174 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



wires, underground 43,239 kilometers, aerial 16,389 kilometers. 

 The excess of underground mileage is due to the preponderance 

 of Paris, which at this date had nearly three- fourths of the total 

 subscribers. Of internal trunks there were 201, of international 

 trunks 8 ; with a total length, in routes of 11,428, and in wire of 

 22,856 kilometers. It will be noticed that the length of wire 

 is that of the routes doubled, which throws doubt on the ac- 

 curacy of the return, there being certainly more than one metallic 

 circuit in the Paris-Brussels and Paris-London routes if nowhere 

 else. The number of local conversations between subscribers is 

 returned at 19,000,000 ; between public stations and subscribers 

 at half a million : over trunk lines, 542,910. The number of tele- 

 grams telephoned was, outward 385,785, homeward 200,993 > ar) d 

 of messages telephoned for local delivery, 1,354. The receipts 

 from all sources amounted to 10,307,823 francs, and the expenses 

 to 9,869,108 francs, leaving a profit of 438,715 francs, or 

 17,5487. 



The number of subscribers in the principal towns was stated 

 by a high official to be roughly as follows, in January 1895 : 



Paris (town) . . 12,500 Marseilles . . . 1,000 



Paris (suburbs) . . 1,500 Le Havre . . . 1,000 



Lyons . . . 1,200 

 Bordeaux . . . 1,200 



Rou^n . . . 600 



With the exception of the capital, therefore, it is evident that 

 the French cities are far behind even the English in develop- 

 ment. 



