provements in the intensifier, it is
expected to enable all, except the stone-deaf, to enjoy the phonograph,
even when connected, as on railroad trains, with a common telephonic
wire. The stone-deaf will of course be dependent upon printed books
prepared for their benefit, as raised-letter books used to be for the
blind."

As we entered the elevator to ascend to the upper floors of the
establishment, Hamage explained that he wanted me to see, before I left,
the process of phonographing books, which was the modern substitute for
printing them. Of course, he said, the phonographs of dramatic works
were taken at the theatres during the representations of plays, and
those of public orations and sermons are either similarly obtained, or,
if a revised version is desired, the orator re-delivers his address in
the improved form to a phonograph; but the great mass of publications
were phonographed by professional elocutionists employed by the large
publishing houses, of which this was one. He was acquainted with one of
these elocutionists, and was taking me to his room.

We were so fortunate as to find him disengaged. Something, he said, had
broken about the machinery, and he was idle while it was being repaired.
His work-room was an odd kind of place. It was shaped something like the
interior of a rather short egg. His place was on a sort of pulpit in the
middle of the small end, while at the opposite end, directly before him,
and for some distance along the sides toward the middle, were arranged
tiers of phonographs. These were his audience, but by no means all of
it. By telephonic communication he was able to address simultaneously
other congregations of phonographs in other chambers at any distance. He
said that in one instance, where the demand for a popular book was very
great, he had charged five thousand phonographs at once with it.

I suggested that the saying of printers, pressmen, bookbinders, and
costly machinery, together with the comparative indestructibility of
phonographed as compared with printed books, must make them very cheap.

"They would be," said Hamage, "if popular elocutionists, such as
Playwell here, did not charge so like fun for their services. The public
has taken it into its head that he is the only first-class elocutionist,
and won't buy anybody else's work. Consequently the authors stipulate
that he shall interpret their productions, and the publishers, between
the public and the authors, are a