The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-19

fires, etc, come at irregular intervals
throughout the day, but are more numer-
Gus in the evening. Towards midnight
the out-of-town correspondents of the
morning newspapers begin to call up to
give their news. From midnight until
rosy dawn is hack time. 1t would be
unfair to say what takes place during
this period, The citizen has some priVi-
leges that must be respected. business
In the operating room begins to pick up
about O'clock in the morning. At $50
o'clock three additional operators come on
DUTY to assist the eight local operators,
who have been at work during the night,
and the regular day shift comes on at
Z O'Clock.
Operators on the local board have not
so much to amuse and instruct them as
the operators at the information desk
This department, where six operators are
at work on each shift. is prepared at all
times to give accurate information re-
gardlng post office hours, public library
hours, hours for seeing Salt Lake City by
street car or auto, visiting days at the
penitentiary, visiting days at the hospi-
tails. dates and hours of concerts, theatre
hours and names of plays, leading church
services, places of interest to visit. in
formation regarding sports in Salt Lake
and neighboring towns. as well as mucn
other general information.
Unusual Questions Asked.
Unfortunately, it has not been found
practicable or desirable to Keep a record
of all the questions that come to the in
formation table. but some of them were
sufficiently unusual TO be remembered by.
the information operators, names of
course being withheld. For instance they
recall case of a man who expected his
brother from the east. The train was
made up in two sections. 'Inforrna ton
was invited to inform the inquirer what
section his brother was on. The two sec
tons at that time were something more
than 100 miles from Salt Lake and NOV
ing rapidly. The information operator
asked to be excused
Women subscribers regularly call up
and ask for recipes of all kinds Even if
the resources of the cook book fail the
subscriber is almost sure to get the recipe
desired, many of the information oper-
ators are skilled cooks themselves But
sometimes these recipes don't quite work
out One operator with the best of inten-
tons gave a recipe for making candy
Either she erred in giving the directions,
or the subscriber misunderstood because
the woman called UP next day and said
Information. | would like another recipe
for candy The candy l made yesterday
is out on the back porch, and my hus-
band says you couldn't dent it with an
AK"
Requests to know when the rain will
stop, the height of the north side of the
county building, the name and telephone
number of the man who lives next to the
big green house in the western part of
the city and other questions equally iIlu-
minating and equally easy to answer are
GofDfuO0.
Never a day passes that some one does
not ask Information" to give him the
number of a person whose name house
number, telephone number, and all de
scriptive information except q general idea
as to where he lives has escaped the rec
objection of the subscriber. These dues-
tons of course cannot be answered.
information for Asking.
A woman well known in society circles
in Salt Lake called up the other day and
asked Information" whether a man
equally well known in the city had a
moustache 81 spoke to man on the
street today and I am afraid l spoke to
the wrong one" she explained Informa-
ton was able to do no more than to adj
wise her not to worry.
-'Informa ton, will you tell me the name
of the man that married the colored lady
not long ago. asked a subscriber a short
time ago. 81 want to call them up, and
don't know their name or number"
Strangely enough, an operator at the in
formation desk had learned by accident
the name of the man, and was able to
furnish the number.
Places on the information desk are filled
by some of the brightest of. the older op-
orators. They work the same shifts as
the operators on the main board but the
information positions are desirable be-
cause the work is less onerous and more
interesting and the pay is better Infor-
nation operators get about $40 a month
and supervisors about S50.50