The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-08-31
JUST ASK THE HELLO GIRL
When Philadelphians Wish Informa-
ton Central Will Give Tt.

lNeN York SUM
Philadelphia's new independent tele-
phone company, not satisfied with be-
ing an alarm clock and watch regu-
lator for its subscribers. proposes to
assume the duties of a general informa-
ton bureau and TO serve also as a bur
glar and FIRE alarm concern. The latest
directory OF the company, dated July,
contained this announcement:
Parties wanting TO be called during
the night or at certain times in the
morning viii be accommodated. If in
structions be left with the chief oAer-
atOr"
There is very little red tape about
the system. Brown, for instance, has a
telephone in his house not far from his
bed room He is compelled TO get up
at o o'clock 10 catch a train. The night
before he calls up central. Hello, cen
trail, he says, give me the chief oper-
.ator! Hello, is this the chief operator?
This is Main 562- I'm Brown, John
Brown, and L want call at o'clock
sharp"
''All right. Mr.. Brown says the
chief operator. Then she makes out
two slips, one of which she gives TO
one of the telephone girls. The other
she keeps herself. Each is inscribed
in this manner: No 562- Name, AIr.
John Brown. Time, a. m"
These slips are arranged before the
telephone girls and the chief operator
in chronological order, the earliest call
on top Before each girl and before
the chief operator is a small clock regu-
lated by a large clock in the general
managers Office, which. in turn, is
operated by electricity from Washing
ton.
When o'clock comes the chief
operator sees the slip before her. She
calls up one of the girls at the other
end of the room. There is d call for
Main $50 for g. she says. Calling it
now" answers the girl. The party
must have been out late last night He
doesn't answer" At the other end of
the line Brown is in bed half awake
''Drat that telephone" says Brown,
and he turns over to try and take an
other forty winks. But it's no use.
This alarm clock doesn't run down, it
won't stop until Brown gets out of bed
and answers il, and Brown can't trick
himself into believing it's half an hour
fast. Result, Brown gets up, and
shouts a sleepy Hello" into the teie-
phone.
Hello" chirps the girl at the other
end. lis this Mr.. John Brown? Yes?
Well. you were rather hard to get up
this morning. Cali for tomorrow? No?
Well, goodby.''
Some of the regulars make odd re-
quests. Last week one of them called
up TO ask a special favor He was very
fOTgetful, he explained. and he had
written that night a letter which il
was very important that he should
mail the next morning. He had no
stamps in the house, and il was too
late to get them. Would the operator
be so kind as to remind him when she
called him the next morning TO get the
stamps and mail the letter?
It was not exactly in the line Of duty,
but the operator consented. And that
night she was thanked profusely. Du-
ties in this line are not expected. how
ever, to become permanent features of
the service. The telephone company
does not intend to take the place of
that old-fashioaed standby, the string
on the finger.
As a watch regulator the telephone
company numbers Zoe patrons to one
alarm clock customer. AS has already
been said, there is a clock regulated
from Washington in front of each tele-
phone girl The large hands of the
clock move every second, so that at
the moment of the jump of the hand
forward the time can be told to the
dot A pilot clock beside the big elee-
trio clock in the general managers Of
fee shows at A glance whether the
clocks in front of the operators are
running. correctly
When a subscriber calls up by tel
ephone 10 set his watch, the girl first
tells him that it is many minutes past
the hour. She then tells him to hold
his watch until she gives the word
Just as the big hand on the clock N
front of her moves forward she gives
the word and the subscriber has Wash
ington time.
The information bureau viii be the
next department to be started. Forty
trunk lines will be connected with a
board before which a young man will
sit. At his side will be a clerk with a
case full of time tables and books OF
reference.
The subscriber may want to know al
what time the next train leaves for
New York, Atlantic City or Kalamazoo
or whether 1t is going TO rain, or il
Brooklyn plays Philadelphia that after
noon. The information bureau is de-
signed TO answer these and a hundred
other questions to which people want
replies in a Murray.
Instead of sending an Office boy with
a human inclination to loaf to find
when the South American mail closes
at the postoffice the subscriber Will use
the telephone: instead of waiting for
the afternoon newspaper 10 give him
the weather bureaus forecast, ne Will
call up the information bureau of the
company. And if he has no dictionary
handy and he is undecided how TO spell
phthisis oh what 2 megatherium is he
can find but in half a minute.
The only thing which is holding back
the starting of the information bureau
is the inability Of the officials to get
the right young man for the place. II
is hard enough to find telephone girl:
who will say madam instead of lady
when addressing a woman" said tho
assistant general manager, "and it Is
harder still to prevent them from de-
generating from madam into plair
ma am. We must offer the special in
duCements Of a reading room, lunch
room and hospital service besides fail
wages and hours to attract the class OF
girls we want. But to get that paragon
of politeness. celebrity, accuracy, ana
above all, common sense, that we need
for the head of the information bureau
is as hard as finding a needle in hay
stack"
The burglar and fire alarm addition.
TO the service will be the last made
The instrument TO be used is called tn,
phonolarm and looks like nothing more
than a first cousin of telegraph sound
er. It is placed in an iron box and
! slowed away in some far part Of TIT
cellar of the subscribers home.
Then IL is connected with the sub
scriber'S line and with the electrically
operated burglar and fire detectors- 1
1 a window or a door in a house thu
protected from thieves is opened a cir
cult is made, just as when a subscribe
| takes the telephone receiver of tn,