human
Ah, here are the telephones,
gpt
Yes; do you know, Mr. Gorham, till I came to Chicago I’d never seen a telephone? I find folks don’t make anything of ’em here. Mrs. Van Tassel ain’t any more afraid of her telephone than she is of her sewin’ machine. When I first came I used to jump a foot every time that sharp little bell rung; but I made up my mind that I was havin’ advantages, and that I wasn’t goin’ to slight ’em. I made up my mind I was goin’ to speak into that box, no matter how fast the chills traveled up my back, and I did it; it makes me as weak as a kitten yet, but I just will be up with the times I live in if I get a chance; and ain’t a telephone a perfect wonder now?
human
It is, indeed, and they are improving them all the time. I see there is a long-distance telephone. How should you like to talk to New York?
gpt
I shouldn’t like to make a fool o’ myself that way or any other, Gorham Page.
human
But really, Aunt Love
gpt
Save your breath, Mr. Gorham. I know this buildin’s full o’ queer doin’s and it’s a good place to play jokes on a body, but there’s limits to even a greenhorn’s credulity.
human
I was never more in earnest, I assure you. It is possible to talk to New York.
gpt
Then it’s blasphemous. That’s all I’ve got to say.
human
Why, I don’t see that.
gpt
Do you s’pose the Lord would have put New York a thousand miles away from Chicago if he’d expected ’em to talk to each other?
human
I never thought of that before as a reason for the antagonism between the two cities. Nonsense, Aunt Love; the world moves, and you must move with it. You shall speak to New York and be proud of yourself ever afterward. You know it is to be expected that science will do everything possible toward annihilating space.