The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-06
CAN YOU REALLY BLAME HER?
Why Shouldn't Sweet-Voiced Tele-
 Phone Girl Give up Her Job?

From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
 There seems to be something about the telephone girls which, as far as the tele- phone companies are concerned, makes her an unreliable employe. We hasten to say that this word unreliable" Is in- tended to be interpreted in a sense which reflects no discredt whatsoever upon the telephone girl Quite the contrary.
 The more serious fault thelephone com panies have to find with the telephone girl is that she will not remain tele- phone girl for any considerable length of time. In fact, almost as soon as she be- gins to be a telephone girl worth having she is snatched ruthlessly away from the telephone company which employs her by some man who may have been a stranger to her until the telephone company en- gagged her and gave her a chance to inn press strange men with the sweetness of her voice and the genteness of her man. ners.
 The telephone company managers are unable to account for it. So far as we are aware nobody Is able to account for it in perfectly satisfactory manner. Ali that we can do is to take the facts as we find them A girl may have been around home for two or three or even four or five years after the time when she was privileged to receive young men, but no young men appeared on the scene. She | may have gone into other .-.nds of em- ployment, and yet nobody was particularly attracted to her. But she Is scarcely a month in the telephone exchange before something like this happens: Hello. is this Central?'
 "Yes. this is Central number, ple-a-se?" Archer 4-1l-44."
 Archer 4-11-44? Very well, you shall have them instantly"
 This is only the beginning. The man who called Arch 4-l1-44 cannot drive the sound of that angel voice out of his memory It Is answering him all day over the telephone The way she said in stantly was simply irresistible. Then something like this happens next day:
 Hello Is this Central?'
 "Yes. number, pleas-s-e?' Say, l don't want any number Say. l want to ask you a question. Say, what is the name of the girl who answered my call about this time yesterday"
 'