Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1905-11-29
The Telephone Abroad
Unequal to Ou1 !;
Returning Tourists Tell Amusing Stories of Lack of Faci
ties in Other Lands.

season on the continent area proc diiA-
ing louder than ever, this year, heir
ioy at getting home again.
1T may be the land OF the big
stick and the almighty dollar" said
one globe-trotter, when he stepped
from ship to shore, but after all the
big stick is emblematic of the Ameri,
can spirit of getting something done,
and the almighty dollar can buy some
Of the real comforts of life on this
side.
Two things specially call forth the
obloquy of the homecomers-foreige
railroads and foreign telephones. In
railway travel we seem to have the
advantage not only in the matter of
comfort, in which no comparison what,
ever is to be made, but in speed, in
regularity, and in transportation
charges. The telegraph has beer de-
veloped in Europe to a point lot yet
attempted in this country, but in Eng
land and on the continent the tele-
graph is practically the only means OF
quick communication. Things that
are done there by telegraph are done
here much more easily, quickly, and
economically by telephone. The
European has no comprehension of
what constitutes telephone service as
we of tie United States know it from
daily experience.
A couple of mouths ago the director
Of the technical department of the
government telephone and telegraph
lines of Hungary and one of his prom
inent ow-countrymen from Buda
Pest were touring the United States
to study the methods of the Bell com
panies. They visited New York, San
Francisco, Chicago and other cities,
and before they went away one Of
u,em said:
The city Of Buda Pest has 5000
subscribers to its telephone service.
We have a population of 100000, 50
you can readily see that the tele-
phones are not as extensively used as
in this country We have the latest
American improvements in the tele-
phone and we procure all our supplies
from America. We have $4,000 miles
of toll lines, and we can telephone
from Buda Peet to Berlin, distance
% $50 miles"
An American city half the size OF
Buda Pest would have at least 10000
telephone subscribers. Boston, with
only two-thirds the population of the
Hungarian capital, has five times the
number Of telephone; and New York.
with five times the population, has
about twenty-eight times as many
The greatest user of DIR. Bells inven-
ton on the continent is Sweden, yet
the whole of Sweden has only about
half as many subscribers as the single
Bell company which serves northern
New Engls nd here The city OF Lon
don, with It's 6,000,0e0 people, bas
81, 59s telephones WI this city, with
its 100000, has zee sl55.
The reason for this disparity is that
foreigners know neither how to run
a telephone system nor how 10 use
one. 1t is not that they are unable
to get as good equipment, for the laost
progressive among them use Hell in
struments and sg itchboaTds. But
American resourcefr!ness and Ameri-
can progresstgenes have made the diff
ference between the possibilidee that
have been worked out of the telephone
here and in the other hemisphere.
The European regards the telephone
as luxury, the American as neces.
sity The foreign telephone company
operates apparently on the principle
that as long as you have wire with
a telephone at each end. it makes no
difference whether you can near any
thing over the circuit, or even whether
it is quicker. means OF communica-
ton than the railway. On the other
hand, the American system has been
built up by the constant making OF
improvements and the expenditure of
millions Of dollars 10 bring them into
use. An American just back from
Scotland said the other day:
when / was in Glasgow | asked a
business friend If / might use his
telephone 10 call up man in Edin-
burg with whom wanted to make an
appointment.
certainly YOU my, he said, IL
YOU nave the trle. Ii you are In a
hurry you had bette run up TO Edin-
bura yourself on the train. II only
takes an hour and it will surely take
you longer than that to get a tele-
phone call through
The long distance service. which is
yearly becoming more important
factor in American business, is some
thing the foreigner cannot comprc-
bend at all Two or three hundred
miles is what he calls long distance;
il you tell him people talk every day
over the thousand miles OF wire be
tween New York and Chicago, or the
1900 miles between Boston and
Omaha, he sets you down in the same
class with the man who has heen spin
ming yarns Of the rate at which the
corn stalks grow in Iowa or the size
of the barns the Kansas farmers use.
The longest connection possible to tha
telephone user in Germany. where tel
ephony is particularly well developed
for the continent, is between Paris
and Berlin, 7i2 miles.
When the proposition to establish
long distance service between Paris
and Rome came up a couple of years
ago it raised a discussion that amused
American engineers. 1t is 9e7 miles
fo,r, t1a INroprh can{tal m JtaIv's