Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-03-28
A ciTY's BUSINESS PULSE.
Row It's Rise and Fall Are Recorded In the
Telephone Exchanges.


Telephone Exchanges.
Where is the pulse of the city's busi-
ness to be felt and watched? On the
streets, in the Stock Exchange, the
board of trade. the hotels, the street cars
or on the docks? Not at all. Where
then? Why. i'll the telephone exchanges.
There you will see the pulse of city
life beating more or less feverishly all
through the "a hours of the day.
If you are interested in the subject
and get the right side of the general
lranager, he will show you the cline of
life OF the city for single day laid
out on beautiful chart. 1t looks like
the profile of mountain range cut clean
Though the middle. The line shows
TO number OF telephone communica-
il@l.s tor each hour of the "a in the
same manner that the daily variations
of thermometer and barometer are
shown in the newspapers.
During the early morning hours it is
gently undulating slope, almost ia,
bleland. At about 6 a. N. it begins to
ascend, at the ascent grows sharper
and by s the slope is steep, at it is
precipitous, and between IL and 12 it
reaches the summit of lofty peak.
The general manager tells you what
the line means In the middle of the
night and during the wee sma' hours
there is little telephone talking. Still
every hour there is always some. The
newspapers, belated clubmen and other
night owls provide it. Then, as the day
breaks, the market opens fire, and the
traffic creeps upward. A little later the
early birds of business begin to pipe
up, and the traffic steadily grows. Then
tine rush down town begins in earnest,
in short time every business office is
in full swing, the pulse of the city beats
at fever heat, and thousand telephone
bells are tinkling every minute.
The line jumps up the slope by leaps
and bounds, the operators rush in and
pull out plugs. turn down levers and
press buttons as if their very life depend
ed on doing 10 separate things in five
seconds, and each one could find work for
three pairs of hands and an equal num-
ber of mouths and ears.
4hOii3 ct llOOu, LILO up nOlCu VI
high pressure is reached, and the line
drops down the other side of the peak.
Men go out to luncheon, and for cou-
pie of hours there is a valley in the
mountain range.
Everybody does not go out together,
though, and even between 10 and 2
there is not very deep valley. Calls
cti o11 rfo Int fhor,
is not the tremendous demand on the
telephone that there was an hour or two
ago.
By 2 O'Clock the line begins to soar
upward again, as if trying to outdo its
performance of the forenoon. People
are back in their offices, and the pulse
of the city again approaches fever heat,
another peak begins to form, and the
summit is reached some time between 3
and 4.
Sometimes it overtops the morning
peak, sometimes it is not quite so high,
but it always makes another rush
hour" for the operators. By O'Clock
people begin to go home, the line is on
its downward course again, and this
tilhC II uIOpo tiOWu IihC lIC olOpC VI al
church steeple.
Between and the telephone COM
munications have subsidized from several
thousands per hour to few hundred,
and the descent is still rapid. The great
er part of the operators are relieved
from duty, and in the course of an hour
or two the great switchboard, from be-
ing nervous, palpitating thing of life,
necessarily receiving signals and max
ing signs, lazily winks one of its many
eyes every few minutes for the rest of
the evening and night
1t never sleeps entirely. In the dead
est hour of the night, week day and
Sunday, high day and holiday, some
body has occasion to use the telephone,
and the pulse of the switchboard, the
heart of the city's life, responds at all
times to the touch of a communicative
public.-Boston Globe.