The Monticellonian., 1905-08-10

an Immediate Answer-Importu
 nate Trustees Break Into a Home
 Evening.
 BY MARGARET l.. SANGSTER. Copyright l9oj. by Joseph B. Bowles)
 Undoubtedly the telephone is a great convenience. Whoever has had 1t in the house would sacrifice many lux uries rather than go without it. Time and strength and letter. writing and telegrams, and all sorts of minor dis comforts are saved us by this weird eontriVance on the wall, this mysteri- eus tube into which we speak; this odd receiver which brings Us voices from afar. We want to talk with a friend. to ask after her sick husband. or about her absent son; We are con fronted by an emergency and obliged to leave home suddenly, or uneXpect- ed guests arrive, and the dinner must be nicer, with an added course or two in every case the telephone is our friend Certainly we should hate to | do without it this link that through the power of applied science b.nds Us closer 10 our comrades on the road. It is a great convenience, and to some of us an indispensable necessity.
 Take for example the womans club How on earth could club president, or secretary. or the Caair- man of an important committee. get on and manage her work and com munieate with her fellow memDe;s if there were not the telephone2 Every body knows that club, however small finds opportunity for endless discussion and arrangement and rearrangeIlent at other times than when in session The telephone makes this conference possible and easy; it is boon of Goons to the club woman
 Once in a personal experience, cnee only, and the incident lives in mem- ory as startling. the telephone was found successful in reducing the amount of an eXorDitant gas bill Householders know how difficult an enterprise this is. how seldom accom- plished On previous occasions letters had proved abortiye, and interviews had found officials adamant. but the talk over the telephone a party wire at that proved immediately reassur- ing. The percentage asked for was granted; the obnoxious bill was re 6uoed to it's rightful proportions
 If you want doato. n the dead of night, it is not now needful for the man of the house to Gress and go hasti- ly out in the cold and darkness; the telephone will ring signal at tn } doctors head, and he will rise from his bed tell you what to do, or cone himself in half the time it used tt take to get him to tdG patient When there is sudden illness in the home you cry blessings on the telephone and they are heartfelt.
 
 And yet, it has it's drawbacks. There Is a tyranny of the telephone that has done something to make life less sim pie than it used to be There are moods in which one wishes she had never seen, never heard never touched or handled the little affair which has done more than any other single agent to rob life of privacy and independ- ence
 We have often heard that a mans house is his castle. It is, and it isn't. It depends on whether he has a tele- phone.
 You may bolt, you may bar you may
 lock at your will.
 But the telephone demon will bounce
 on you still
 No shutters exclude him no key keeps
 him back.
 At the sound of the bell. he is here on
 your track
 To cut off the service is the only way to exercise the invisible imp wio dlsturbs you at your meals. breaks in on your prayers, and demands an in stant answer to his summons with a peremptory haste. not unlike the old challenge of the footpad on Hounslow Heath: Your money or your life.'' For instance:
 You have decided to spend a day in l quiet retirement. withdrawn from he world and it's cares You have planned to admit nobody; you wish to rest to relax, to let life's fiood-tde refresh you. since too much work. too much talk. too much distraction of business has brought your powers to the ebb. l In vain is your planning and precau- tion. The telephone rings and you take down your receiver
 Aunt Frances, Uncle Jonathan ana the children are on their way to spend | tho day with you. They have just de- cideu that they can come to-day. and will be with you about noon Now you love your kinsfolll and Johns. too You like Aunt Frances better thar any other of Johns aunts. ana l Uncle Jonathan is an old dear" The children are objectionable when you 1 have a headache and are tired; they are stirring children. always on the rampage: always meddling; not well trained or well-bred and you would willingly omit them from the pro- gramme but Aunt Frances is a devoted mother, who never leaves her brood al home.
 To put them off for a day would give offense. be misunderstood, and hurt Johe. who is most loyal to his own people, and always delighted to have them under his roof Therefore you fly around, dust chairs and tables, get out the best china, make a salad