Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-07-20
THE TELEPHONE GO-seTWEEN.
What the Girl Who Docs the Rest After
You Ring the Bell saws About Her
Work-She Never Listens.

mo" said the little lady at the tele-
phone, 1T is absurd to think that "A tele-
phone girl listens TO the conversations that
are goNg on over the wires. At the CEN
trail Office each girl has fifty wires, and
you may imagine she is too busy to nay
any attention to anything that is said ex-
cept as she catches word here and there.
You have to keep going over the wires
to listen and see If people are talking still,
IL they have the people thew wish, ox If
they have finished. But when you are going
constantly from one to the other of the
fifty you may be sure that you do not get
very connected idea OF what is going on.
Then YOU are not supposed to listen.
There is always some one looking after
the girls at the central office, and II they
were found listening to the conversation
they would be discharged-not the first
time perhaps but after once or twice.
Thea. a telepno he girl can't talk over the
wires to any one on her lines except to
answer questions and she can't answer
back If people get cranky. She can't tell
anything that goes on over the wires
either if she happens to catch any of it.
There are great many important things
that are said one way and another.
II knew one girl though, who used to
get good tips for the races, and she used
to play them, toe. dont know how she
did it, | shouldn't understand II. | used
To tend that wire sometimes. but never
knew what they were talking about The
only time when a girl nigh; have a
CHARGE to listen at all If she wanted to
would be Saturday afternoon, when there
is not much going on, only few girls at
the Office, and the wires are quiet. ! knew
one CIVIL who was IA switchboard opera or,
who hail a man talk over her lines with
his girl One day she got the line for him
and he was .elephon!ng and Costral call
ed her up.
Did you hear what that man was say
ing, she asked.
No, she said, I wasn't paying atten-
ton.
He called me up said Central, be-
cause he didn't get the connection right.
You ought 10 have heard all ne had to
say to that girl Then she told her what
il was.
Can Central hear me when ] am talk
ing? asked the man when he came out of
the telephone box.
" Oh no." said the girl, Central can't
hear But she did that time.
1T is to get to be a Switchboard opera
tor that most telephone girls try, though
If all the managers At the central office
are pleasant and easy to get along with
they like the work there. A telephone girl
likes her work. anyway. She is kept busy
all the time, and she doesn't know wheCe
the time goes TO. She Is sorry to stay at
home
/ There are 4 great many large business
firms that have switchboard operators
now. They have anywhere from a dozen
or more rooms in a building 10 be con-
necte1, so that when a man wants TO talk
to any one In the building he doesn't have
to go up OF down stairs, and number Of
people can be talking outside at the same
time over the four trunk lines.
| THE switchboard operators work
| is easy compared with that Of
a telephone girl at the central
Office. Where the central Office girl
will have fifty wires to attanI TO, and is
running all day from one 10 the other.
she will have only ten. and part of the
/ time she doesn't have anything to do. 1t
is pretty hard for her al first when she
makes the change, AMI ii IL all she can
do to keep awake with so little 10 do. But
/ 1t is very satisfactory, for the switchboard
! operator has all the holidays; she never
has to work on Sundays. she Is responsible
only to the firm she woGks for, and the
rules are not so strict. Most of the girls
try to get swltchb para positions, Usually
the firm that wants an operator sends TO
| the central office, and they send some one.
i knew one Girl who got position FOR
herself. The firm that she went to sent
up to the central office and asked them II
they would send down Miss Smith.
| " She's no operator they SAID there;
we will send you some one else who is
| first class
We don't care about the operating.
We can judge about that ourselves,
said the firm, and she got the position.
| mo: wearing the receiver 10 not annoy
| ing, and tecphoning doesn't affect the
hearing, at least II never affected mine.
have known some girls whom 1t made
deaf. Sometimes it makes your car sore
to wear 1t, They are training some girls
now to wear the receiver on the right ear,
so that they can use that ear in receiving
don't believe l could hear except with
my left ear. | am so used 10 taking tire
messages on thai side. That Is most con-
venient, too, You always see people use
the other kind of a receiver with the left
hand, and put II to the left ear. Then you
have the right hand free to write and the
wire is not In the way.
ITO be a first-class operator GIL
ought to be calm and self-possessed, one
OF the kind who never gets ratified OF
| loses her head. 1t is a stain when you
have fifty wires to atteAd TO. with people
talking on all of them at once some ri
them complaining that they don't get the
people they want. while YOU are shutting