The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-03

were 9,463 calls, which does not include
LIS calls for telephones which were busy.
On June IA there were $500 calls, and ,446
busy calls. In winter the daily number of
calls runs up to 1900 or 1900.
The uninitiated subscriber seldom I'M
derstands the polite Busy now" that
sometimes comes over his wire when he is
in hurry to get connection. He has
no visual evidence, and faith is weak. 1t
is the perfunctory 'not-at-home" of the
fashionable butler, and it is not unusual for
a subscriber to complain that the opera
tor told him that the people he called for
were busy, when she couldn't possibly
have found out, for she never left her
place. Now, the truth is that the opera
tor who gets a call for say 81, can tell in
an instant If 571 IS engaged by only tapping
a plug on the edge of the inlet to 571s
Inc. IL engaged she Immediately gets
sound in her telephone as convincing as
keep out' could be
It IS not a noisy place, this operating
room, though talking is constantly going
on. The girls speak with lips well inside
the transmitter, and all that is heard is
a continual buZzing like a bee IN a bottle
It is the music of science" singing along
the waves of energy. 1t is question and
answer argument refutation, remon-
STRANGE, concession, ultimatum, and all at
first hand and without let or hindrance
Tt gives one pause to think of DR.. Pierce's
words: 1T is not a wild dream to say
that We may yet hear on this earth a
thunderstorm in the sun, or even COM
municate by telephone with the planet
Mars
Sometimes one operator handles as
many as 800 calls within an hour This
is rapid work, but the experts know how
to do 1t, and it is the best operators that
are assigned to the telephones in the bus
inrss section of the city.
complete record is kept of every
trouble report and whenever anything is
wrong with a telephone it is not long be-
fore 1t Is known in the Office. There is
DAHL: test made of every telephone to
find out whether they are in perfect work
ing order, and this does not give the sub
scriber chano e. to come around and say
his telephone has not been working for a
week or more.
Manager Polk says that in addition TO
the calls IN the morning which pile up be-
tween 8 and 10 o'clock, there is always a
great rush Of business whenever there is a
fire or whenever il is reported that there
is amy startling war news on the Morning
News bulletin board
The telephone girls are supplied with
comforts and conveniences which en-
ployes in few other offices have. In the
offices in some of the larger cities there
are arrangements for thoroughly purify
ing the air or laundrying it, so to speak
That apparatus has not been put i'm the
savannah ONCE DuI tQeFS IS practically
no necessity for it here. Every other
convenience known to telephone Offices
however, is supplied to the Savannah tee-
phone girls. There are bed rooms where
they can rest or sleep when weary; each
girl has her own locker for her clothes;
there is a steam clothes dryer in which
they may dry their wearing apparel if
they come in out Of the rain; there is a
gas stove with cooking utensils, bath
rooms, and in fact, everything in the ma
ture of modern conveniepces that can be
desired.
The Savannah telephone girls are no
doubt in love with their work. 1t is said
that their compensation is better than
that of most women employed in other
capacities, and certainly she has more
| comforts thaneare provided for the aver
| age employee. AS an evidence Of the desir-
ability of the employment, especially since
the exchange has been moved into the
new building Manager Polk says he has
/ had ten applicants for employment where
! he had one before.
AT the Tea.-Jones-Miss Verbose has
| Just embarked on one of her conversa-
! tional voyages.