San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-05-25
TELEPHONE TALK.
FAVORS FROM THE PHONE
FAIRIES.
Where the WhiIOm Whispers Whisk
the Why's and What's.

Yesterday, Tor the purpose OF nndlng
out something about our telephones, a
reporter for this paper paid visit to the
central office. There he met Miss Mary
Vanwert, the chief operator, very
charming young lady, who in most cor
pial and delightful manner answered
many of the numerous and inquiSitive
conundrumS the news man propounded.
Later in the day he met Mr.. T. w. Mil
burn, the efficient and popular manager
of the company. From these two sources
it was learned:
That there were in this city, in active
use 600 telephones, and new orders last
month amounted to "A.
Five hundred and eighty wires and $50
poles are used for these.
The San Antonio street car company
use about four times as many and the
electric light works about twice this num-
ber
The instruments rent for "a for resi-
dences, and IS for offices per month, re-
spectively.
The company rent or lease these from
the American Bell Telephone company of
Boston and New York. They have to
pay for them from the time they arrive in
their hands until returned or DESTROYED
by fire or otherwise. The manager makes
an affidavit to that effect and it is sent to
the company. During the work of the
late firebug fifteen telephones were burnt
up or rendered unfit for use.
The telephone company has had of late
very hard luck. Not long ago the trolly
wire of the San Antonio Street Railway
broke 1t was careleSSly tied to tele-
phone wire and all the telephones in the
7th and Sth wards. 100 were burnt out.
Besides the Inconvenience it caused these
subscribers, the others were also consid-
erabIy put out. as they could not get con-
nection. For this they blamed the tele-
phone company and paid Mr.. Weiss
street car dime TO go out and see the
parties. Several days after that on
River avenue, 40 others were burnt out.
While fixing this the smoke stack of the
Reliance Ice factory fell and broke 10
wires.
Then Wednesday night one of the iron
trolly poles became mixed up with
the telephone wires at the corner of
Houston and Soledad streets and burned
out the whole business. rendering all con-
nection impossible for two DAYS. also
nearly causing conflagration.
The reporter was kindly shown
the place. About three and one half feet
of each of 700 wires had"the insulation
burned off. They had to put in new wires
here, which took them some time and
about 500 In money, besides the rebate.
The company, when asked. pay rebate
when the phone is out of use over "a
. To- IRIS.
The territorial phones are also in per-
feet condition, but this part of the bust
ness is quite dull az present. Mr.. Mil
burn said they expected soon TO put in
two copper wires between here and Aus
tin, in place of the present large steel
wire. They also expect soon to have tel
eDhone connection with Houston and
Galveston, and in such working order that
twill be as easy TO converse with per-
sons in those cities as with parties here.
For operating all the phones, besides
the chief operator, nine young ladies are
employed, six for the day watch, aud
three for the night. 1t is the business of
the chief operator to hear and adjust
complaints.
The question was asked why young
ladies were employed in preference to
men Because" said Mr.. Milbarn,
their work is more satisfactory and less
trouble is caused. If man is at the
central and any one says anything
out of the way, which for shame
to those parties, is sometimes the case,
they will leave the phone and ''go after
him" ''For while we had boys for
night operators exclusively. but they
were too sleepy headed, and we had tc
get VOnnp ladies -