The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1881-12-01
WOMEN WHO TELEGRAPH.
Fair Ladies' Whose Fingers Toy with
Lightning

Fair Ladies' Whose Fingers Toy With
Lightning
New York Sunday News
The telegraph operator looked out other
window at the News reporter and
smoothed her blonde bangs with one
hand while she reached for his message
with the other. Then she counted the
words, tapped each one with the handle
of pen gnaTed ragged between her
white teeth Then she nibbed her pen
reflectively, surveying the reporter fur
lively under her long lashes- Finally
she said, tTwenty-eight cents" and a
silver dollar without u thiriy-five cent
hole in it, having been passed over, a
| boy was dispatched to search for change,
Il have quite q run of messages this
morning." said the operator, land there's
nothing in the drawer but bills. Ii seems
to me l have been doing nothing but
changing since o'clock, and only a
minute ago found myself looking in
the glass to see if ! was recognizable
yet"
"Do you commence toying with light
ming as early as that?" asked the re-
porter.
"From to 8 are my hours. Long,
you say? Indeed they are, and dull
enough, too, sometimes. / have read
novels till hate the sight of them. Now
Pm studying French, for n change"
The reporter inquired how she liked
her profession. She liked il we'll enough.
How we'll was that? Well, IL was
| great deal better than tending counter,
and that is what she used to do before
she learned to master the electric spark
at the nightclasses of telegraphic col
lege. Even if didn't like 1t l would
stick to it." said she, with determined
flash in the blue eyes For when /
commenced four years ago was sneered
at by the men for daring 10 think could
| do the work, and I'd Submitto any in
convenience to prove that l can. Do
women make good operators AS rule ?
"Quite as good ones as men when they
attend to their business, which reminds
me that am neglecting mine. Seventy
two cents, sir. Count 1t yourself, please.
Thank you"
An official of the Western Union com.
pany, speaking of men as telegrapherS,
said to The reporter: The general pub
lie has a very insufficient idea of what it
owes TO female operators. Little more
than five years ago we were the slaves OF
our men. They formed q high priced
and thoroughly independent body. They
made money and spent it. Telegraph
| operators are as Bohemian in
their instincts as actors and
newspaper men. TLey newer work
on. Their pay days fall bi-monthly, and
every pay day left US crippled for opera
tors till the registering absentees had run
their money through. If we ventured
to expostulate they refused 10 work at
all. If we expressed disapprobation at
anything they did they would let mes
sages accumulate till there would be a
half a days, and even longer delay, in
the most important business. There
was no actual trades union among
them, but they stuck together and had
things pretty much their own way.
Then the suggestion was made that
we should employ women as operators.
The late President Orion was the origi-
nator of this idea. His friends would
frequently send young ladies, who had
learned telegraphy in private schools,
to him for employment, and he knew
| that q number whom he had found posi-
tiOns in business houses for were cap
able of excellent work. Finally we
employed few on the short and easy
lines. They did their work admirably.
They were not as fast as the men, and
could not work the heavy distance wires.
But for all ordinary work they were
quite capable and satisfactory. cF
THE male.operators made vigorous
kick, and distinguished themselves by
no little boorishness toward their sister
professors, but they had to cave in.
They made a strike of it and held out
for week, when the usual break-u &C.
CURED, and they staggered in till all
were forced to terms. From that time
forth the public were better served than
it had ever been before. The old rule
| or ruin reign of the dandy operator was
! a..
employment of women rendered posi-
BILE was the establishment of the small
local offices in hotels and the uptown
districts, where it never would have
paid to keep high toned male operator
at a salary of almost as much as the of
fee brought in. Many of our local of.
fees were at the start attended TO by
young women who took a commission
on their returns as pay. Now, however,
we have them all under salary. Out OF
town we have hundreds, / was going tO
say, of offices in the care of female OPP
orators. They are small offices, al
places where a man would not stay
For instance, at q village of couple Of
score of houses we could not afford to
keep al operator at a city salary. But
by paying some young girl who lives
there $25 or $50 month, which is more
than she could earn in such place a
much harder labor, we are able to keeI
the line open to furnish facilities which
the residents find frequent need of. The
same remarks apply to many branch of
fees here and in other cities where bus
mess is light, but there is still Il de
mand for local service. If it was no
for our women operators these place:
would not be supplied with Geographic
service at ALL"
| Nl,n vN,rhl,n hos rEkfaI h,
the introduction of female operators il
telegraphy, the male operators certain
lY have not. There has been a marked
decline in salaries since the women en-
tered the business. The best operators
giants in their line, who send and TAXI
messages with incredible speed, still
make handsome salaries enough, as sal
aries in telegraphy go, and less able op
orators, by doing extra work, earn gooC
, livings. But among the mass of opera
, tors salaries have been seriously Gu
into. Women are doing for from SOS Il
3 $50 q month now what ten years agt
I men got from $50 to $50 and 800 70
doing. The pay of operators outsid
has similarly suffered. Many manuiaC
tories and large business houses EMO,
, private telegraph lines. These used Il
, | employ men. Now women do the servic
nearly all of them. In the same way
7 at hundreds of other minor countr
/ stations, where man, by combining tn
| wretched salaries of station agent for tn
railroad and operator for the telegraph
company, cOntrived to exc out a CON
t Portable living, women now do thei
4 work for even less than half their oil,
remuneration.
"And it's going to be worse yet" sal
q an operator, who was standing guar
e over a Park row lunch counter, to q II
porter. For the telegraph college
keep grinding 'em out like corn at a mil
D Give 'em $50 a month and lookin
f glass and a cheap novel, and they don
ask any more. What show has q decor
man got alongside of such opposition
y I'd like to know"
"Did he say that2" asked the youn
4 lady at the-hotel, when the reporte
\ communicated the remarks to her, an
asked if they were true.
"He did,
n The young lady tapped the lever {
her instrument with expressive vehC
s mence.
u "Well, all I've got to say is that he
n an operator" she replied. 81 don
Il know any worse name for him tina
that"