Luxurious Telephoning

When a telephone operator refuses to give out the time, when she refuses even to repeat the number given her, but, instead, chirps pertly, "Thank you"--is she giving "good service"?

The citizens of Sweden do not think so. Their lives are passed in a land where "service" is not advertised but given. From a Swedish telephone operator is expected the sort of unstinted satisfaction which a Swedish housemaid gives by shining the family shoes every day, doing the household wash and energetically scrubbing such members of the family as may deign to take a bath. Last week the telephone companies in Stockholm and Gothenburg announced a new era of luxurious telephoning typically Swedish.

Not only will Swedish switchboard girls continue to give out the time, but for a charge of 10 ore (2 1/2c), they will perform the following new types of super-service:

1) Awaken a telephone subscriber at whatever hour may be designated.

2) Continue to call a "busy" number indefinitely until the call is completed.

3) Answer calls made to a subscriber with a given message, such as that he is sick, busy, absent, but may be reached, later, at such-and-such an hour.

4) Take messages during the subscriber's absence and repeat them when he makes his return known.

Some citizens of the U. S. wondered last week, if this so "unAmerican" super-service is given over U. S.-made telephones. It is not. Swedes long ago refused to tolerate the heavy, antiquated type of instrument which requires two hands to lift it from the table and manipulate it. The "Made in Sweden" telephone is a one-handed device, weighing only a few ounces, combining the transmitter and receiver in a single mounting. Therefore, and because of their excellent quality, Swedish telephones have been very widely adopted for the newer installations in Europe, Asia, Latin America.

A quaint instance of Swedish cunning was observed in London, last week, when several large coffins were unloaded from a ship from Sweden. The coffins weighed but little more than packing cases of the same size, contained Swedish matches, were sold after the matches had been unpacked.