Modern Americans Part 2

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL Inventor of the Telephone]

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

There is in New York City a great building seven hundred and fifty feet high. It has fifty-three stories, and provides business homes for ten thousand persons.

If you had watched it rise from story to story, you would have been amazed at the tons of cable running from the bas.e.m.e.nt towards the roof. You would have exclaimed in wonder over the miles upon miles of wire that extended from room to room. Suppose you had asked the purpose of these wires and cables. Do you know what the answer would have been? You would have been told that they were placed there so a person in any room of the building could talk to some one in any other room within the towering walls; to any one outside in the great city, and even to persons far away in Chicago and St. Louis. Then you would have said, "Of course, they are telephone wires."

You use the telephone often, do you not? Probably if you were asked to say how many times you had talked over the telephone in your life, you would have to reply, "More than I can remember."

Let us think about the messages we send along the telephone wires from day to day. They are for the most part of two kinds. We have friendly talks with persons we know well, and we give brief business orders at office and shop.

But if we were gunners in the army of our country we should be told by telephone just when, where, and how we were to fire our guns. We would not see our target, but would shoot according to the directions of a commanding officer who knows what must be done and telephones his orders to us.

If we were acting with hundreds of persons in a great scene for a motion picture film, we should be told what to do by a man called the director. He could not make us all hear if we were out of doors and scattered about in groups, but he would telephone orders to his helpers. One of these would be with each large crowd of actors.

Perhaps the telephones would be hanging on the side of a tree or set up in rude fas.h.i.+on on a box. Nevertheless, that would not interfere with their use and we should receive directions over them to do our part in the scene then being photographed.

These uses seem wonderful to us, but each year sees the telephone helping man more and more in strange and powerful ways. It is likely that we have just begun to know a little of what this great invention can do for us.

However, if we had been boys and girls in 1875 we should have known nothing about talking over a telephone, for that was the year when the public first heard that it was possible to send sounds of the human voice along a wire from one place to another.

There was a great fair in 1876. It was held in Philadelphia and was called the Centennial because it celebrated the one-hundredth birthday of our land. Persons came from foreign countries to attend the fair.

Among these visitors was a famous Brazilian gentleman. He was a man of great knowledge and was interested in inventions. His name was Don Pedro, and at that time he was Emperor of Brazil. Because he was the ruler of a country, the officers of the Centennial showed him every attention, and tried to make his visit alive with interest.

Late one afternoon they took him to the room where the judges were examining objects entered for exhibits. The judges were tired and wanted to go home. They did not care to listen to a young man standing before them. This young man was telling them that he had a new invention; it was a telephone, and would carry the sounds of the human voice by electricity. The judges did not believe this, and were about to dismiss the young man without even putting the receiver to their ears and seeing if he spoke the truth. Don Pedro stood in the doorway listening. He looked at the judges; he looked at the young man, and was disgusted and angered that an invention should not receive a fair trial. He stepped forward and as he did so looked squarely at the young man. To his surprise he recognized in him an acquaintance made while visiting in Boston.

At once Don Pedro examined the new instrument and then turning to the judges asked permission to make a trial of it himself. The young inventor went to the other end of the wire, which was in another room, and spoke into the transmitter some lines from a great poem. Don Pedro heard perfectly, and his praise changed the mind of the judges. They decided to enter the invention as a "toy that might amuse the public."

This toy was the Bell telephone, the young inventor was Alexander Graham Bell, and he had the satisfaction of seeing the "toy" become the greatest attraction to visitors at the Centennial. This must have brought comfort to his heart, for Mr. Bell had been trying for some time to have people see what a convenience his invention would be.

He had first thought of the telephone while searching for some way to help deaf mutes to talk. His father and grandfather had both been voice teachers in Edinburgh and London, so when young Alexander came to America to seek his fortune it was natural he should teach methods of using the voice. But his pupils were unfortunate persons who could not talk because they were unable to hear the sounds of the voice. His father had worked out a plan for teaching the deaf, that the young man improved. It was based on observation of the position of the lips and other vocal organs, while uttering each sound. One by one the pupil learned the sounds by sight. Then he learned combinations of sounds and at last came to where he could "read the lips" and tell what a person was saying by looking at his moving lips.

