Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1907-01-14

Boston, January 2-It has been
possible for officers Of the warships
at present under repair at the navy
yard to send holiday greetings home
without even as much as bothering to
secure shore leave to go to tele-
graph office, for the arrangements
made by the navy department to pro-
vide the squadron now at Charles
town with long distance telephone IA
cilities have been completed and each
Of the big men-of-war has its own
public pay station for the use of the
captain and the members of his stan.
The pay station is located aft, near
the officers quarters, and all the lieu
tenant or the ensign need 20 is drop
in to the booth and call up central
which in this case is the New Eng
land Telephone and Telegraph com
-pany's exchange in Charlestown-
and ask for New York Chicago Or st.
Louis, or any other of the thousands
of points in the Bell system east of
the Mississippi.
This arrangement is purely for the
convenience of the visiting officers.
as they may be called, the officers at
tached to the ships stationed tempo
Tarily at the yard, and it goes to
show how indispensable the telephone
to spend greater share of their
cime afl0at.
In a way, this arrangement is the
result Of the increasing business Of
the yard. The scene at the mouth
Of the Charles is particularly pictur-
esqUe at the present time. In addi-
ton to the impressive display of
towering white battlements and buff
cOlored crows nests built OF carry
rapid fire guns, there is the element
of constant activity Truly there IS
something doing" at tue old yard,
a good deal more than has been do
ing there for many years past. Every
pier and dry dock mas it's imposing
cruiser or battleship and every shop
is working under high pressure.
Five of the battleshirs now in com
mission are at the yard. the Georgia.
Missouri, Indiana, Rhode Island and
Illinois a powerful Meet by them
selves and typical of the new navy"
Besides these there are the cruisers
New York. Nashville and Detroit and
the torpedo training ship Vesuvius.
These last four are out of commits
sion for the present.
Things are done faster. and prob
ably better, than they were in the
old days. Here is an example of
this. Until the flood tide of bust
ness struck the Charlestown yard the
telephone was looked upon as linn
tied convenience, while now 1t has
taken its place among the indispens-
able things and become an almost I'M
limited convenience. There were
plenty of telephones for yard use
formerly. about $50 altogether, but
when the commandant or the head OF
a department wanted to call up Wash
ingtOn or New York he had to go to
one Of the yard pay stations, or else
20 some station outside the yard al
together
Finally these busy men realized mat
such an arrangement would never
meet the requirements of the press
Of business following the completion
Of the mammoth dry dock. 1t would
be more like the twentieth century
century to have direct outside con-
nection, they felt; and with the ap-
proval of the navy department the
New England Telephone and Tele-
graph company took out the 33 tele-
phones used by the chief officer and
department heads and put in new
telephones and an extra switch
board with trunk lines running to
the Charlestown exchange. Since