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Story
January 19, 1913
The Labor Advocate
Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island
What is this article about?
A woman shares her frustrating experience getting stuck in a cramped telephone booth in a drug store, unable to exit after overhearing a man trying to call her home phone, leaving her with an unsolved mystery about his message.
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OCR Quality
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Full Text
APPEAL TO ALL INVENTORS
Story of One Woman's Suffering That Surely Should Stir Them to Immediate Action.
Inventors are requested by suffering telephone patrons to exercise their ingenuity on a telephone booth sliding door that will really slide. Heading the petition is the name of a woman who had a curious experience in a drug store booth.
"There are two booths in that store side by side," she said. "They are about as big as match boxes and are open at the top, so when there is a lull in street noises the conversation in each can be heard in the other. One day, when listening to a long and interesting communication from the friend I had called up, I heard a man in the adjoining box ask for the number of our own telephone uptown.
"Presently he said, 'Can't you get them, central?'
"Of course central couldn't get us, for I learned afterward that not even the maid was home, so he rang off and left the booth.
"I was most anxious to detain him and learn his message. I insulted my friend for life by saying, 'I can't listen to any more now,' but I might just as well have let her finish, for I couldn't get out of that booth. I pulled and tugged at the door, but it wouldn't budge. Finally a drug clerk let me out, but the man had got away by that time, and I don't know to this day who he was or what he wanted to tell us.
Imagine having to go through life with a mystery like that unsolved. The telephone company cannot equip their booths with movable doors any too soon, I think."
Story of One Woman's Suffering That Surely Should Stir Them to Immediate Action.
Inventors are requested by suffering telephone patrons to exercise their ingenuity on a telephone booth sliding door that will really slide. Heading the petition is the name of a woman who had a curious experience in a drug store booth.
"There are two booths in that store side by side," she said. "They are about as big as match boxes and are open at the top, so when there is a lull in street noises the conversation in each can be heard in the other. One day, when listening to a long and interesting communication from the friend I had called up, I heard a man in the adjoining box ask for the number of our own telephone uptown.
"Presently he said, 'Can't you get them, central?'
"Of course central couldn't get us, for I learned afterward that not even the maid was home, so he rang off and left the booth.
"I was most anxious to detain him and learn his message. I insulted my friend for life by saying, 'I can't listen to any more now,' but I might just as well have let her finish, for I couldn't get out of that booth. I pulled and tugged at the door, but it wouldn't budge. Finally a drug clerk let me out, but the man had got away by that time, and I don't know to this day who he was or what he wanted to tell us.
Imagine having to go through life with a mystery like that unsolved. The telephone company cannot equip their booths with movable doors any too soon, I think."
What sub-type of article is it?
Curiosity
Mystery
What themes does it cover?
Misfortune
What keywords are associated?
Telephone Booth
Stuck Door
Overheard Call
Unsolved Mystery
Drug Store
What entities or persons were involved?
Unnamed Woman
Where did it happen?
Drug Store Booth
Story Details
Key Persons
Unnamed Woman
Location
Drug Store Booth
Story Details
A woman in a telephone booth overhears a man trying to call her home, hangs up on her friend to pursue him, but gets stuck in the booth with a non-sliding door, missing the man and leaving the message a mystery.