How doth the lady at the phone improve each shining minute And utilize each shred of time for all that there is in ity By Elizabeth Pepys, Many of us are obliged to spend—I will not say waste—many minutes a day at the telephone. Those of a naturally optimistic disposition do not provide themselves with a camp stool and the* latest novel or a light luncheon before ringing up Central, but how often have we wished for such alleviations of our lengthy waits.
Still, this forehandedness has its drawbacks, as witness the other day when I started to call up a friend at 10.30 a.m. Having finally attracted the attention of Central confided my desire to him, and went on reading "The Cathedral." I continued to read. With conside rate tact Central refused to interrupt my literary preoccupations by securing the number or informing me as to the busyness or nonanswering ness of the line. Beautiful peace brooded over the telephone and me. It wag not until the receiver dropped from my cramped hand that I realized it had been my intention to get a telephone number.
TE one is really anxious to secure a nunxber, the time spent waiting seems an eternity. With leisure at such a premium it seems crimine! {to waste any of it, and hence I should suggest some profitable employment of this otherwise vexatious delay. Lives of wreat men all remind us that la the 10 minutes' a day saved by wearing whiskers instead of shaving they learned Greek, taught them-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.