Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1895 — “Now I Hear You.” [ARTICLE]

“Now I Hear You.”

Father O’Halloran had a telephone put into the parsonage In connection with the church, the parochial school, etc. Patrick McFee, his reverence’s handy man, was instructed in the use of the Instrument, and it was only the next day when Pat, dusting out the church, heard the clatter of the telephone bell. Taking down the receiver, he was pleased to hear Father O’Halloran’s familiar voice asking him something or other about his work Pat, in essaying to answer, remembered that his reverence was a long way off, and Pat consequently nallooed into the transmitter at the top of his voice. “I don’t understand you, Patrick,” said the telephone. Pat tried again, but with no better success. On his third trial, he came near splitting the telephone; but again came Father O’Halloran’s voice, “I can’t hear what you are saying, Patrick,” Pat had by this time lost something of his patience, and as he stood gathering breath for a fourth blast he couldn’t refrain from soliloquizing in a low tone, “Ah! may the divil fly away wld the ould fool.” Bi/t Pat dropped the telephone like a hot potato and fell to his knees in dismay, when he heard Father O’Halloran’s voice once again, “Now I hear you perfectly, Patrick.”—Boston Evening Transcript.