The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-14
PHONE EXCHANGE
 PULSATES LIFE
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Continued from Page Seven.) oftentimes arise during the wee sma' hours. An excited woman reported to the night chief operator that the bath tub faucet had pulled off and that the house was fast being flooded. The sup plications of the telephone company aroused plumber to action, and he sped to the address in time to save the household from inundation.
 One mystery so far unexplained is contained in a call from a woman who reported that man had stolen a trunk from her residence and was taking 1t away on a street car. The solution was left to the police.
 Every variation in the city's heart beat is recorded in the telephone ex change. While the entire city sus- pended it's regular. activities to rejoice in the signing of the armistice, the telephone operators were being driven almost the point of insanity by the multitude of telephone calls, during which relatives and friends shouted glad greetings to each other over the wire.
 Throughout the entire day every signal on every board flashed con- tinuously. It was the busiest day in the experience of the local exchange.
 Judgment Days" Plentiful
 Telephone operators-whose loyalty to thir posts is traditional - alone found no time for merry-making. On the night of the happiest day in the country's history, they went home with aching heads and frazzled nerves.
 Birmingham is especially susceptible to "judgment days" according to the telephone officials, and the approach of judgment day" invariably brings a flood of calls from the; city's dark town. Hysterical darkies want to know if the telephone operators can throw some light on the subject and dispel their fears.
 This susceptibility>is due partly to light phenomena caused by peculiar cloud formations reflecting the glare of surrounding blast furnaces. The ne- groes, seeing the strange figures out lined against the black sky, seek en- ightment from the telephone company.
 A downpour ot rain near quitting time" invariably brings with it flood of calls from offices to homes.
 When Big Ben," the giant whistle of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Rail road company's plant at Ensley utters HOuIIu OuL Ol bcdSOIy LHC CACHdDBC tS heluged with requests for information as to what is is all about.
 One of the most exciting incidents in the telephone operators life is occa- stoned by a patron inadvertently slip ping a five dollar gold piece into the nickel slot-a masitake that is made not inefrequently. The pay-station customer usually gets so panicky that it is found expedient to send man to the station to recover the coin.
 The information desks records are source of unfailing humor. Some of the repartee found therein is so palpably the work of would-be humorists that it is not worthy of repetition. Others of the conversations, however, are splen- did examples of unconscious humor.
 A negro subscriber, after procuring a telephone number from "informa- tion," became impatient after few at- tempts to get the operator back on the line. He was advised by information to shake his hook.
 What's shakin' my foot got to do with getting a number?" he naively in- quired.
 Another darktown resident wanted to get Big Mama" on the wire, but he couldn't recall any other name and was unsuccessful. Still another wanted ''NIr. Smiths residence in Norwood." Given a Hemlock number, he in- dignantly retorted that he wanted MT. Smiths house-not his hen lot"
 A Dr. Smiths address was unknown to one seeker for information, but he was positive that Dr. Smith drove a Rec six, and considered that sufficient information on which to get a num- Der. The information clerk did not.
 Another caller knew that Mir. ThOmp- son lived in big red house behind the residence of Mrs. Ferguson, but that was the extent of his information. The information clerk was sorry.
 Requests for prescriptions for sick animals; rates on cablegrams to all parts of the world; the time of arrival and departure of trains and demands for similar miscellaneous information are everyday occurrences. They emanate from subscribers who have never learned that information" has only one function-that of supplying elusive telephone numbers.
 ''What time does the ball game start?" is Birmingham's faYorite, yet unfailingly futile, demand on informa- tion.