So you see Alexander Graham Bell knew a great deal about the way we talk. He kept studying and working in his efforts to help his pupils, and his knowledge of the human ear gave him the first idea of his remarkable invention.

He thought if the small and thin ear drum could send thrills and vibrations through heavy bones, then it should be possible for a small piece of electrified iron to make an iron ear drum vibrate. In his imagination he saw two iron ear drums far apart but connected by an electrified wire. One end of the wire was to catch the vibrations of the sound, and the other was to reproduce them. He was sure he could make an instrument of this kind, for he said, "If I can make deaf mutes talk, I can make iron talk."

One of his pupils helped him to do this by her words of sympathy and interest. She was a young girl named Mabel Hubbard. While still a baby she had lost her hearing, and consequently her speech, through an attack of scarlet fever. She was a bright, lovable girl, and had learned to talk through the teaching of Alexander Graham Bell. Her father was a man of great public spirit and the best friend Mr. Bell had in bringing the telephone before the public. Mabel Hubbard became the wife of her teacher, and encouraged him constantly to try and try again until his telephone would work.

Professor Bell made his first instrument in odd hours after he had finished teaching for the day. You may smile when you hear he used in making it an old cigar box, two hundred feet of wire, and two magnets taken from a toy fish pond. But this was because he was very poor and had scarcely any money to spend on materials for his experiments. But he kept on working, and after the Centennial he was able to found a company and put his new invention on the market. The company had little money, so Mr. Bell lectured and explained his work. By this means he not only raised money, but established his name as the inventor of the telephone. There were a number of other students who had been thinking along the same lines as Mr. Bell, but he went farther than any one else and was the first to carry the sounds of the human voice by electricity.

In the year 1877, the telephone was put into practical use for the public. It grew slowly. People did not realize how it could help them and they looked upon having a telephone as a luxury rather than a necessity. It was in the same year that the first long distance line was established. Today, when we can talk from Boston to San Francisco, it seems strange to read that the first long distance telephone reached only from Boston to Salem, a distance of sixteen miles. But then Mr. Bell thought twenty miles would be the limit at which it would be possible to send messages. So you see the Salem line was really quite long enough to satisfy the inventor, whose first instrument could convey sound only from the bas.e.m.e.nt to the second story of a single building.

Before long the reward that follows struggles and trials came to Alexander Graham Bell. The telephone went around the world because so many countries adopted it. j.a.pan was the first, but she was followed quickly by others. It went to far off Abyssinia, where it is said the monkeys use the cables for swings and the elephants use the poles for scratching posts.

Mr. Bell saw his invention enter every field of activity. It brought him riches and honor, but, more than all, it became a servant of mankind, and he could feel he had given a blessing to every cla.s.s of people.

_OUR COUNTRY!_

"_And for your Country, boy, and for that Flag, never dream a dream but of serving her as she bids you, even though the service carry you through a thousand h.e.l.ls. No matter what happens to you, no matter who flatters you or who abuses you, never look at another flag, never let a night pa.s.s but you pray G.o.d to bless that Flag. Remember, boy, that behind officers and government, and people even, there is the Country Herself; your Country, and you belong to Her as you belong to your own mother. Stand by Her, boy, as you would stand by your mother._"

--EDWARD EVERETT HALE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EX-PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT Addressing the Home Defense League]

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

A little boy lived in the greatest city of the United States. He looked out from the windows of his home and saw tall buildings rising, story upon story, until they seemed to meet the sky. He saw narrow streets that twisted and turned in the queerest manner. Through these streets crowds of people were forever hurrying.

There was no chance for this boy to run races, to play ball, to ride a horse, to row, or swim. He could not have a garden because the city lot on which his home stood was, like all the lots around it, just large enough for the house, so he had no yard.

Where could he play and exercise? He was not strong, and his loving parents wanted him to grow into a healthy, hearty boy. Can you guess what they did for him? They turned their back porch into a gymnasium.

Here he could have great sport and some hard work too. Hard, because at first he was so delicate he could not do what other boys did. He tried to climb the long pole that hung from the ceiling, but would slip back and have to begin all over again. However, he did not give up, but kept on trying until one day he reached the top. How proud he was! He grew so daring that the neighbors were frightened, but his mother only said, "If the Lord hadn't taken care of Theodore Roosevelt he would have been killed long ago."

