The Edison phonograph monthly (Mar 1904-Feb 1905)

10 EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY. TO DEBATE BY PHONOGRAPH. To have debates with clubs in distant cities without visiting them, John F. Macklin has organized the Wachusett Debating Club, and will negotiate with societies in Boston, Springfield, Hartford. Providence and other New England towns to arrange debates by means of Phonograph records. Tt is Macklin's intention to have a certain subject chosen, then picked debaters are to speak into receivers and the records will be exchanged. Upon a given night each club is to meet in their respective cities and turn on the flood of oratory. Judges at each end will give decisions and by letters the winners are to be made known. After explaining how it was intended to carry on the debates, Mr. Macklin said : "One advantage of giving a debate with Phonographs, is that it gives the timid orator a chance. After he has his speech prepared he can give it in seclusion. He will not be troubled with stage fright. He can face the record and put in his speech all the fervor and enthusiasm he is capable of. He can listen to it and if not satisfied with it, reel off another one. "Another advantage is that it limits the speaker. He has a certain time in which to talk, and knows he must advance his best points. He realizes this, and the listeners are not forced to hear a lot of meaningless rhetoric. It will be a great help to those who wish to learn how to condense arguments. It will urge them to practice, and that makes perfect. "The average debater will not find it as easy as it looks to debate by Phonograph. The old way is simpler. By that method he can say what he pleases, and his time is not limited. He can talk all night to explain his meaning, if he wishes. "This cannot be done by the Phonograph system. Brevity counts. A verbose speeeh will lose the debate. Every unnecessary word, no matter how fine it may sound, must be eliminated. Facts have to be boiled down." — Wachusett (Mass.) Telegram. THE PHONOGRAM IN GERMAN. The Edison Gesellschaft, M. B. H, which is the name of the Berlin. Germany, branch of the National Phonograph Co., began on September T;th the publication of The Phonogramut in German. Tt is in no particular, however, a reprint of the New Phonogram, but is original throughout. The Preface to the first issue was as follows : The genuine Edison Phonograph is not a toy, neither does it serve only as a pastime, nor simply for an interesting amusement. It is rather the means for the greatest enjoyment of art. Music of the first order, in order to hear which it has hitherto been necessary to visit the opera or the concert room, at great expense, has now by means of the Edison Phonograph been brought into the home and the family circle. The most celebrated singers, whose ringing notes are paid by untold gold ; the most wonderful orchestras, to whose concerts enraptured crowds are ever thronging, are ready to let their glorious tones ring through our home. The most costly musical treasures of which all mankind is proud pour with perfect harmony and clearest purity, from the horn of this wonderful machine. Each possessor of a genuine Edison Phonograph has secured Terpsichore for his personal friend. Nevertheless in the end one would be sure to tire of even this if it were necessary to listen again and again to the same works. For this reason the Edison Gesellschaft is working untiringly to separate the best from all good works and to include the most costly pearls of music in the wonderful collection of Edison Records. The object of this Journal is to keep possessors of Edison Phonographs always au courant as regards this continual work of obtaining the very latest works of art. We are not an advertising journal, and these pages will therefore not be distributed among the general public, but only to the friends of ours, who have given proof of this denomination by their possession of a genuine Edison Phonograph. To such this page is intended to give in the fullest and clearest manner information about all the novelties in the Phonograph line. But this is not all. The "Phonogram" will give the most exhaustive instructions for making of records, in this manner appreciably increasing the pleasure obtainable from the genuine Edison Phonograph. In conclusion the Phonogram is intended for the making known of many points of interest to the Phonographic trade in general. Every possessor of an Edison Phonograph has a certain pride — which is fully justified — namely, the pride of nossession. It is not every one who is the possessor of a machine capable of giving noblest form of amusement, for it is not to be wondered at that everything connected with the realm of the Phonograph, serious or light, good or bad, great or small, awakes interest and it is for this interest that it is our intention to cater. It is, then, the object of this, our Phonogram, to keep awake in every reader the interest and appreciation for his Edison machine. We wish to increase and magnify it, and in this manner to form a friendly circle in connection with the Edison Gesellschaft and its clientele. CONGRATULATIONS. Oct. 13, 1904. We wish to congratulate you most sincerely on the samples for the November-December list, recently received. The character of the selections is far above the average, and the manner in which they are produced will commend the entire list to all Phonograph owners, besides contributing as a great help in selling machines. Wishing vou everv success, we are, C. J. Heppe & Son, Philadelphia, Pa.