Omaha daily bee., 1908-12-17
CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
Ordinance Fixing Heavy Penalty for
Swearing Over Telephone.
READ TWICE AND REFERRED
Also Makes it a MisdemennOr 20 Call
People on the Telephone for the
PurpOse of Annoying
Them.

No matter how long II may take to get
central to answer, or how often she
may give the wrong number, or how
often she may break the connection dur
ing a conversation, or how long she may
delay in breaking the connection when
the person talking has finished and Is
anxious to talk to another, It will be un-
lawful to swear over the telephone pro-
viding an ordinance which w. S. Shell
don, councilman from the Sixth ward,
introduced at the meeting Of the council
last night becomes a law. The provision
was read twice and referred without a
vote being taken.
The new ordinance makes swearing over
telephones a misdemeanor and bitches
onto It a fine of $l0O for giving voice to
angry feelings which sometimes arise when
the telephone service is not the best.
The ordinance also makes 1t a misde-
meanor to ring the telephone bell when
not wishing TO talk to the party called,
though no. provision is made to discover
whether the party called did so for a
Joke or to hold conversation with the
one called. The new law declares:
Any person who shall wilfully annoy
any other person by ringing or causing
to be rung any telephone bell or who shall
call or cause to be called any person
for the purpose of annoying such person,
or who Shall use profane or obscene Ian
guage over any telephone in the. city OF
Omaha shall be deemed guilty OF a mis-
demeanor and upon conviction thereof shall
be fined in any sum not exceeding 800.
Jab at Independent Telephone.
The council last night notified the INDIE
pendent Telephone company to correct all
defects interfering with the free and un-
disputed secret transmission of messages
to stations in the city hall" or to remove
it's exchange at once. The notification
was contained in a resolution which stated
that the service is not up to standard and
is not secret, as was by contract provided
Ali the discussion of the telephone mat.
ter arose from the fact that Councilman
Brucker the other day vainly tried fol
some minutes. he says, to get central or
the Independent line at the city hall. HI
says the reason he didn't succeed was tina
a young man and a young woman ,wer'
using the line. But they were not using
profane language; they were using Ian
guage Of a very different sort. 1t was tht
sort Of language that doves often emplo!
in the ~springtime.
There were eight councilmen present a
last nights meeting and every one votet
for the resolution notifying the Independ
ent to give secret service over its secre
wires or get out.
Expenses for Prof. Crowley.
Prof. Crowley, gas commissioner, wa
allowed 500 for expenses in attending tn
annual meeting Of the American Chemica
7 association in Baltimore the latter part o
the month.
Bids for repairing and painting fire en-
CINE houses Nos. 4. 7. s. 9, 10 and IL an
truck No. 4 were received and referred t
the committee on public property and build
t ings.
Before the council adjourned, Council
; man Zimman, in calling attention to tn
fact that the day was the fifty-second an
niversary of the birth Of Mayor Dahlmar
, moved that the respects of the council b
presented to his honor, together with tn
request that he send a box of cigars t
the hambe at the next meeting of tn
body. The motion passed without a dis
senting vote, the statement being mad
by one of the members that the fou
democratic councilmen-Bedford, Elsassel
Funkhouser and Jackson-who receive 81
/, a month each for attending to the city
. business and who were absent last nigh
would attend the next meeting with tn
!, inducement of free cigars held out