The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-01
THE TELEPHONE GIRL.
According to Her Story She Has 8
Hard Time Of It
One of the Poor Unfortunates Unbosoms
Herself on the Disadvantages OF
Having to OffcIate as
Central"

But tell you there are some things
that some subscribers don't know; in
| fact, you 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, a man comes TO
the phone in hurry and gives a vio-
lent ring. Well, 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 few seconds, and
Mr.. Man rings violently and continu-
ously for whole minute Does he
startle the whole room and call particu-
lar attention to his demand? Not ex-
actly. The little drop on the board
falls quietly from his number, and we
don't hear any of his ringing, and, what
is more, his call can't be answered till
he quiets 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 with
metal ends like shoe laces, and each
pair of cords serves to make the connec-
ton between a pair of subscribers, so
that an operator can have twenty-eight
people in conversation on the switch
board at once.
Now, below the cords on the switch
board are numbers that correspond to
the subscribers on the operators list,
an average of one hundred and twenty
five to each girl, so a girl is kept pretty
busy attending to all of them. Each
number is covered by a black disk on
hinges, and the slightest touch on the
bell on your phone makes the disk over
your number fall down. But no matter
how hard you ring the operator does
not hear it. She just sees the number,
throws down little lever that connects
your phone with pair of Office cords,
and then says: Number, please?'
you give her the number and she
sticks the metal-tipped cords into the
numbered hole you called for and rings
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 knows
she can cut off and have the connecting
cords ready for the next call.
but when the operator shoyes the
cord tips into hole and hears 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 great many peo-
pie mad. They think central means
she is too busy to attend to them and
they put it down to novel or a sweet
heart every time.
THE greatest trouble a subscriber
has is usually in getting at the wrong
range from his phone. -Four inches is
the right distance. We had man call
in here the other day that his phone
was out of order. The chief operator
asked him how far he was standing
from it, and he said:
oh! about yard
Come up closer said the operator.
Why said the man, I've got my
nose right in the thing now
1.-THE girls have all been wanting to
see that man ever since.
eve are kept pretty busy the most of
the time. The girls work on eight
hour stretches and average one thou
sand calls day, and there are thirty !
two operators employed altogether, I
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 to tell /
what is the score, and it is the same !
with the football games. We turn In
good many of the fire alarms, and on
election night gave the white house the
first news on the election returns.
1.-The subscribers are almost without
exception very nice and courteous TO US,
and l think they would be even less apt (
20 be vexed or misunderstood if they
would come up TO the exchange and see
l6;w things work"