Life — August 15, 1912 — page 38: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Message Bearers Ancient and Modern Pheidippides, the most noted runner of ancient Greece, made a record and an ever- lasting reputation by speeding 140 miles from Athens to Sparta in less than two days. Runners trained to perfection composed the courier service for the transmission of messages in olden times. But the service was so costly it could be used only in the interest of rulers on occasions of utmost importance. The Royal messenger of ancient timeshas given way to the democratic telephone of to-day. Cities, one hundred or even two thousand miles apart, are connected in a few seconds, so that message and answer follow one another as if two persons were talking in the same room, This instantaneous telephone service not onty meets the needs of the State in great emergencies, but it meets the daily needs of millions of the plain people. There can be no quicker service than that which is | everywhere at the command of the humblest day laborer. Inventors have made possible communica- tion by telephone service. The Bell System, by connecting seven million people together, has made telephone service so inexpensive that it is used twenty-five million times a day. Captains of war and industry might, at great expense, establish their own exclusive tele- phone lines, but in order that any person hav- ing a telephone may talk with any other per- son having a telephone, there must be One System, One Policy and Universal Service. AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY AND ASSOCIATED COMPANIES Customs in 1920 The Blue Star liner Largestout nosed cautionsly into her dock, and forthwith twenty-six thousand American tourists poured down. the gangways. On land- ing, cach was taken into custody, searched, and handcuffed. They were then placed in a long line, flanked by government officers, who spoke curtly, saying, “ Pass-along-there! Don't-keep- the-line-waiting! — Step-livel Those who did not quickly respond to these ad- monitions were made to feel greater re- spect and reverence for the law by being placed at the foot of the line. At the head of the column stood a maiden of some thirty summers. The official scrut- inized her rudely and ran his fingers through her hair. “ All yours?” He quickly turned her eyclids wrong- side-out. “ Have you been exposed to cholera or other contagious diseases?” Have you had any tecth filled while abroad?” Yes.” With American or foreign metal?” “ American, “Very good. What was your weight when you sailed from this port?" She hesitated, confused. ht,” he insisted. “Two hundred and cight,” she whis- pered, in a voice so low that the re- porters could not hear. You now weigh two hundred and : announced the official, loudly, “ and will have to pay duty on the cleven pounds’ gain. Married or single? "— the last with a winning smile. There was no reply. At the sound of “two hundred and nineteen” the maiden had fainted. She was caught up by masculine arms and placed at the foot of the line, again to await her turn —Lippincott’s The Mandarin’s Little Joke Here is a'story from the Boston Ad vertiser that must be told before Chinese reform has made such progress that we forget the Chinese ever wore “ pig- tails": Bishop Roots, of Hankow, says that when he first went to China he had a xood deal of difficulty in remembering faces. “T'm getting over my difficulty now,” he one day to a mandarin, “but in the beginning here in Hankow you all looked as like as two peas.” “Two peas?” said the English speak- ing mandarin, smiling. “Why not say two queues ?"— Youth's Companion. EO Liquid Thoroughbreds —to delight and satisfy thirsty humanity — Sheboygan Mineral Water and Ginger Ale Awater, sparkling, delightfully refreshing and healthf a ginger ale improved by the water. Delicious with agreeable zest, and rich in the real ginger flavor. Servedin America's leading Clubs, Cafes acd largest Hotels. Sold by all firt-clase Grocers, Drugents, Delicatessens. GBR Shedoyean Mineral WaterCo. |, gos fy comicbooeel