famous for making them. Overnight it became a
major city. It's original name was all but forgotten. All
anyone ever called it was Picture City.
7 Another young assistant, Little Crow, had long thought that if you
could send impulses over a wire, why not a voice? With Sparking Dove's
help he tried idea after idea, failing time and time again, until
discouragement haunted him. But Sparking Dove would
not let him give up. "IF the mind," he counseled, "can conceive of an
idea, it can make that idea work. If you do not succeed at first, try
again and again, until you do."
8 The younger man, taking his encouragement, kept trying. One day, one
of his assistants entered Sparking Dove's office carrying a box with a
speaking tool, and a large round earpiece hanging on its side.
Unrolling the wire behind him, the man sat the box on Sparking Dove's
desk, then waved out the window. The box made a buzzing sound.
9 "Pick up the ear piece," instructed the Assistant. Sparking Dove did,
putting it to his ear.
10 Crackling and distorted but recognizable, Little Crow's voice came
out of the earpiece. "Is it working?" he asked. "Do you hear me? Are
you there?"
11 "I hear you!" cried Sparking Dove into the speaking tube. "It's
working! You've succeeded! It really works! I TOLD you you could do it!"
12 Over the telephone Little Crow replied, "Only because you kept at
me, only because you made me BELIEVE it would work! But it DOES WORK!
And it will be cheap enough to make! You'll be rich, sir!"
13 "Not me," answered Sparking Dove, "it's YOUR invention, sir, not
mine. I'll just take my usual ten per cent. YOU'RE the one who's going
to be rich."
14 Soon more wires ran from city to city; not electric or telegraph
lines, but telephone lines; A new business that put thousands and
thousands and thousands of people to work.