The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-07-27
| IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
THE ELECTRIC KEY.
Many Women Find Profitable Employ
ment as Telegraphers.

That the telegraph service offers an
! attractive and remunerative field for
womans work is amply shown by the
fact that the number of women who
practice it from day to day probably en-
coed in number those who devote them
selves to any of the other so-called
| "genteer professions, and the number
is all the time increasing. Topography
seems to have an irresistible charm for
many young women, and for the matter
OF that many that are not young. The
interest of the Flooding student in her
work is kept from tagging in anticipa-
ton of the day when she will be able to
communicate with another operator
hundreds of miles away with the same
ease and confidence as If they were in
the same room. Even those to whom
the question of money is but consider
alton of secondary importance are sus-
tanned by the prospect Of indulging in
this unalloyed delight. 1t is just pos
sible, when the young woman arrives
at this stage in her experience, that her
ardor will have become somewhat
dampened, and she will have received
very forcible illustration of the truth of
the saying that anticipation and real
ization are very different things, in
deed. Very few professions are pleas
ant to learn, however valuable they
may be when proficiency has been ac-
quircd, and mention this as showing
that telegraphy has its redeeming feat
| ,t ba
Women, as in nearly every other walk
in life, are beginning to take a more
important part in conducting the bust
ness of the telegraph. The number Of
women engaged in the various branches
of the telegraph service has increased
very largely within the past few years.
Not many. years ago it was an unusual,
as well as an unwelcome sight to some,
to see woman working in office where
rs many as twenty or thirty male oper-
ators were Employed and even in the
larger offices, where the employment of
women was almost a necessity, they
were secluded from the men, and work.
ed in separate departments, sacred to
themselves. Little by little the barriers
were thrown down, until at the present
time men and women work indiscrim-
inately together in every department,
and the relations existing between
them are of the most cordial aud pleas
ant character.
1t would be safe to say that the num-
Der of women who earn a livelihood as
operators in the telegraph service in
this country is now fully thirty-seven
thousand. This does not include wom-
en- who are employed in other depart
ments of the service. OF this number,
New York and Brooklyn alone have
nearly one thousand. They are EN-.
ployed in the main offices, in the hotels,
railroad offices, on the famous big ex.
changes and in The brokers' Offices, and
in fact in every form of business activ'
ity in which the telegraph is called
upon to play part. Many industrious
young womtn study stenographyP Pin
their spare moments and when they be.
come proficient in both branches, good
paying positions are nearly always
ready for them.
Very few of the women telegraphers
who ill the highest positions are ''col
lege bred" Ii term sometimes applied to
those who have learned the business
outside regular telegraph Office in a
school. The explanation of the large
number of women telegraphers in New
York city is sometimes attributed to tho
presence of these schools, but in reality
| ., 1,n, Df hn of
tend them are rarely qualified for prac
teal work. The Western Union Tclo
graph Co. alone, in New York city
gives employment to several hundred
small girls who perform Office work il
the operating and other departments
They are given an opportunity to learr
the business, and in this way they soor
become capable of taking charge o
small branch offices. AS they ar,
brought up in Geographic atmosphere
so to speak, they are familiar with al
the details OF the business, and are yer!
naturally given the preference when va
cancies occur AS they gain experienc,
they are transferred to more importan
offices, or buster wires, as the case ma,
be, and receive higher salaries, until a
last they return to the main office; no
as poorly paid Office girls, but as expe
. rienced and fairly pid operators
But even now they have not reached
the limit of possible success, for Their
is more exalted position than that o
operator, to which any woman ma,
aspire. They are promoted to executive
, offices. or what are known as chief
and traffic chiefs, who look after tn,
movement of business and see that mes
sages are subjected to no unnecesar,
delay. There are few offices of con
siderable importance managed by WON
, en-, but the number is not large. 1t ha
always appeared rather singular to M
, that, with the number of intelligen
! and well-educated women in the bus
J mess, more of them do not interes
| themselves in the study of the scienc
of electricity. Women rarely, if ever
{ interest themselves in the phenomeni
, of electricity, and although they ar,
, brought into daily contact with it
manifestations, they possess very littl
r information regarding it. The com
paratively recent inventions, the du
pick and quadruplex, used for sendin'
, a number of messages over the sam
' wire simultaneously, are difficult o
e comprehension, and very few womel
I have mastered their intricacies. TIL
men having this branch of the bushes
in charge have undergone specia
training for the work, and up to the
present women have not entered int