The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1892-04-02

and the SuDSCrtberS' Secrecy.
The peg with which the new telephone
girl had been playing cribbage on the
big perforated switchboard on the top
floor of the Cortlandt street exchange
dropped from her hand and a wave Of
crimson spread from beneath the ruch-
ing about her slender neck upwar3 over
her cheeks until it lost itself Ill the roots
of her fluffy yellow hair.
Then the transmitter swinging III front
Of the new telephone girls puckering
lips received and forwarded q sob
The conscience-the still small voice
of the telephone-had spoken to the new
girl. 1t had said:
"Your manner is a trihe pert"
Then the new telephone girl succeed
ed in connecting the subscriber whose
Feasibility had provoked the reprimand-
ed pertneSs. and Went on with her crib
bage game.
That night at the IL" station she
asked the old telephone girl who sat
= next to her whose voice it was that had
cut in SO abruptly upon her conversation
with the irascible subscriber. Il thought
at first he'd changed his voice to torment
me-" she said. but no, it was another
person. and Il woman.
"GraciouS. GooSev!' said the old tele-
phone girl that's the monitor. You
know who she is. don't you:-the girl
who sits at desk in the middle Of the
floor behind Us. She watches YOU every
minute. and if she sees by your manner
that ANYTHING unusual is going on. if
some crank gets You stirred up. as YOU
were, or il she thinks You're listening to
message CT having private talks or do
ing anything against the rules, she just
connects with You and listens to all
you've got to say. Then she lectures
you or advises you, or if you are very
bad report YOU
"Mercy," gasped the new telephone
girl, Its as bad as having mind
reader about
"Oh. no." said her experienced sister;
"she won't bother YOU much after YOU
get into the harness. She keeps close
eye on you now because you're new"
The telephone pays its conscience
twelve dollars week. which. as women's
pay goes. shows the high value the tele-
PLOAO HOtS upon It's COuSCiSuCe, anu us
duties are Of the delicate and important
kind. 1t keeps watch over the manners
OF the girls. seeing that they return the
soft answer which turneth away the
wrath or the impatient subscriber who
thinks that fourteen seconds-the aver
age time for making connection-is
minute and a half. 1t keeps a watch
over their affections lest they be led
astray unto the making of matinee
dates by the susceptible young men who
fall in love with the telephone voice"
which is gentle and low, an excellent
thing In woman 1t keeps watch over
the Metropolitan companys invaluable
time, seeing that the fourteen seconds be
not unduly spread out. and it guards the
secrecy of the subscribers
For the secrecy is undoubtedly guard
ed Not like a telegraph Office. where
the idle operator can read 10y the ear
every word t;lat comes clicking in over
his busy neighbors' instruments. is a
telephone exchange. There is something
fascinating about the secrecy. in fact.
There sit l20 presumably naturally
curious women before the perforated
board which lines the pothook shaped
-. The board itse!f is throbbing
with the secrets of 4.2oQ people. Cory
don Is setting tryst with some one else's
Phyllis. Taurus Is ordering his broker
to buy III the block Of stocA: which h
dumped ard thereby broi.e the market
last weE. Il ma - I'll Voice e
Rachel Tor Ler children crying wh:ta
the telephone sri paurs i:.co 3" svi.. -
thetic car when s41 Il;> t. peg il. tuc
cribba-e board. o. !, NAV t- IN order
for coal. Sc caHrct know, an! !. L
very snort tine shc ceases u care. The
switchboard. separates her. III fact -
q prodiglors babDle.
Prodigious is alElo-' mild word for
it, il fact. Sixty tLvAea:.d voices pour
their wants and woes and hopes and
fears as to the daily concerns Of life
through that switchboard every twenty
four hours. That is 10 say. the 1000 sub
scribers make something like fifteen de-
mands each for tall" with some other
subscriber who may be on the Cortlandt
street circuit or on that Of any one of
the eight other exchanges in the city.
The average duration of talk is two
minutes. Suppose the talk goes on at
the moderate rate of fifty words a min
ute and you have total Of 100000
words per day gathered into the switch
board.
What a sea of babble! All the YER
naculars of all the stares of the Union
are in tall the languages of the civil
lied globe in polyglot New York. Such
. food would sweep in and drown the
telephone girls in their seats as effectu-
ally as that other food at Johnstown
swept in and drowned those brave wom-
en telegraph operators were it not for
the protection of the switchboard.
But this sea Of words is less than half
the total ocean that GIBBS and flows
through the switchboards of all the ex
changes. The number of talks" per
. day In the whole city is $4,000. That
a. H. 6ryO