The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-07
THE DEmuRE TELEPHoNH GIRLS.
They Are Forbidden to Attend Roller Skating
Kinks.

They Are Forbidden to Attend ler-Skating
New York Times
On last Saturday morning, when the scores of
pretty girls who are employed in the telephone
operating rooms of the Metropolitan Telephone
and Telegraph Company reported at their re-
spective places of duty about the city, they were
shocked and Mortified to find the following bulle-
tin posted:
do not want operators TO attend any skating Kinks,
as 1t mtefferes with our business.
E. A. EoKERT, General Manager.
Indignant groups of girls at once gathered
about the bulletins in each operating-room and
declared that the order was real mean, and that
they would never speak to Mr.. Eckert again as
long as they lived.
II, for one" said one of the girls in a Broad
way station, shall go to the skating Kinks just
as often as please-and that will be very nearly
every night. It's not any of Mr.. EekePt's affair
what we do out of business hours. have an in
vitation to go to the Knekerbocker Rink to-
night, and am going, too"
A medical gentleman having limited that the
reason for posting the bulletin was that concus-
sion OF the spine was calculated to produce deaf
ness, reporter of the Times called upon Mr..
Eckers and inquired if this was the case.
mo" said Mr.. Eckert; the reason we are
ool1ged TO make this order is that so many of the
girls stay up late at night skating and come
down tired and sleepy in the morning that il was
really causing serious neglect of business"
Does skating have any evil physical effects
upon the operators~
cit is very violent exercise" said Mr.. Eckert
1T wearies the girls out keeps them up late,
and brings them down to the Offices behind time
in the morning, and is a constant strain upon
them"
The manager of one of the Broadway offices of
the company said that roller skating was pas
sion among all the telephone girls, and that they
carried it to excess. Sometimes he said,
half dozen of them would be late in one morn
ing, and each one of them would make the same
hsaIh r,olxO%
night before and had oversight. Why, I have
even known girls who had been skating the
night before to go to sleep at their posts.
And, by Jove" continued the manager, be-
coming confidential, tits no use to try and be
severe with the girls. either. The man that tries
1t makes mistake / tried it, but have given
1T up You see that girl over there-that demure
young woman, with pious cast of counteuance3
We'll she's an expert skater. and last week she
came down from fifteen minutes to an hour late
every morning, and her excuse each day, of
course, was that she had been to the skating
rink. L finally told her that if she came late
again should be obliged to report her. We'll
she was half an hour late on Thursday, and
when when l steruly asked why she was not
on time she had the impudence to serenely
inform me that she was delayed by fog on
the elevated railroad That was not enough,
either, for the next day she was an hour late.
l was very indignant, and I asked sarcastically:
well, was there a fog on the elevated this
morning, tooP
" No, she replied demurely, there was cow
ON the track
'''This is serious NATTER said with awful
severity
Eyes: that's what the cow thought, she re-
turned innocently.
Il gave her up as hard case and she's told
all the other girls that she got the best of me,
and don't really feel that life is worth living
any longer"
But how" asked the reporter ''is the compa-
ny going to know whether the girls will obey
this order or not9 They ce&'t keep track of them
after they leave the exchanges, or have spies
follow them, can they2"
1--WE are discussing a spotter system" replied
the manager "And the project is this: We will
employ man who is a good roller skater to
visit all the Kinks. He goes among the skaters,
and whenever he comes to group of young
ladies' he will shout, 'Hullo hullo! Central Office.
Hullo! and from sheer force of habit every tele-
phone girl in the vicinity will answer, 'Hullo!
Novel;, say $780, or whatever her number is.
Then the spotter puts down her number and
she's hauled up the next day. The great
trouble will be, though, that the girls will mash
the spotter, and then he won't report them"
The girls are talking of holding an indignation
meeting to resent Manager Eckert's interference
with their rights.