German Empire 177 



become so huge and clumsy, and the trunk-line speaking so 

 immeasurably inferior to that which will prevail in neighbouring 

 States, that an entire reconstruction will have to be undertaken 

 at enormous cost. 



The author visited several of the principal cities both in the 

 north and south of the Imperial postal district, including the 

 chief towns of Baden, Hesse, Alsace-Lorraine, Saxony, and Han- 

 over, with the view of obtaining a just idea of the whole and of 

 avoiding the danger of generalising from only local experiences. 

 There were but few differences to note. The outside construction 

 is practically the same everywhere, better done in some of the 

 towns than in others, but always on the same plan ; the sub- 

 scribers' instruments (excepting in Berlin and Hamburg) are 

 identical. Only the switch-boards and exchange fixtures differ. 

 In all the towns the author took great pains and disbursed divers 

 marks with the object of testing the service, especially that over 

 the trunk lines, from a subscriber's point of view. All the hotels 

 of any note are connected in the various towns, the instruments 

 being usually under the care of the hall porters, invariably men 

 of intelligence and practised in the manipulation of their tele- 

 phones. Under these circumstances it was found a good plan to 

 get through to hotels in other towns and inquire after supposi- 

 titious letters. This was not an expensive amusement, inasmuch 

 as a three-minute talk between any two connected parts of the Im- 

 perial postal district costs only one shilling (this is one of the 

 points on which the Administration is deserving of earnest com- 

 mendation) ; but it required a good fund of perseverance and 

 patience, since the lines, when first asked for, were invariably 

 engaged, and the precincts of the instrument had to be haunted 

 until perhaps after some twenty or thirty minutes the notifica- 

 tion of connection came. The result of this experience (October 

 1894) was decidedly disappointing, for on no single occasion did 

 the author succeed in obtaining a trunk communication that was 

 even tolerably good. The best (and yet indifferent) were between 

 Frankfort-on-Main and Mannheim, and between Leipzig and 

 Berlin. The worst between Berlin (Central Hotel) and Hamburg 

 (Hamburger Hof), excepting that between Berlin and Cologne, 

 which had to be abandoned as hopeless. To compare any Imperial 



