世界日報
- Beijing Telephone Bureau notice
- Important notice from the Beijing General Telephone Bureau
- Joint notice from the First Stage and the Deji firm
The Beijing Telephone Bureau offers recovered South Exchange connections to applicants willing to pay former subscribers’ arrears, while a separate notice specifies silver-dollar payment for calls to three nearby destinations. The First Stage and the Deji firm suspend film screenings because new films have not arrived.
Partial reading of three notices on this advertising front page: the South Exchange notice from 茲為 to its closing formula, the complete intercity-payment notice, and the complete cinema announcement including the joint signature. The first notice’s opening sentence, other advertisements, tables and the rest of the page are outside the transcription.
Translation
Beijing Telephone Bureau notice
To clear accumulated arrears and meet the needs of new subscribers, we have been withdrawing the connections of South Exchange subscribers who failed to pay their monthly rent despite repeated demands. More than 200 accounts have thus been recovered. Each number has about 3 months of rental arrears. Anyone within the South Exchange service area who needs a telephone and is willing to pay these arrears on the former subscriber’s behalf in accordance with the regulations should promptly contact the Engineering Section at our General Bureau in Liulichang to make arrangements. Please do not delay. Notice is hereby given.
Important notice from the Beijing General Telephone Bureau
From September 1, Republic Year 15, charges for calls between Beijing and Tongxian, Xiangshan and Tangshan will all be collected in silver dollars. Approval has already been received under Ministry of Communications directive Geng 1045 of August 11. Notice is hereby given.
Joint notice from the First Stage and the Deji firm
Notice: the Deji firm had been showing films at the First Stage. As the new films have not yet arrived in Beijing, screenings are temporarily suspended and the original agreement is cancelled. This statement is hereby issued.
Jointly announced by the First Stage and the Deji firm.
Context
Why a new subscriber might inherit telephone arrears
A telephone connection depended on space in a local exchange. Beijing’s South Exchange stood at Liulichang, where the General Telephone Bureau moved in 1911, serving a district with wealthy merchants and officials. The city’s equipment was expanding: the East Exchange reached 4,800 lines in 1926. The advertisement shows a different way to make connections available. It offers recovered South Exchange numbers to applicants prepared to discharge the former subscribers’ arrears. New customers would therefore pay for access to an existing connection while helping the bureau recover unpaid revenue. The offer is expressly confined to the South Exchange’s service area.
Why specify payment in silver dollars?
The term dayang meant a silver dollar, or yuan. Silver had also long circulated by weight, expressed in taels; a sum of money therefore needed a clearly stated unit and form of payment. The telephone notice makes this distinction practical by requiring silver-dollar payment for calls linking Beijing with Tongxian, Xiangshan and Tangshan. It cites ministerial approval and gives the date on which the change takes effect. It supplies no new price per call. Its importance lies in the stipulated means of payment, which customers had to know before settling their telephone charges.
Films inside a theater built for live performance
The First Stage was a prominent theater at Zhushikou, established in 1914 by the actor Yang Xiaolou, performer Yao Peiqiu and merchant Dian Langxian. Cinema in Beijing initially borrowed the premises of theaters and teahouses; during the 1920s more theaters added film screenings. The joint announcement belongs to that overlap between live performance and cinema. A merchant firm supplied the screenings at a named theater, and the failure of new films to arrive interrupted the arrangement. The announced cancellation concerns that film contract; the notice does not announce the permanent closure of the First Stage itself.
Original
北京電話局廣告
北京電話局廣告
茲為清理積欠供給新用戶需要起見將南局用戶拖欠月租屢催不繳者陸續撤回計有二百餘戶每號積欠月租費約三個月左右凡在南局界內需裝電話情愿照章代繳欠費者請從速到琉璃廠敝總局工程課接洽辦理幸勿遲延此告
北京電話總局緊要通告
北京電話總局緊要通告
北京與通縣香山湯山間傳話費定於十五年九月一日起一律改收大洋除已呈奉八月十一日交通部庚一零四五號指令核准外特此通告
第一舞台德記商行仝啓
啓者德記商行原第一舞台開演電影茲因新奇片未能到京暫行停演將原合同撤銷特此聲明
第一舞台德記商行仝啓