The Forrest City times., 1909-09-24
SIMPLICITY AND
 EFFECTIVENESS
central Energy Telephone system Now Installed in all the Larger and Many smaller Exchanges of the
 Southwestern I. AT,CO
A Little Child in the Dark Can 0p Operate it as Easily as
 Grown Person.

He ordinary user of the telephone
 IlttIe realizes how much ingenuity and toil and capital has been expended III order to reduce to a minimum the labor imposed upon him in securing d connection, nor does he realize what constant supervision is required on the part of the telephone company in | the endeavor to maintain at high standard efficiency both equipment and outside plant, and employees,
 In the beginning, of course, the ap- paratus devised to be used ill connect ton with the telephone was crude to l q degree, but as the business devel- oped and grew the necessity arose tor improved equipment and American inventive genius readily met this de- mand, until today the electrical and mechanical devices employed in the operation of large telephone cx- change are maryels of intricacy and delieacy. In fact. it would be an amazing revelation to most people to look behind the scenes and note the mass of machinery required To pro- duce results which to them appear easy and simple
 In all exchanges of the first class in the territory of the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company, as wei as in very many less import ant ones, the central energy or Hash light system has been installed. and the patron in such exchanges has but to lift the telephone from of the hook to be placed in almost instant communication with the central office. Could anything be simpler or more convenient? It is an operation that a little child in the dark can perform as effectively as a grown person. Have you ever stopped to think how many things could occur when this same little child might rise to the emergency and be the means of saving life or property? A mother alone in the house, save this child. might be seized with a sudden illness and un- der her direction the little one could summon aid.
 A story is related of a little child l left alone with it's nurse. The nurse, mindful alone of her own affairs, lock ed the little one in and went away. l The hours went by full of loneliness and terror for the child until finally she spied the telephone, and taking the receiver off the hook, as she had seen others do, she said, ''I want my Papa. The operator, noting the tone of distress and being kindly disposed took pains to ascertain who Papa" was and soon the child was pouring out it's tale of woe into sympathetic ears, and in jitfy, almost, found it. self clasped in Papa's loving arms.
 It is rule of the Southwestern Company, which is stronger than law, to connect any caller, from any tele- phone Whatsoever, promptly to the fire or police department, if the oper- ator can merely distinguish the words fire" or police" Persons reporting fires are almost invariably so excited they do not know what they are say ing, and in probably twenty-five per cent of such fire alarms the operator is compelled to guess at what is want ed and make the fire station connec- tion on chance.
 The "cussless' and girl-lesso tele- phone may possess some of the advan- tages claimed forit, but it is submitt- ed that the system in operation by the Southwestern Company in large ma jority of it's exchanges cannot be sur passed in simplicity and effectiveness.