The ordinary rules which govern the art of conversation in polite circles do not fit in with the telephonic talk. When the conversation is to be abruptly broken off in three minutes it is something like endeavouring to pour out your soul on a sixpenny telegram.
Photo
Clark & Hyde
Three Minutes’ Conversation by Telephone.
The calculagraph is a clock which registers the exact time occupied by each conversation. The operator depresses the handle on one side when the conversation begins, and depresses the other when the conversation is finished.
The Daily Mail once published an article entitled “Learning Languages by Telephone,” which laid the newspaper open to Punch's obvious retort that “telephone girls, we understand, have learnt quite a lot of language that way.”
An employer and his office boy were having a conversation over the telephone, in the course of which the employer found it necessary to remonstrate with his employé and to express somewhat forcibly his opinion of the latter's actions or behaviour. At the conclusion of his master's remarks the boy inquired: “Are you done? Are you quite sure you are done? Well, all them names you called me you is.”