El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-11-05
From Mondays Daily.
TELEPHONE IMPROVEMENTS.
The New Cables.-No Immediate
Prospect For Long Distance In
StaIIation

prospect fOT Long piStohSS III
stallation.
The South western Telegraph and
Telephone company have just finished
very extensive Improvements in their
local plant. Said Mr.. Hood, manager
of the company:
'There has been a line in FL Paso
ever since'S2 or 'S3. 1 don remember
which. This has been a good town to
do business in ever since the first wire
was strung.
"The improvements which the COM
pauy have Just completed make the FL
Paso service better than any In the
state except San Antonio, as that mad
lust been reitted before the working
force came out here.
ave have erected in the last three
months upwards Of five hundred as hne
telephone poles as were ever brouR NJ
into the state. These old poles which
have about seen their day Will DE taken
down and the new ones Will De an or
nament 10 the town. They are all OF
the came size and height. Most or
them have only two cross arms on them
and they are only TO carry the wires
from the subscribers, Offices to the
nearest cable box: then they go into
the cable and then to the central Of
dee
1--WE have put up i've OF these cables
and will put mp more. They are the
latest meth cd OF carrying a large num-
brr OF wires without having the streets
full OF q net work of them. The five
which are now up run from the central
office TO different parts of the city.
Tnere will be one to the corner tf
stanton and San Antonio, one down
FL Paso street to point about opposite
the opera house, one up North oregon
street above Main street, one TO the
n nj
streets, ADD one to the corner OF Ore gon
aud San Antonio. In all, over 81 w
feet of this cable was used in the Work.
In each of the ca bles are one hundred
and fifty small wires"
The telephone exchange, or central
Office. 90 10 is more generally called,
has been moved from its old Office on
lower FL Paso street to its new one,
which as late ~ been fixed up for it
In the corner office upstairs in the
Lesiusky block. In fixing up the new
office the general Office of the compa-
nv at Austin sent Robert 5. Shelly
out a. an expert wirer tn see that eN-
erything was put in good working or
der, before it was turned over to
Manager Hood.
The new exchange board which has
been put in is straight from the shops.
IL il on the latest plan of the We-tern
Electric company with the patent auto
matte duplicate drop. The many
hundreds of small wires necessary TO
make the connection with this boards
are a puzzle to the outsider. but under
the skilful work of Mr.. Shelley he has
them all In good working order, and
from now on the subscribers will have
u better service than the city has ever
before had
The new board is capable of accom-
modat'ng some six hundred subscrlo-
ers. There are at present over four
hundred anu that was one reason OF
the improvements being made. There
were mauy who wanted phones but
couldn't get them because the COM
pauy was not in position to put them
in as the board which was 10 the old
Office was overcrowo ed.
The business of the Office is increas-
ing so now there are three operators
at work during the day and soon an
other will have to Be put on.
Mr.. Hood said further that Ell Paso
had better rate than any other town
in the state. The service is better,
aod from now on the liuemen will be
kept busy putting In new phones on
both sides of the river.
The reporter asked him if FL Psso
would soon have the benefit of long
distance line To other parts of the
state. He didn't think IL likely he
cause the distance was too far. There
might be some possibility of running a
wire over the Postal Telegraph poles,
but moth ng has been sad of it yet.
The rate would BE- pretty high to talk
tn Galveston, Houston, or Texarkana.
"The relays would be long, and that is
what costs ~
The little line which runs from
here up into New Mexico is owned by
private company. aud we have Moth
irg to do with that said Mr.. Hood.
Then, too, New Mexico is not in our
division. We might be given that
portion of the country so as to have a
general office here in FL Psso and
then the use OF the long distance
phones would be cheaper, and to the
little towns around IL would be quite
convenience for the FL Paso Wholesale
houses.
When the long distance telephone
would make its advent into FL Paso
Mr.. Hood would not say.