swept down upon Bell and his little bodyguard. It trampled upon Bell's upon an ant's nest. To the complete bewilderment of Bell, it coolly patent with as little concern as an elephant can have when he tramples supplying customers with various kinds of printing-telegraphs and dial until one of its subsidiary companies--the Gold and Stock--reported that But besides the operation of its own wires, the Western Union was others. In one moment of discouragement they had offered the telephone nibbling at its business must be stopped. It took action quickly and monopolize all methods of communication by wire. The rosiest hope that organized the "American Speaking-Telephone Company," with $300,000 shone in front of Sanders and Hubbard was that the Western Union might telephone service to applauding audiences, Sanders and Hubbard were At once the Western Union awoke from its indifference. Even this tiny leasing telephones two by two, to business men who previously had been telegraphs, some of which could transmit sixty words a minute. These an electrical toy?" several of its machines had been superseded by telephones. conclude to buy the Bell patents, just as it had already bought many accurate instruments, it believed, could never be displaced by such a using the private lines of the Western Union Telegraph Company. This great corporation was at the time their natural and inevitable enemy. It had swallowed most of its competitors, and was reaching out to on its staff. With all the bulk of its great wealth and prestige, it scientific oddity as the telephone. And it continued to believe this capital, and with three electrical inventors, Edison, Gray, and Dolbear, to President Orton, of the Western Union, for $100,000; and Orton had refused it. "What use," he asked pleasantly, "could this company make of