The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-03-19
THAT HELLO GIRL.
SHE EXPRESSES HERSELF FREELY AND
IN PICTURESQUE LANGUAGE.

IN PIC UkESQOt lAN1OA6t.
Tells Her Impressions, Drawn From Ex-
periencc, with the Brutes and the Jays.
She Is Rather Too Fresh to BE Taken as
Fair sample of the Phone Girl.
1t took a long time and much trouble,
but at last the reporter did personally see
and talk with telephone girl. In what
exchange she works, whether she is tall or
short light or dark, chows gum or lives
i'm New York, the reporter will never di-
vulge That girl talked under n pledge
Of absolute secrecy as to her identity, and
nothing can nor shall be said which will
disclose anything more about her than the
fact that she Is an experienced operator
and has worked in number of the eX-
changes. The meeting was brought about
by diplomatic third person, and the hello
girl knew that she was going to be inter
viewed for the purposes of this story.
That was n little unfortunate, because she
was very shy of her information, to begin
with This wore off after Bit however,
and Miss Hello at last plainly showed the
satisfaction she felt in freeing her mind on
the subject of the person at the other end
of the wire. Then she talked with a great
deal of vigor, animation and refreshing
candor.
Why say" she said after her conf
dcnce had been won and she felt that her
identity was absolutely secure, ''if l only
knew men as | meet them over the wire,
l would believe that they are all brutes
| and some of them also jays Why, say,
| they talk about our being fresh. Well,
| we amt fresh long, If We ever are, be
cause you called down too quick by the
manager or his assistant If you get fresh
| over the wire. But there amt any one
got bag of salt to sprinkle on the people
! who talk to us. 1t doesn't seem to make any
/ difference how much n man uses the telo-
| phone, he never seems to get any sense in
| his head about it. Now, just as likely as
| not you have tclcphoncd and scolded
/ central because they couldn't give you the
| number you wanted When central has
| rung up a number for you, or rung up
| the exchange where she is going to get
| that number, she couldn't do any more If
she owned the telephone company. But,
/ say, that doesn t make any difference. Nine
| men out of ten, nine times out of ten, will
begin jawing us because we can't get the
connection. Then If we try to explain
why we can't they threaten TO report us to
the manager and "a lot of them do it too. !"
| being brutcs, which is more or less ia
miliar fact, are also jays. Now, just how
are they jays by telcphone'" the reporter
! asked.
Miss Hello responded: why, say,
didn't you ever try to get comic with a
| telephone girly That's what lots of men
do, and they are more fun for us than
| pay day. l don't mean business men
down town or any men while in their of
fees, because they are generally talking
| where people can hear them. But when
worked in an exchange where we were
central for lot Of residence telephones it
seemed AS if every man who rang us up
had nothing else to do but get gay.
I'VE have lots of fun with men who are
talking through their house telephones and
who always get comic if they have to wait
for their connections. You have no idea
how much we get to know about those
men, and the kind Of houses they live in,
and even just where their telephones are
located. And you can tell when there Is
any one in the room with them too.
remember one hight when 1 had told &
man to please wait he began to get comic
right away. l was onto him, and begar
stringing him just little bit, you know
because the night manager was out Of thu
! a
little. could tell from his tone, even be
fore he began to talk silly, that he wa
alone in the room, and pretty sooA he be
gan asking me about my nights off an,
| if l wouldn't like some tickets to a roc
garden. Suddenly his voice changed, an
he began yelling like cross bear: Hello
CENTRAL l say, you, central! Why don
you attend to business Why, say, kne'
what had happened Just as soon as he di
that. His wife had come into the room
l and laughed at him over the telephone
and said: Ask wiley how she'd like t
have you send me those roof garde
! ticketsl' Bang! He hung up the receiver
and / knew just as well as / was aliv
that he had got ratified and was afraid hi
; wife might hear what l said, although W
T. were half mile apart. That happene
( lots of times. Say, wonder what make
: so many men ask telephone girls what
the color of their hair. When ! was /
that uptown exchange, I'll bet a hundre
= different men asked me that question aftt
they had called up central and had
i wait. It's lots of fun to jolly the guy
but of course you can only do 1t In tn
i smaller exchanges, where there is no a.
d sistant manager and the managers som,
times out. OF course you can keep up
jolly for some time by just making al
:, swers that seem all right to the manage
. If he happens to overhear you, because
> can't tell what you are answering"
Women Why, say, they're the sal
ciest things you ever saw. If they can't G,
the number they want right away, the
begin to scream and shout and threaten
and mostly wind up by saying that IL
c nasty old thing isn't any good, and han
i up the receiver just about the time yo
want to give them their number
ie do we listen much? Why, say,
think that's an awful foolish question
Do you suppose we have any time to Ii
- tenn On the levelf Well, say, on the leve
n then, just because we are hello girls, v
are human beings just as hard, and If
is at night, and we are not very busy an
y something very interesting is goin
through, or we hear a voice telling son
:. one that he won't be home until late c
u account of being busy with the correspon,
, ence to go by the next days steamer, al
- then a little later hear that same vol
telling very different sort of story
some one else-why, say, of course we
human"
And thus prattled on that Miss He'll
She was young person Of an observal
nature which makes 1t all the more III
fortunate for mankind that at the concl
,e sion of her story she added the RENAL
with which she had begun-that if 81
-. only knew men as she met them over Il
~ wires she would believe them all brut
and some Of them jays.-New York Sun
nidnst nare Dn IT