baptized in the Patent Office, and
given a royal reception at the Philadelphia Centennial,
it might be supposed that its life thenceforth
would be one of peace and pleasantness.
But as this is history, and not fancy, there must
be set down the very surprising fact that the
young newcomer received no welcome and no
notice from the great business world. "It is a
scientific toy," said the men of trade and
commerce. "It is an interesting instrument, of
course, for professors of electricity and acoustics;
but it can never be a practical necessity. As
well might you propose to put a telescope into
a steel-mill or to hitch a balloon to a shoe-
factory."

Poor Bell, instead of being applauded, was
pelted with a hailstorm of ridicule. He was an
"impostor," a "ventriloquist," a "crank who says
he can talk through a wire." The London Times
alluded pompously to the telephone as the latest
American humbug, and gave many profound
reasons why speech could not be sent over a wire,
because of the intermittent nature of the electric
current. Almost all electricians--the men who
were supposed to know--pronounced the telephone
an impossible thing; and those who did
not openly declare it to be a hoax, believed that
Bell had stumbled upon some freakish use of
electricity, which could never be of any practical