The Electrical World, September 20, 1890, page 195:
THE devotees of that hopeless average of ultra-civilization depicted by Mr. Edward Bellamy may be pleased to learn, from an interview in our columns, that certain minor attributes of "Looking Backward" society, if a universal aggregate of office holders could be termed society, may be realized even in this barbarous age. Fancy turning on the music at will and listening for an hour to the splendid performance of a famous orchestra. The idea is most luxurious and attractive, fit ornament of a sybaritic age. And yet, if we look further, beyond the mere outline of the suggestion, there lies before us a vista of dreadful possibilities. For with the success of the first telephonic musicale association there will spring into being rival organizations the very names of which would make incipient deafness bliss. Imagine the awful devastation that could be wrought by "The Organ Grinders' Telephonic Mutual," with a drop-a-nickel-in-the-slot attachment. Fancy the horrors of having one's disposition wrecked by a "popular programme," headed by a memorial to the late McGinty. And what new terrors would be added to that Juggernaut of the metropolis, the boardinghouse, when "Sweet Violets" and other appetite-destroying tunes could be turned loose at feeding time. Perish the thought! If the company that contemplates embarking in this shocking enterprise succeeds in overcoming the telephonic difficulties that infest its path, let it by all means be given an exclusive charter, for the probability of cut-rate competition and an orchestrion in every boarding-house is really too horrible for contemplation.