The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1893-03-31
THE TELEPHONE GIRL.
According to Her Story She Has a
Hard Time of 1t.
One of the Poor Unfortunates Unb"soms
Herself on the Disadvantages of
Having to Oniciate as
Central"

''But | tell You there are some JhihHS
that some subscribers don't know: III
fact. vou might say lots of things that
lots of them do not know, and If they
would come up and take look at the
exchange room they would understand
things that occasionally veX them now,
said telephone girl to "A Washington
Post reporter.
Now. for instance, man comes 10
the phone in a hurry and gives vio-
lent ring Wen. his operator has thir-
teen out of the fourteen pairs of cords
on her desk in use and don't have
chance To answer for a few seconds. and
Mr. Man rings violently and continu-
ouslv for "A whole minute. Does nc
startle the whole room and call partlcu-
lar attention To his demand? Not eN-
actly. The little drop On the board
falls quietly from his nun ber, and we
don't hear any OF his ringing. and. what
iS more his call can't be answered till
he ouietS down.
This is the way it works; watch that
operator. You see she has an upright
board in front of her full of numbered
holes. one for every telephone in the
service and on the ledge below the
holes are fourteen pairs of cords Wit
metal ends like shoe laccS. and each
pair of cords serves To make the cOnuec-
ton between a pair of subscribers, SO
that an operator can have twcnty-eIgh;
people in conversation on the switch
board at once.
Now. below the cords on the switch
board are numbers that correspond G.
the subscribers on the operator 5 I'-
an average Of one hundred and twe-a.s
five 70 each girl. 50 a girl Is kept pretty
busy attending to all of them. Each
number is covered by a black disk OF
hinges. and the slightest touch on the
bell on your phone makes the disk over
your numb fall down. But no matter
how hard You ring the operator doe
not hear it. She just secs the numbe
throws down little lever that connect
your phone with pair of Office cords
and then says: Number. please?'
You give her the number and she
sticks the mctal-tippcd cords into the
numbered hole you called for and ring
M the man Won want by pressing
button. The central is out of the con
versation till You hang up your receiver
and ring Off. This drops red disk
over your number. and central l1nows
she can cut off and have the connecting
cords ready for the next call.
But when the operator shoves the
cord tips into hole and hears q click.
click. She knows an operator at one OF
the other boards has a subscriber talk
ing on that line, and then she says:
Can't get them now; line is busy
This is what makes a great many peo-
pie mad They think central means
she is too busy to attend To them and
they put il down TO a novel or sweet
heart every time.
THE greatest trouble n subscriber
has is usually in getting at the wrong
range from his phone. Four inches Is
the right distance. We had a man call
IN here the other day that his phone
was ont of order. The chief operator
asked him how far he was standing
from it, and he said:
- oh. about a yard
. Come up closer, said the operator.
Why said the man, I've got my
nose right in the thing now
The girls have all been wanting TO
see that man ever since.
I'VE are kept pretty busy the most of
the time. The girls work on eight
sand calls a day. and there are thirty
two operators employed altogether.
some of whom are on all night, though
that work takes fewer than during the
day.
We have to keep posted on all sorts
of news, and during the baseball season
half of our afternoon calls are 10 tell
what is the score, and il is the same
with the football games. We turn in
good many of the fire alarms. and O,
election night gave the white house til,
first news ON the election returns.
The subscribers are almoS, withou
exception very nice and courteous u n
and | think they would be even loss AZ
to be veXcd or misunders and if the
would come up to the exchange and
how things work.