Connecticut western news., 1909-03-25
SOME QUESTIONS
 ASKED 0F "CENTRAL'' J
A FEW THINGS SHE MUST KNOW
Many People Find No 25" a Con- venient Person to Have Within Easy CaII-Some Foolish Questions She is Expected to Answer.

CaII-Some Foolish Questions She
 is Expected to Answer.
 It has been wisely stated that it is a very fortunate person who has no troubles, and in all probability few peo- unappreciatsd and generally misundsr- stood person who is "No. 25" in our tele- phone exchanges.
 Few people, however. have any idea of the questions that this living bureau of information has to answer.
 A majority of these puzzling queries, it is also safe to say, do not in any way refer to the telephone or any of its branches. It is easier for the subscriber to step to the telephone, say give me '25, " and than put the question to her, than for him to look up the answer him self.
 l The work, however, has its humorous as we'll as its serious side, and it is this part of the work that is interesting per haps to the average reader where the routine work would be painfully mono tonous. Following are some of the questions that have been put to the "No 25' which will possibly give an idea of the duties of that position.
 "Give the number of the man on the hill in Westville with the fiagstone walk around his house, ' or possibly: Do you take orders to cart things around town?" or still another: "How many table spoonfuls of spice does it take to make an ounce?"
 1 Other samples of the questions are; Will you guarantee to deliver a mes sage to the New York Post Office by 5:l5 p. m. ?" Git being at the time that the subscriber was speaking, 5:25 p. m.) 'Is there a telephone at the corner of Franklin and Wood Streets, Reading, ! Pa. ?"
 | In some of the cases No. 25" was 1 lble to give the information desired but some of them were staPgerers and the persons asking them probably to this lay are wondering with disgust what the value of No. 25" can be. Ofcourse l s le has access to information that others may not have, but consider how inn 1 possible it would be for her to reply to Ill of the questions.
 An illustration of people asking for numbers is as follows: "Give me the Day Camera Works" Anthony & Sco- vile on Day Street, New Haven, were he parties desired, but the operator would have been blamed if she could rot have given the desired number. And there followed this complaint: Central didn't give any kind of service. I asked for number and she told me busy I went down the street, called again and got it all right.
 Imagine how you would feel were you in the position of ''25" and you heard in plaintlve voice the request: "Hullo. Central send up a glass of whiskey to room No. 6, will you?" Another sub scriber wants to know how many acres there are in the New Haven Green.
 ''25, just received special delivery letter. What post office was it sent from ?"
 Another phase of the question is pre- sented by the following request: "25. this is 60-Street; give me the name of hairdresser where you don't have to make an appointment and give it to me puck, too"
 Some questions, that are in no wise connected with the work of maiutnin. taining telephone system and wh oh go to prove the scope of the information that poor "25" is suppose to have at her fingers ends, are "25. there is an old stray cat around here; can you tell me who to call to take her away ?"-"25, will you please tell me how many miles it is from here to South Norwalk ?"- "25, was that second alarm?" %: "No, that is another fire" "A brand new one ? I must go to this one. Good bye"-"25, what time does the tide rise tonight ?''-"25, who has the renting of Music Hall?"
 And so one might go on with the troubles of ''25" to almost any extreme. These few instances, however, will give some idea of the questions that are hurled in at the hard working operator all the time that she is on duty. She has to deal with irritable people. the man in hurry, the person who is un- able to make himself understood, the discourteous telephone user and score of other difficulties that place her in a very trying position.
 The above questions refer, almost en- tirely to the city telephone exchanges but here are few of those that are