The Sentinel=record., 1909-10-03

I
 Central Energy Telephone sys-
 tenn Now Installed In All the Larger and Many of the Smaller 1 Exchanges of the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company. ! A Little Child in the Dark Can Oper.
 ate it as Easily as Grown Person
 The ordinary user of the telephone little realizes how much Ingenuity
 and toll and capital has been ex- pended in order to reduce to a mini.
 mum the labor imposed upon him
 in securing a connection, nor does he realize what constant supervision is required on the part of the tele. phone company in the endeavor to maintain at a high standard of eff. cieey both equipment and outside plant, and employees.
 In the beginning, of course, the apparatus devised to be used in con. nection with the telephone was crude to degree. but as the business de yeloped and grew the necessity arose for improved equipment and Ameri can inventive genius readily met this demand until today the electrical and mechanical devices employed in the operation of a large telephone exchange are marvels of intricaey and dellcaey In fact, 1t would be an amazing revelation to most pee. pie to look behind the scenes and not the mass of machinery required to produce results which to them ap pear easy and simple
 In all exchanges of the first class in the territory of the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone company, as we'll as in very many less import. ant ones,the cetntral energy or flash. light system has been installed, and the patron in such exchanges has but to lift the telephone from off 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 las effectively as 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 he means of sav- ing life orr property? A mother alone in the house. save this child, might be seized with sudden Illness and under her direction the little one could summon aid
 A story is related of a little child left alone with it's nurse. The nurse. mindful alone of her own affairs, locked the little one in and went away The hours went by full of loneliness and terror for the child un- til finally she spied the telephone, and taking the receiver off the hook, as she had seen others do she said T want my papa. The operator, noting the tone of distress and being kindly disposed, took pains to ascer- tain who Papa" was and soon the child was pouring out its tale of woe into sympathetic ears and in a jiffy. almost, found itself 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 opera
 tor 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 25 per cent of
 such fire alarms the operator is com peled to guess at whHt is wanted and make the fire sta.on connection on chance.
 The "cussless' and "girl-less7 tele-
 phone may possess some of the ad-
 vantages claimed for 1t, but it is sub
 mitted that the system in operation ! by the Southwestern company in a ! large majority of it's exchanges can
 not be surpassed In simplicity and
 effectiveness.