The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-02-27
TELEPHONE STORIES.
Some Peculiar Things Done By the
Long Distance Wires.

Z -4CAS O4oNeAlOC w IL
Considering the fact that millions of
miles of wire and half the states of the
country are included in our telephone
system, and that we have something
like 100000 subscribers, it isn't strange
that some peculiar things happen over
the long-distance lines" said the tele-
phone man, as he leaned back in his
chair after connecting Omaha and New
York, just to show how easy it is to
! talk across 1000 miles.
THE other day the papers printed a
story OF how a bank president in Min
neapolis presided over meeting of di-
reetors in Lowell. Mass" he went on.
That was correct enough. but it wasn't
such an unusual thing as one might in
fer from reading the accounts of it. 1t
has become quite the regular thing for
railroad and bank directors who can't
get to the regular place of meeting to
he connected with the meeting place by
wire: by the use of a large tranSmitter
he is able to hear everything that goes
on, and to take part in the proceedings
almost as we'll as though he were on
the spot. know, too, that the distance
phone has been used to close some of
the largest commercial transactions
that have taken place in this country
during the past five years.
The use of the lOng-range telephone
for great business affairs seems natural
enough, for the high charges are trivial
when compared with the interests in
volved But anybody who hasn't 4
chance to learn from being in the bust
ness, would be astonished at some of
the messages that go over the wires
i
round sums in the way of tolls. ! sup
pose that the reason of this is that the
telephone is still comparatively new to
most people: they look upon it with
something of wonder and they like to
experiment with ii to see if it will do all
that is claimed for it.
Here. for instance, is a case that we
had last night and which is one of q
kind that We get six days in every
week. A Cincinnati man had come on
to New York on business. He had evil
IDENTIFY just left his train when he came
to the phone and called up his Ohio
house. There evidently wasn't any par
ticular reason for it. except his desire
to talk with his family. one after an
other the mother and five children came
to the phone and exchanged a few SEN
fences with the head of the house. In
such long distance work, where the
charges are high, il is customary for the
operator to notify the user of the wire
at the end of each five minutes of the
time. so that there won't be any con-
fusion about the cost at the end. In
this case the conversation kept drag
ging out ard the night manager, who
had the wire, notified the man every
five minutes. each time being met with
the reply. I'll take five minutes more.
The Cincinnati man was determined
that every one of his family should hear
his voice and he didn't care how much
it cost. Last of all the baby was
brought to the transmitter, youngsteT
who could just lisp Hello. Papa" and
then the man settled his bill for Sos
without a murmur. doubtless feeling
well repaid in having listened to his
baby's coo across that distance.
''Of course that's an extreme case in
the size of the charge, but in other re-
spects it isn't an unusual thing, es-
pecially with westerners. It seems to-
me that about one in every 10 men.
whether they come from Chicago or
some little cross road town, rush off TO
the telephone the first thing when they
strike New York, and call up the wife
or sweetheart whom they have left be-
hind at home. TO the outsider their
little home gossip or sweet nothlngs
don't seem to amount to much, but 1 |