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THE TELEPHONE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
The telephone was nearly a year old before Europe was aware of its existence.

It received no public notice of any kind whatever until March 3, 1877, when the London Athenaeum mentioned it in a few careful sentences.

It was not welcomed, except by those who wished an evening's entertainment.

And to the entire commercial world it was for four or five years a sort of scientific Billiken, that never could be of any service to serious people.
One after another, several American enthusiasts rushed posthaste to Europe, with dreams of eager nations clamoring for telephone systems, and one after another they failed.