ACOUSTIC TELEGRAPHY . 
49 
numbers are arranged in frames, each containing from 50 to 
100 ; and special commutators are used for communicating 
between the several series. 
At New York the central station effects no fewer than 6,000 
communications daily, and this done to the entire satisfaction 
of the subscribers. The telephone has become for them as 
indispensable as the omnibuses and the tramways are for us. 
Every month a list of the subscribers is distributed, arranged 
alphabetically, and by professions. The Philadelphia lists are 
printed like books, and are provided even with eyelet holes for 
hanging them below the telephone. At Chicago the list now 
constitutes a small volume. 
The American District Telegraph Company has greatly ex¬ 
tended its service, and in its address-book is the following 
announcement :— 
Notice to Subscribers . 
A servant in livery will be at your door three minutes after 
your call, to distribute your notes, invitations, circulars, carry 
small parcels, &c., . . . to accompany a lady or a child to any 
place, or to bring them back. He will bring your children 
home from school; or during a storm will carry umbrellas, &c., 
to church or elsewhere, when necessary; he will fetch a doctor, 
a nurse, medicine, a friend, a coach, &c., at any hour. 
Have we not here the practical spirit carried out to the utter¬ 
most ? It is, of course, quite possible to accomplish what is 
here announced, for the district telegraphs are so spread 
throughout the whole city, that you are never more than five 
minutes’ distance from an office. The same company has 
also instituted a service for supervising night-watchmen, a 
service which will be talked about in France perhaps twenty 
vears hence. In the meantime let us avail ourselves of the 
•j 
telephonic communications which are each day becoming a 
more pressing necessity. They are rapidly taking their place 
in our daily life, and everything leads us to believe that their 
number will quickly increase. 
