The herald., 1898-01-23

pasted Maltese crosses or circles o.
white paper. The former mean un-
| limited telephones the latter nickel ma
chimes, so that as soon as your number
appears the girl knows the class o.
phone you have, and when she call:
Nickel the buzz sounds only wher
you drop 1t, not without. There i!
nothing gained by your saying uncom
plimentary things to the speaker wheI
she calls for the nickel. She is gov
erned by an inflexible rule in the matter
which Is to connect you with the chic
operator, who must in turn listen tt
your plant or your expletIve and ther
appeal to a power still higher. Ant
don't think you are getting the best o.
the company by putting buttons ant
chunks of lead and other misleading de.
vices into the machine. 1t is the sub
scribers who reap the benefit from the
nickel in the slot variety of telephones
The company gets it's regular rent anG
that is all.
SUNSETS FAVORS
Across the circle or the cross there
may be little red line drawn thai
! means that connection with Sunset
must be o. KID. by certain people be-
fore it can be given. Then there are
little blue plugs and little red ones an6
little white ones, all having their sep
arate and distinct significance, and ac-
companying each is rule that must
first be learned and then not trans
gressed. Besides all this there are
emergency circuits to be learned and
multifarious other things, all Of which
tend TO facilitate the service
A FEW DON'TS
When you feel in an argumentative
mood and want to have it out for any
reason with Central just remember
that her conversational powers during
business hours are limited by strict rule
to number" 1.-The line is busy" and
party called for don't reply" Just
call for the manager and make your lit
tie plant to him at first hand. The girl
operators have troubles enough of their
own.
When you ask for "blue 'steen" and
you get black 'steen instead, don't ac-
cuse the operator of being color blind,
that is not originals said so often in
fact that it is old enough to go into an
almanac. When you grow impatient
over the delay because the line is busy
remember that if it is a party line there
are ten other people who have as much
right to use that line as you have, and
If any one of them is talking central
cannot cut that person off even if she
knows who is using the line, which is
quite improbable, for very likely neither
of the plugs that make the circuit is on
her board at all.
SOME REMEMBERS
10 If you don't get an immediate re-
sponse when you take down your re-
ceiver remember that there may be a
half dozen other people on the same
board as yourself who are impelled tc
do the same thing with their phones al
the same moment, and one pair OF
hands, or even two, can't do everything
at once. The process above sketched in
has got to be gone through with every
call, and it is no indication that central
is trying to eXasperate you because she
answers the other fellow first.
If you are by any fatal possibility cut
off in the middle of your conversation
with another party remember, when you
again get central, that in all human
probability it is not the same girl at
the board with whom you talked first,
but the one at the B board probably,
across the room, or possibly an operator
at one Of the branch offices, who made
the last connection and who doesn't
know and has no way of knowing, with
out inquiry, who you are or what your
number is.
And don't imagine, because that Is un-
complimentary to yourself and unjust
to the operator, that when she tells you
line is busy it is done to spite you or
because she "has it in" for you that
she doesn't connect you at once with the
phone you want. 1t is simply post
poning trouble for herself, because you
will call up again and then the connec-
tion must be made, and she might Just
as we'll make it in the first place, if it
were possible.
BUSY AS BEES
OF course, some boards are buster than
Others and at certain hours every day
there is a rush, when it seems as if
every subscriber on the list wanted to
talk at once. But at no hour day or
night, from one morning until the
next, is there condition of things in
the main office that resembles in any
way the historic innocuous desuetude
And yet there is never any noise, any
perceptible furry.
The rows of girls sit there like au-
tomota, yet their faculties are all keenly
on the alert, their eyes convey certain
signs to their brains, which, in turn,
direct their hands to ready obedience
There is no noise, not a bell, nor a word
spoken from one to another. They do
not open their mouths, save to speak
into the transmitter one of the stereo-
typed sentences already alluded to, and
then in so low voice that one stand
ing directly behind them can scarcely
hear what is said.
That is another interesting discovery
When you remember how you in
stinctively raise your voice in speaking
into a phone then hear the gentle tones
of the operators. you realize how very
much breath and lung power you have
wasted in the process; and if you ever
had 0he of those receivers clamped
against your ear and your tympanum
received the sledge-hammer blows of
the average subscriber shouting for his
number, you would vow that the culti-
walton of low, quiet voice should be
your first business.
CIVIL AND REGULAR
In simple justice to the telephone girl,
be it said that for the most part they
try to be civil to the subscribers, for that
is one of the rules, and that in trying to
obey other rules that may seem at times