Not all the men in New York State could shoulder this burden of wire and carry it.

Throw all the people of Illinois in one end of the scale, and put on the other side the wire-wealth of Telephonia, and long before the last coil was in place, the Illinoisans would be in the air.
What would this city do for a living?
It would make two-thirds of the telephones, cables, and switchboards of all countries.

Nearly one-quarter of its citizens would work in factories, while the others would be busy in six thousand exchanges, making it possible for the people of the United States to talk to one another at the rate of SEVEN THOUSAND MILLION CONVERSATIONS A YEAR.
The pay-envelope army that moves to work every morning in Telephonia would be a host of one hundred and ten thousand men and girls, mostly girls,--as many girls as would fill Vassar College a hundred times and more, or double the population of Nevada.

Put these men and girls in line, march them ten abreast, and six hours would pass before the last company would arrive at the reviewing stand.

In single file this throng of Telephonians would make a living wall from New York to New Haven.
Such is the extraordinary city of which Alexander Graham Bell was the only resident in 1875.