In all official departments in Washington
scores of telephones are provided; even the secretary of the department
and the chief of the bureau give orders by telephone.
It goes without saying that this means of communication
is also found in the home of almost every well-to-do family.
The invention of a telephone is a great blessing to mankind;
it enables friends to talk to each other at a distance without the trouble
of calling.* Sweethearts can exchange their sweet nothings,
and even proposals of marriage have been made and accepted
through the telephone. However, one is subjected to frequent annoyances
from wrong connections at the Central Office, and sometimes
grave errors are made. Once, through a serious blunder,
or a mischievous joke, I lost a dinner in my Legation in Washington.
My valet received a telephone message from a lady friend
inviting me to dine at her house. I gladly accepted the invitation,
and at the appointed time drove to her home, only to find
that there was no dinner-party on, and that I should have to go hungry.
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* "To call" in the sense of "to visit". -- A. R. L., 1996.
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With some trades, in order to create a new market,
commercial travellers or "drummers" give their goods away for nothing.
Experience has proved that what they lose at the start they recover
in the course of time, receiving in addition triple or tenfold more business
than the cost of the original outlay. These commercial agents travel
through all sections of the country to solicit business;
they call upon those who can give them orders; they look up those
who are engaged in similar businesses to their own,
and, if they are retailers, they invite their orders, or ask them
to become sub-agents.
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