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' \ BY JULIAN RALPH. have no fear as to the sagacity of their HKN I was asked to contribute to the Phonogram, I plagued myself with a cross-examina- tion that lasted more than a week in an effort to hit upon a subject upon which to write. As writing is my profession, the experience is an uncom- .mqp one, yet at the end of the ordeal I was as barren of a suggestion as at the outset. In desperation I read the Phonogram for inspiration. The little magazine surprised me. If gave to at least this one voracious reader of current literature more timely, serviceable, and intensely interesting in- formation than any single number of any periodical 1 have read in many years. The editor of the Phonogram will read this without having had the slightest pre- vious notiop what my choice of a subject wa^ k u be, and therefore the general reader will understand that if what I set down here is high prais^ of this publication the com- mendation is general and sincere; indeed it is wrung from me against the protest of my • judgment and habit. But the fact that im- presses me is that if the founders of the Phonogram followed the usual professional habit of starting a paper 44 to meet a de- mand,” or 44 a long-felt want,” they need ~ t ‘ 37 prompting. 1 had considered myself gen- cnerally well-informed, but the first number of this monthly convinced me that 1 knew very little more about the subject to which it is devoted than a new-lx>m kitten compre- hends of the higher mathematics. I learned that the phonograph has l>een practically applied to manifold forms of ever)--day ser- vice to every-day men; that it is creeping close to myself in my own work-a-day life; • that its uses interest the business man in the same degree that they affect those who fol- low a score of the professions, and that in the family circle, by the bedside of the sick and dying, on the plains and in the amuse- ment halls it has assumed a place and value such as must give it rank among the won- ders of the century we are closing and of - the age whose threshold we are but passing. It was news to me that, in every forecast of the future, I must consider the part the phonograph is going to play, with a certain- ty that it will hold an important place in most phases of human action. Speech is the most unique gift to man, and its mar- velous mimic, the phonograph, is adding to its usefulness and its importance in ways 1 had not dreamed of. #