ess
wagon (that is, the fellow who looks after your luggage), a doctor,
policeman, fire-alarm, or anything else as may be arranged for. The little
instrument communicates to a central office not far off, and in two
minutes the doctor, or messenger, or whatever it may be, presents himself.

For fire-alarms and for all sorts of purposes, domestic telegraphy is part
and parcel of the nature of an American, and the result was that when the
telephone was brought to him, he adopted it with avidity. On this side of
the Atlantic domestic telegraphy is at a minimum, and I do not think any
one would have a telephone in his house if he could help it.

When you want a thing, you must pay for it. The Americans want the
telephone, and they pay for it. In London people grumble very much at
having to pay L20 to the Telephone Company for the use of a telephone. I
question very much whether L20 a year is quite enough; at any rate, it is
not enough if the American charge is taken as a standard. The charge in
New York is of two classes--one for a system called the law system, which
is applied almost exclusively for the use of lawyers, which is L44 a
year; the other being the charge made to the ordinary public, and which
will compare with the service rendered in London, which is charged for at
L35 a year, against L20 a year in London. The charge in Chicago is L26 a
year; in Boston, Philadelphia, and a great many other places it is L25 a
year. At Buffalo a mode of charging by results is adopted; everybody pays
for each oral message he sends--every time he uses the telephone he pays
either four, five, or six cents, according to the number for which he
guarantees. Supposing any one of us wanted a telephone at Buffalo, the
company will supply it under a guarantee to pay for a minimum of 500
messages per annum. If 1,000 messages are sent, the charge is less _pro
rata_, being six cents, if I remember rightly, for each message under 500,
and five cents up to 1,000 messages, four cents per message over 1,000
messages; and so everybody pays for what work he does. It is payment by
results. The people like the arrangement, the company like it because they
make it pay, and the system works well. But I am bound to say that, up to
the present moment, Buffalo is the only city in the United States where
that method has been adopted.

The instruments used in the States are no better--in fact, in many cases
they are worse--than the instruments we use on thi