Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1893 — Imperial Telephone Etiquette. [ARTICLE]

Imperial Telephone Etiquette.

Emperor William 11. has his own imperial way of using the telephone. Despite mistakes caused by the Emperor’s refusal to name himself at the opening of the conversation, as other people do, he-invariably introduces his telephoned orders merely with the words: “1 command that,” and so forth. As soon as the chief of department hears these words he motions that his .subordinates-must at once leave the room. The significance of this arrangement is supposed to be that the chief is having something like an audience with his Majesty and that it would be presumptuous for a person not summoned to hear the imperial voice to occupy the room into which its tones are conveyed. At the end of the conversation the Emperor walks away without saying “good-by,” and the chief with whom he has conversed must listen for five or six minutes afterward to make sure that the imperial ordeis have been completed. Then he calls back his assistants and the usual etiquette is resumed.,