The Forrest City times., 1904-07-22
WHOLESALE TELEPHoNINc.
Costly Conversations Held by Amer. ican Business Men Across
 the Country.

Everyone accustomed to using the telephone to any extent has experi- enced the annoyance of being ken, waiting by the long -winded conversa- tlonalist. but the limit in this way was reached the other day when gentle man in Washington held the loEg-dfs- tance wire between that city and New York upwards of three hours and this In defiance of the protests and openly expressed disgust of some of the fore most senators in the capitol
 The gentleman in question. who was the representative of prominent financial house, was anxious to obtain decision in connection with the Northern Securities, and as soon as it was handed down to telephone il with. out delay 10 his New York firm. A number of well known people were hanging around anxious to use the long-distance phone, but the New Yorker sat unconeernedly in the booth with the door open, discussing quota tlohs on various stocks. mingled with certain personal matters. in an ex- tremely loud and aggressive voice. ap- parently in the most contented frame of mind. Before he was through" il cost him GS. as the charge between Washington and New York is Tod. a minute
 One of the eostliest conversations over the long-distance phone occurred last January, when MT John Acker. a wealthy stock dealer in Chicago. held the wire between his city and the me tropolis Ca distance of about DOC miles) for an hour and 20 minutes feverishly awaiting medical decision respecting his daughter. who was dan. gerously i'll. Tho.gh a promise had been made to him that the result of the crisis would be telephoned immediately It made itself apparent he was not sat isfied, and, getting in communication with his daughters house iG New York by phone, he refused to ring off un- til informed that change for the bet ter had taken place, when he put down the receiver with a sigh of thankful ness and proceeded to figure out how much he was in the telephone com. pany's debt
 The charge for telephoning between New York and Chicago is POS. for the first three minutes and 6s for each additional minute. By a simple calcu. lation, therefore. it will be seen that MT Acker's little bill for his 80 min utes conversation totalled up to a trifie under 925
 A short time ago considerable amuse. ment was caused by 1t becomine known that a certain gentleman con. nected with one of the central tele- phone offices in Illinois had been in the habit every evening of calling ur on the long-distance telephone the girl to whom he was engaged and wno lived in Brooklyn, and hoiing con- versation with her tat the campany's expense) for periods varying from ten minutes to an hour and a quarter
 It appears that this was not against the rules, as it is permissible for any servant of the National Telephone company to use either long-distance or short-distance wires (when they are idle) free of expense As the young gentleman had cOnversed with his sweetheart at a distance of a thousond miles every evening for close on two years without missing more than a fortnight each year tat which time they had nc need of the telephone ser vice) 1t was generally computed that had the bill for the calls been rem dered in the usual way it would have amounted to something like G1500