Fortunately not all his life was to be spent in the crowded city, for his parents bought a country home on Long Island overlooking Oyster Bay. Theodore went there in the summer and had a chance to live out of doors. He tramped the woods, knew all the birds, hunted c.o.o.n, gathered walnuts, and fished in pools for minnows. But even with all these outdoor pastimes he was far from well. Often he had choking spells of asthma at night. Then his father would hitch a team of horses, wrap his little invalid boy up warmly, and, taking him in his arms, drive fifteen or twenty miles in the darkness. This was the only way he could get his breath.

Twice his father and mother took him to Europe in the hope of improving his health. A playmate remembers him as "a tall, thin lad with bright eyes, and legs like pipe-stems." He was not able to go to school regularly, so missed the fun of being with other boys. Most of his studying was done at home under private teachers, and in this way he prepared for college.

Theodore Roosevelt spent four years at Harvard University and was graduated in 1880. It had been his aim to develop good health and a strong body, as well as to succeed in his studies. This was a struggle, but he won the fight, and, in speaking of himself at the time of his leaving college, he says: "I determined to be strong and well and did everything to make myself so. By the time I entered Harvard, I was able to take part in whatever sports I liked. I wrestled and sparred, and I ran a great deal, and, although I never came in first, I got more out of the exercise than those who did, because I immensely enjoyed it and never injured myself."

Some time after leaving college, the frontier life of the Wild West called him. The lonely and pathless plains thrilled him, and he became a ranchman. His new home was a log house called Elkhorn Ranch in North Dakota. Here he raised his own chickens, grew his own vegetables, and got fresh meat with his gun. He bought cattle until he had thousands of head, all bearing the brand of a Maltese Cross. No fences confined these cattle, and sometimes they would wander for hundreds of miles.

Twice a year it was the custom to round up all the Maltese herds for the purpose of branding the calves and "cutting out" the cattle which were fat enough to be s.h.i.+pped to market.

On these round-ups, Theodore Roosevelt did his share of the work.

Often this meant he rode fifty miles in the morning before finding the cattle. By noon he and his cowboys would have driven many herds into one big herd moving towards a wagon that had come out from the ranch.

This wagon brought food for the men, and Mr. Roosevelt has remarked, "No meals ever tasted better than those eaten out on the prairie."

Dinner over, the work of branding and selecting could be done.

Sometimes Mr. Roosevelt spent twenty-four hours at a stretch in the saddle, dismounting only to get a fresh pony. He did everything that his men did, and endured the hards.h.i.+p as well as the pleasure of ranch life. Often during the round-up he slept in the snow, wrapped in blankets, with no tent to s.h.i.+eld him from the freezing cold.

Although he kept Elkhorn Ranch for twelve years he gradually quit the cattle business and spent more and more time in New York City where he entered political life.

But his vacations always found him in the West where his greatest pleasure was hunting. He hunted all over his ranch and through the Rocky Mountains beyond. Frequently he would go off alone with only a slicker, some hardtack, and salt behind his saddle, and his horse and rifle as his only companions. Once he had no water to drink for twenty-four hours and then had to use some from a muddy pool. But such adventures were sport for him, and he liked to see how much exposure he could stand. Then he would return to the East, rested and refreshed.

When war between Spain and the United States was declared in 1898, Mr.

Roosevelt was a.s.sistant Secretary of the Navy. He resigned this office, saying, "I must get into the fight myself. It is a just war and the sooner we meet it, the better. Now that it has come I have no right to ask others to do the fighting while I stay at home."

He decided to raise a regiment made up of men he had known in the West, together with adventure loving Easterners, and call them his "Rough Riders." He borrowed the name from the circus. The idea set the country aflame, and within a month the regiment was raised, equipped, and on Cuban soil. There was never a stranger group of men gathered together. Cowboys and Indians rode with eastern college boys and New York policemen. They were all ready to follow their leader, Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt. They were full-blooded Americans. They believed in their country, and they obeyed their leader, not because they had to do so but because it was right that they should obey.