A PERFECT TELEPHONE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1217, 28 June 1895, Page 28

A PERFECT TELEPHONE.

From Our''Special Correspondent., London, May 3. They do things excellently well across ; the Channel. Here in Old England five j minutes at the telephone is generally calculated to put the most angelic business- ! man into a fearful temper for the rest of the day. And when you meet a boy in the street looking prematurely old, and who walks straight past a do wnfalien cab horse, you may accept him for an office (boy in a telephone-ridden establishment. But On the Continent the telephone is a different thing —a boon and a blessing,, not a torture. You can sit comfortably in a private box in Paris and yarn with a friend in Brussels for half an hour without having to enjoin him to " Speak up," or " Say that again, please." So perfect indeed is this Paris-Brussels telephone that the French press constantly use it for the purpose of interviewing political and other celebrities, who, for economy's sake and other considerations, reside in Brussels instead of the French capital. These interviews differ in no essential from those conducted vis-a-vis, and one which recently came under my notice gives eloquent .testimony to the perfection of the inter-city communication. The victim xvas a politician living pro tern, in Brussels. His questioner asked, " What do you intend to do ?° and the account continues thus—" Why, I shall simplyjwatch eyezits," he replied, "rubbing his hands." Tho good people of Paris ought to be proud of that'""telephone. Fancy being- able to hear a man rubbing his hands at a distance of a few hundred miles!