The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1892-04-23
THE It EsIlE1p HONE Girl.
AN IDEA OF THE WORK TIE MET
ROPOl iTAN CENTRAL" DOES.

The Conscience OF the 9zai.l oGiee - a
Still, SznaE yaica at Twelve Dollars IA
Week to Guard the Operators Manners
and the Subscribers Secrecy.
The peg with which tie 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 wave of
crimson spread from beneath the ruch-
ing about her slender neck upward over
her cheeks until it lost itself in the roots
of her fluffy yellow hair.
Then the transnitter swinging in front
Of the new telephone girls puckering
lips received and forwarded sob
The conscience-the still small voice
of the telephone-had spoken to the new
girl. 1t had said:
Your manner is Il tyifie pert"
Then the new telephone girl succeed
ed in connecting the subscriber whose
irascibility had provoked the reprimand-
ed pertnesl, and went on with her crib
bage game.
That night at the 81" station she
asked the old telephone girl who sat
next to her whose voice it was that haa
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 woman"
Gracious, gooseyr' 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 If she thinks you're listening to
messages or 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-
| phone puts upon its conscience, and its
| duties are of the delicate and important
| kind. It keeps watch over the manners
| Of the girls, seeing that they return the
| soft answer which turneth away the
| wrath of the impatient subscriber who
| thinks that fourteen seconds-the aver
! age time for making IL connection--is j
minute and half. It keeps 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 ovel
| the Metropolitan company's 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 telegraph office, where
the idle operator can read by the eai
every word that comes clicking in over
his busy neighbors' instruments, is {
telephone exchange. There is something
fascinating about the secrecy, in fact
There sit 120 presumably natural,
curious women before the perforated
board which lines the pothook SHAPED
room. The board itself is throbbine
with the secrets Of 400 people. Cory
don is setting tryst with some one else'
Phyllis. Taurus is ordering his broke