The Birth and Babyhood of the Telephone

by Thomas Augustus Watson

And we’ll not curse, or fling,

But, next time, do the thing

And we’ll all rise and sing,

“Bully for Watson!”

Or, by the unseen powers,

Hope in our bosom sours,

No telephone in ours—

“Please, Mr. Watson.”

The First Telephone Advertisement, Used the Year Following the Issuance of the Original Patent, Offered to Furnish Telephones “for the Transmission of Articulate Speech Through Instruments Not More Than Twenty Miles Apart.”