Again the bell rings.
"Hello!"
"Hello!"
"Is it the fruiterer?"
"Yes."
And the scene is repeated—and so on with the baker, the grocer, and all the lady's tradespeople.
We have all seen the wonderful labour-saving, time-saving apparatus of American invention which has suppressed the cry of "Cash here!" in most large shops in England, as well as America. To watch the ball containing your bill and coin drawn up, to see it run along one inclined groove, and return on another, bringing your change and the bill receipted, is to look on at another piece of American legerdemain.
There is a great effort being made now in New York, Chicago, and other towns, to find out a plan to accelerate the service in restaurants and do away with waiters. It is very simple and the Americans will not be baffled for such a small matter.
This is how the thing is to be done: