The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-09-05
A DEAD GIVE AWAY.

The Hello Girl Can Tell All About You
by Your Tone at the Phone.
Your voice tells your characterize
least, that is the verdict of the expert
enced telephone operator.
I have a friend" said Salt Lake
telephone girl yesterday, who was
chief, operator for a certain company.
She always declared that she could tell
not only the disposition Of the person
telephoning. but that she could also de-
scribe his appearance with scarcely an
error. A man she had never met heard
of this and, to test her, telephoned:
" Miss b, hear you say you can
tell what man looks like by his voice.
What do look like?"
Il know 1t sounds incredible, but that
girl described him almost as well as
though she could see him. Not all of
us can do that, but as q rule we can
tell what sort Of a disposition the one
telephoning has. If you would take the
board for an hour yourself, think you
might have a similar experience. Of
course we at the board all the time feel
the personality of people as soon as
tA|9 Gdl1 \ llSiD It's
Another hello" girl Remarked:
Customers always feel the effect of
our voices on them whether they speak
Iof 1t or not That Is why operators with
sweet voices do not stay on the force
long-they get married. I think If some
men could hear their wives voices over
the phone they way we do, before their
marriage, they would never sign the
contract. 1t is amusing, sometimes, to
hear the way the tone changes the hap
py event. Men are as bad as women
for that. But the thing began to say
Is that an operators voice can stir a
man to anger-the mere tone-yet few
people ever think how their voices may
affect the operator. She listens to
thousands Of voices In a day one after
the other, all keyed to a different tune.
You can imagine what that means.
I'VE can tell over the phone whether
you are happy, or sick, or selfish, or
thoughtless, or nervous; whether you
are angry with the one whose number
you wish, or whether you are about to
ask a favor. or course we do not al
ways have time to think these impress
.sions out in coherent form, but they are
there, just the;Hame.''
What is the most unpleasant voiee2''
repeated another phone girl. II think
you will find that most of us agree that
there are three unpleasant to deal with
the abrupt, the high, knife-like sopra-
no and the hesitating. The first tndi-
Gates nothing but absorption In BUSH
ness, or i1ipat fence, sometimes natural,
and sonletimessof the moment Itinev-
Ter fails to rattle the operator Many
times, when / have been all ready to
tell the number, an abrupt request
would scare it out ofmy head. The
woman with the high voice who speaks
too loud gets on the nerves most. An
operator should have no nerves.
When asked which voices were pleas
ATTEST over the phone as a rule, mans
or woman's, they responded in unison.
MEMS" This is perhaps not strange
since they are all girls. However, there
is another reason for this. Women's
voices are apt to be metallic over the
phone, and not a pleasant sound, and
there are more women than men who
talk too loudly, A man will often be
courteous where a woman is not. That
does not mean that men do not speak
for their rights. There are ways and
ways and voices ais well as ways.