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^ THROUGH THE NEEDLE’S POINT. By Cleveland Moffett. |T has long been considered a dif- ficult thing for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, but the science of these latter days—the same sci- ence that has given the world the telegraph, the telephone, and the electric railway—has made it possible for men, women, and children, for camels, yes, and entire menageries, not only to pass through the eye of a needle, but to pass through the point of a needle, and having thus passed through, to sing and speak, to roar and bark and whinny—in short, to make what- ever sounds they please, and be heard after making them thousands of miles away. To-day the great Patti can sing her im- mortal songs in her castle in Wales and be heard, through the needle’s point, in San Francisco' and Honolulu and a hundred other places at the same time. And so of the world's great orators and entertainers, the great thinkers who stir the heart, and the merry people who aid digestion. In fact, whatever the cities have in their theaters and churches and concert halls that is best worth hearing may be heard quite conveniently, and with only the slightest falling off in quality, by the deni- zens of the most remote village, by dwell- ers on the distant alkali plains, by lonely huntsmen in the woods—and all through the point of a needle—the needle of the gramophone, which traces the undulations of the sound-waves as they are preserved on indestructible records and reproduces them through that wonderful little instrument. Aladdin’s trick seems to have literally been performed in our time, and New York, Boston, London, and Paris may be picked up now by whomsoever will, and whisked off through hundreds of miles and made to strike all their beautiful instruments, pianos, and violins, and blaring horns, and sing with full chorus of voices, and other- wise disport themselves for the amusement or instruction of the humblest provincial. Whoever buys a gramophone buys a box at the opera, rents a pew in a city church, secures permanent admission to the best music halls in the country, can order out the most dashing military band our army has at a moment’s notice, can make the great piano-players of the day his obedient servants, and can do a great many other things which would have put somebody in danger of being roasted for witchcraft had they been attempted by our forefathers. And let it be understood clearly at the start that this is no expensive arrange- ment, to be easily injured, nor is it any- thing that requires batteries or electric contrivances for its running. It is as simple and compact as a music-box, and is wound up in much the same way, while the disks which preserve the sound-records are flat surfaces of gutta-percha, about the size of griddle cakes, and are practi- cally indestructible. They may be thrown about or scratched, or left with the chil- dren to play with, and when put back under the needle after months of this treat- ment, they will give out the original words or music with unchanged sweetness and dis- tinctness. That is the first point, and an- other point is, that the singing of the gramophone really is singing, not squeak- THK RECORDS. McClure's magazine advertiser