been 
trying it on themselves—to see whether 
listening to the New Edison caused the 
same emotions as listening to a living singer. 
Director Bingham and his colleagues 
T he man who first spoke is a famous 
psychologist. He experiments with 
music and how it makes us feel and dream. 
He has found how music can speed you up, 
or slow you down, why it soothes your 
nerves, how it takes away that tired feeling. 
He is l)r. \V. V. Bingham. Director of the 
Department of Applied Psychology, Car¬ 
negie Institute of Technology. 
One ot his colleagues is Professor C. El. 
lams worth, Director of the Department of 
Music, Teachers College, Columbia Uni¬ 
versity. Professor Farnsworth knows music 
just as the physician knows medicines. If 
you want music that cheers, or music that 
inspires, or music that <4 peps vou up,” he’ll 
tell you which music to play. 
Wilson Eollett, Esq., looks at music just 
as do you. He likes good music, and he 
knows how he likes it. He is a distinguished 
author and music critic. 
When such famous psychologists feel the 
presence of a living singer, although she 
isn't present at all—when such highly crit¬ 
ical minds experience strange and vivid 
sensations through the Realism Test, it is 
proot that the Realism Test provides a valu¬ 
able scientific method oftesting your capacity 
to enjoy music. 
You can try the same test 
TV/fR. EDISON’S Realism Test is an ideal way 
IT 1 for you to judge the New Edison. It tells 
you just how the New Edison is going to please 
you and your friends in your home. 
V ouldn’t you like to try the same test? There’s 
an Edison dealer near you, who has equipped 
himself to give the Realism Test. Watch for his 
announcement in the local newspapers, and stop 
in his store the next time you are in town. He 
will give you the Realism Test just as it was 
given for the noted psychologists in the Edison 
Shop on Fifth Avenue, New York. 
If you can’t find his announcement, write us 
and we’ll send you a special card of introduction 
to him, and also mail you a copy of that absorbing 
story, “Edison and Music,” which tells how Mr. 
Edison brought the phonograph to its perfection. 
Just send your name and address to 
THOMAS A. EDISON, Inc., Orange, N. J. 
She ‘Phonograph with a Soul 
