'Yes, yes,' said he; 'but this badness is
such an easy, lazy explanation. Won't you be tempted to use it,
instead of trying to understand people?'
In the year 1878, he took a passionate fancy for the phonograph:
it was a toy after his heart, a toy that touched the skirts of
life, art, and science, a toy prolific of problems and theories.
Something fell to be done for a University Cricket Ground Bazaar.
'And the thought struck him,' Mr. Ewing writes to me, 'to exhibit
Edison's phonograph, then the very newest scientific marvel. The
instrument itself was not to be purchased - I think no specimen had
then crossed the Atlantic - but a copy of the TIMES with an account
of it was at hand, and by the help of this we made a phonograph
which to our great joy talked, and talked, too, with the purest
American accent. It was so good that a second instrument was got
ready forthwith. Both were shown at the Bazaar: one by Mrs.
Jenkin to people willing to pay half a crown for a private view and
the privilege of hearing their own voices, while Jenkin, perfervid
as usual, gave half-hourly lectures on the other in an adjoining
room - I, as his lieutenant, taking turns.
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