"But they don't work us night and day, Phil," returned May, "it is only the telegraphs that do that. We of the female staff work in relays. If we commence at 8 a.m. we work till 4 p.m. If we begin at nine we work till five, and so on--eight p.m. being our latest hour. Night duty is performed by men, who are divided into two sections, and it is so arranged that each man has an alternate long and short duty--working three hours one night and thirteen hours the next. We are allowed half-an-hour for dinner, which we eat in a dining-hall in the place. Of course we dine in relays also, as there are above twelve hundred of us, male and female." "How many?" asked George Aspel in surprise. "Above twelve hundred." "Why, that would make two pretty fair regiments of soldiers," said Aspel. "No, George," said Phil, "it's two regiments of pretty fair soldiers that they'd make." "Can't you hold your tongue, man, an' let May talk?" retorted Aspel. "So, you see," continued May, "that amongst us we manage to have the telegraphic communication of the kingdom well attended to." "But tell me, May," said Phil, "do they really suck messages through tubes two miles long?" "Indeed they do, Phil. You see, the General Post-Office in London is in direct communication with all the chief centres of the kingdom, such as Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Cork, etcetera, so that all messages sent from London must pass through the great hall at St. Martin's-le-Grand. But there are many offices in London for receiving telegrams besides the General Post-Office. Suppose that one of these offices in the city receives numerous telegrams every hour all day long,--instead of transmitting these by wire to the General Post-Office, to be re-distributed to their various destinations, they are collected and put bodily into cylindrical leather cases, which are inserted into pneumatic metal tubes. These extend to our central office, and through them the telegrams are sucked just as they are written. The longest tube, from the West Strand, is about two miles, and each bundle or cylinder of telegrams takes about three minutes to travel. There are upwards of thirty such tubes, and the suction business is done by two enormous fifty-horse-power steam-engines in the basement of our splendid building. There is a third engine, which is kept ready to work in case of a break-down, or while one of the others is being repaired." "Ah! May, wouldn't there be the grand blow-up if you were to burst your boilers in the basement?" said Phil.