342 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



hall, library, kitchen, or where not, the last duty of the house- 

 maid at night might be to place it by her employer's bedside. 



By day the master gets a cab or a messenger ; he speaks 

 with his distant office, instructs his stock-broker, or calls for 

 articles from the chemist. The mistress orders fish, flesh, or 

 fowl, and stores of usual or exceptional consumption, much 

 more easily than by going to the shop or standing at her door ; 

 she can keep a dilatory dressmaker up to the mark, can make 

 sure that this friend or that is at home for a call. All may 

 be done without effort. 



At night the doctor can be spoken with, mouth to ear — 

 symptoms described, palhatives employed under his skilled 

 advice, his attendance summoned at any moment. 



As the ' cracksman ' is cutting through the plate-glass of the 

 dining-room window, the master, listening in bed, can whisper 

 the fact in the ear of the constable at the police-station, who 

 is thereby enabled to secure Mr. Sikes before the householder 

 has well got on his boots or found his thickest cudgel. An 

 expert burglar might, it is true, cut the wire before beginning 

 operations, but there are ways of baffling even that astute 

 device. 



As to fire, time, next to water, is the essence of extinction. 



All the remarks which apply to the town residence and the 

 use of the telephone may be urged with tenfold force in regard 

 to a house in the country. To say the least, the telephone 

 halves the distance ; it is also true to say that it robs rural parts 

 of their terrors. 



From another point of view the telephone is essential to 

 everyone having occasion to communicate with his neighbours 

 — with him who has something to sell and him who desires 

 to buy. 



Even the artisan out of work may quickly find by its means 

 where his services can be utilized ; while access to the telephone 

 of a farm-house by the labourers of the estate would be an 

 inestimable boon in a hundred ways, and especially in cases of 

 illness. 



The policy of a private company, and probably of a Govern- 

 ment department, is to wait for a demand before supplying it. 

 The present aspect of affairs seems to call for more spirited 



