Ha! Maureen Dowd interviews Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.
ME: The telephone seems like letter-writing without the paper and pen. Is there any message that can't wait for a passenger pigeon?
BELL: Possibly the message I'd like to deliver to you right now.
ME: Why did you think the answer to telegrams was a noisy new telegram?
BELL: We have designed the receiver so you can leave it off the hook.
See also The Victorian Internet. (thx, @evamaria_m)