The Edison phonograph monthly (Mar 1903-Feb 1904)

EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY. also The Picture No Artist Can Paint, by Harlan and Stanley. You are certainly doing wonderfully in the advancement of Record making and hope you will be able to keep up the good work. Foster & Foster. ONE RECORD PLAYED 1525 TIMES. Coatsville, Pa., September 27, 1903. I wish to give the following report in reference to one of your Records. I purchased one of your Moulded Records — don't know the number just now — it was Hiawatha (Band Record.) This record was subjected to the very hardest service in "Slot machine gallery" at the park and afterward in Philadelphia. It played 1525 times that we can account for before it was worn out. I consider this very remarkable, as there are wax Records of other makes that will not stand one-fourth of this service. F. K. Wilson. [This is not such an unusual case as it appears, for we believe that most Edison Moulded Records can be played equally long.] EASIER TO SELL. Carmel, Ind., Sept. 7%, 1903. I think the Edison Records are the easiest to sell of anything I ever sold, for they can talk for themselves better than we can talk for them. George W. Hinshaw. ADVERTISING LANGUAGE STUDY OUTFITS. Below is given one of a series of reading notice advertisements that R. S. Williams & Sons Co., Ltd., of 143 Yonge street, Toronto, Canada, are "running in the Toronto daily papers : "Me muchee pleased !" That was all he could say, just "me muchee pleased !" It was a strange sight when, the other day in Toronto, a number of Edison Phonographic Records filled in China were reeled off to the sons of the Orient. They looked at the machine as they would look to their God — in awe, in reverence, and with faces that spoke peculiar amazement. And when they had heard their own strange language spoken with perfect enunciation, when they heard the sounds of their streets and the tom-toms and stringed instruments of Pekin, they were too astonished to say much, too frightened ; but one, more bold than the rest, said : "Me muchee pleased !" This morning a Frenchman from Paris walked^ into the R. S. Williams Piano warerooms, '143. Yonge street. He was in Toronto to attend the "Exhibition. Going up to the offices of Mr. Stanton, the General Manager, and Mr. Richard Williams, the Vice-President of the company, he shook hands. Then the members of the firm asked him to the Phonograph Department. Placing a Record on the machine, the man from Paris heard the French of the Parisian Capital spoken fluently. The old plan of learning a language from flesh and blood is a dead one. To-day the most enlightened minds of the world learn difficult pronunciations over the Phonograph, and the students in languages who are the most up-todate are doing the same. This morning, after the Frenchman from Paris had gone out from the Williams store, I entered and then and there received my first lesson in French, for I never knew how to properly say "I do not speak French." Mr. Stanton placed a student Record on the Phonograph and handed me a book. It was great. I wanted to argue with the teacher, but he wouldn't stop. "\ou see," said Mr. Williams, "by this arrangement and by plans we are formulating, languages may be taught in every city and hamlet in Canada, and if any Dealer wants any information we can explain the rriatter very clearly by mail." Supposing a student wants to study in his own room, he can have the Phonograph going, and, by a patent attachment, no one else but himself will hear it. And then the machine started on phrases — Je parle; Vous parlez aussi Anglais n'est-ce pas ? And I knew by the book that it said : You speak English also, do you not? Here was perfect pronunciation. A man asked Demosthenes : "What is the first requisite to perfect oratory?" "Action," he replied. "And the second?" "Action!" "The third?" "Action !" And so in learning a living language repetition is the great essential. Well, you know how tireless a Phonograph is, don't you ? It never has a headache or the blues. It never gets thick-tongued. The fast ships, the fast trains, and the wireless telegraphy are bringing the great live nations very near together. It is almost absolutely necessary now for the rising man or woman to know something of German, Spanish, and French. G. W. Johnson, commercial master at Upper Canada College, has sized the thing up nicely, and says : "I desire to express to you my appreciation of your method of teaching modern languages. It is perfection accentuated. When I began your lessons in French a few months ago I had a knowledge of the language — a book knowledge — but I desired to be able to speak it with the freedom, ease, and accent of a native Parisian. No living teacher could have helped so fully, so constantly, so untiringly, and so satisfactorily as your French Records have helped me. The living voice could not have been plainer ; the living teacher could hardly have endured the unlimited and continuous repetitions which I demanded, and I could ill afford the expense of such constant ministration. I have gone over the course many times and with increasing pleasure. Latterly, I just seated myself in front of the machine and let it talk to me over and over and over again, till my mind and ears have become completely saturated with French words and French sounds, so that now French seems almost as natural to me as English itself." And the writer got two or three lessons this morning, and walked out saying "Je parle Francais et allemand."