Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-03-20
A TALKING NEWSPAPER.
Carried ON in Budapest,
Hungary.

Hungary.
Mall Gazette says: A small diamond
shaped board screwed onto the wall Of my
room and provided with a couple of hooks.
from which hang two tiny, round telephone
earpieces connected by two wires. is
all. But my proprietor has been singing Its
praises for the last twenty minutes, and as
he confdentially assured me that 1t will not
play any part in my hotel bill at the end
Of my stay. there is no earthly reason why
l should enter any protest against his pro-
This" said he. sis the Telephone Mes
enger or talking newspaper-the only thing
of It's kind in the world. 1t has now been
established in Budapest about three years.
It differs from the ordinary telephone in
ed with the central office, whereas we are
able to connect from 200 or 800 subscribers
in one circuit. The city is Id divided ID sno into
into a specially constructed apparatus at
the central office. varied with entertain
ments. the opera and n IN linguistic .s Lessons ms ,b IL
word, and therefore does not infringe the
telephone rights of the government. 1t
chimes and electrophones. While it is ten
times cheaper. That buzz you hear just
nov . was vast to p prevent event subs subs srnans talking to
1T seems strange that such an excellent
idea as this appears to be should not be
introduced in other towns than budapest,
I yentured.
1.-The answer is very simple. OF course.
the newspaper feature would be impos-
sible in London, where time is everything,
with the apparatus to his ear. waiting
for some particular news or exchange
prices. Then, again, other towns are not
so advantageously situated in this respect
as Budapest. where the law empowers the
company to introduce the apparatus into
any house in the city in spite Of the oh.
subscribers. ard each pay only Is fiorins
a year. With us it is as in England
with a certain soap-our families don't feel
happy until they get 1t. 1t Is so cheap that
many of the rooms in my hotel are lifted
up with it. II the visitor finds 1t incon-
| venient to &c to the opera, all he has to
he can be entertained the whole evening.
The general public can have news in ad-
vance of the newspapers. Why. a few
weeks age when the German kaiser gave
that celebrated toast Of his to the Hun
garian nation. thousands of families were
listening to its recital half an hour later.
WITHOUT WI this APP aPRa rat they would have
Have you a regular daily programmed"
Yes; It is announced in the morning,
and changes every half hour or SO. The
greater part of the morning IL taken up
witt prices on change. a summary OF the
news in the dailies. AT noon we begin to
get a report of the doings in parliament.
kilograms Of importance are communist
ed at once. the telephone messenger be-
Ing in direct connection with a leading
Budapest newspaper. At about 2 o'clock
the morning news is in part repeated.
then come exchange prices, kilograms, law
reports. a short, entertaining story, the
atrical items and sometimes q concert,
and for an hour in the evening We get a
lesson in English, Italian and French. You
have no idea what a benefit this is to the
young generation. and how popular these
lessons are around them. A complete set
of graduated exercises has been published
in these languages. Each telephone SUBJ
scriber who cares to listen holds q copy
of the book in question before him. and
the teacher speaks into the double misro-
phone t~ransmitter al the central office"