The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-07-19
ROYAL TELEPHONES.
All the Palaces of Europe Provid ed
With the Instrument.

All the Palaces of Europe Provided
With the Instrument.
Now that Queen Victoria has at length
permitted the installation of the telephone
at WINDSOR Castle, Osborne House, Bale
moral and Buckingham Palace there is
not sovereign in Europe who does not
utilize this instrument for communicating
royal and imperial wishes, as well as
commands, to subjects and officials.
Even the Pope, who has lately de-
cided that, while a confession may
be heard over the telephone, the
priest can not use the wire for tue
purpose OF granting absolution, has had
receiver installed in his private apart
ments, by means OF which be often COM
municates with the Propaganda Eide,
which is situate ed on the other side of the
Tiber and at a considerable distance from
the Vatican. II is generally his valet,
Cintra, who does the talking over the wire
for him, but he occasionally speaks over it
himself. and only the other day, when a
Jesuit priest was taken suddenly i'll during
! private audience. the Pope rushed to the
| little redlined booth and personally
called up the Jesuit College.
King Leopold is enabled, by means of
| the telephone, to communicate with his
Ministers at Brussels, without leaving
either his palace at Lacken or his marine
residence at Ostend. When, year ago,
the little King of Spain was Frustrated with
the measles ard secluded at one end of the
huge palace at Madrid, the Queen Regent
was able to hold intercourse with him,
| located in a distant wing of the edihce, not
only daily. but almost hourly, over the
| wire.
Queen Victoria, however, is SO ultra
! conservative that it Is most difficult to get
her consent to any modern innovation,
and it was only two years ago that she
permitted the installation of electric light
| in the state departments at Windsor.
| Previously electricity, as well as gas, had
been uncompromisingy barred from her
| private apartments. Yet 1t is almost i'm
possible TO exaggerate the importance of
| thus placing the various residences of the
| Queen in telephone communication with
London, as far as the transaction of official
| business is concerned.
Until now, whenever the Queen was de-
| sirous OF consulting one of her constitu-
tional advisers upon any point, or when
any Cabinet Minister had some matter of
urgencv to impart to her Majesty, the I'M
fortunate dignitary had to travel all the
way from Windsor to Balmoral-a twenty
four hours journey-or to Osborne, which
entailed a sea trip across the stormy
Solent, very often for the sake of only ten
minutes talk with the sovereign. Then,
too, Lord Salisbury and even Mr.. Cham
berlain, both of them busy men, have had
to spend good deal of their time ex plain
ing matters 10 the Queen in writing, the
library at Buckingham Palace containing
many volumes of letters such as these,
written TO the Queen by her various Min
listers through her long reign of we'll IN
sixty years. Henceforth the Queen will
be In a position to be consulted by her
Ministers at moments notice, which
will greatly simplify matters.
In the same proportion that the Queen
! al N her IN r
roundings, in her manner and in her ap-
pearance, so is the Prince of Wales up to
date. Marlborough HOUSE and Sandring-
ham are fitted up with telephones and
electric lights in the most approved style.
Should the Prince survive his mother his
advent to the throne is likely to be
marked by all sorts of innovations, which
will have the effect of simplifying the
present intricate manner of conducting
the business OF state.
In this respect ne resembles his nephew
Emperor William of Ger many, whose pre-
objection for the telephone is source oil
disgust to the various Government officials
at Berlin. There are instruments in his
library and working-room, as well as in q
number of other of the i'm perial apart.
ments, and he is all day long engaged in
ringing up one Government official or an.
other, or else talking with his friends and
courtiers over the wire. he seems to hno
the same pleasure in calling up the various
Government departments over the tele-
phone that he does in alarming the variou:
garrisons. at night time, being evidently
under the impression that by so doing be
keeps the officials strictly attentive to their
duties, and convinced that if not the eye
at any rate the ear, of the Emperor is upor
them.
Although it may fiatter the pride of the
telephone people at Berlin TO have tht
EN- eror among the subscribers of the
, system, yet he gives them far more troubl;
than any other subscriber. For when ht
telephones to any of the Government de
partments the operators at the centra
Office are under the strictest orders to alb
7 stain from listening to the conversation
New York Mall and Express.