Book Description

Excerpt from The Telephone Appeals (January 24 to February 8, 1887) I was astonished yesterday to hear that that argument was all taken away from us, and that our own record had destroyed it. I was surprised at that. The argument that was made yesterday was that Mr. Orton, the president of the Western Union Company, saw the telephones of Mr. Bell in the spring of 1877 examined them, and pronounced them to be a more scientific toy of no utility that he would not until the fall of 1878 permit his company to have any thing to do with them. That was a very serious matter, because Mr. Orton was one of the ablest and most energetic men, one of the most far-seeing and wide-awake officers the Western Union ever had. If be, after examination, - after, as they say, his principal expert, Mr. Pope, had brought them to his attention and urged them upon him, if be, under those circumstances, pronounced them to be a mere useless toy, I do feel that a great deal of the strength of that argument is taken away. Yet it was a surprise to me to learn that. These gentlemen told you so. They are careful gentlemen. They have been studying this record. They could not have said that unless it was in the record. At least, they would not have said it unless they believed it was in the record. They would not have said it was in the record unless it was there, for they tell you that a man cannot remember that which is not. They could not have be lieved yesterday - and I am sure they would not have said it if they did not believe it - that Mr. Orton pronounced it a scientific toy, if there was not a word of that sort in the record. They have told you and proved to you by the hour that it is impossible for a man to remember what did not happen. They could not have done it by for getfulness. They could not have done it by not investigating the record; for the gentlemen addressing yon, the counsel for the Draw baugh and Overland cases, would not have addressed to your iion ors an argument based on documents unless they had examined the documents themselves carefully. They would not do that. Now, will your Honors be kind enough to look at vol. I, in the Dowd case. In the Overland proofs. I do not think it is on the table before you. It is the blue backed book. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.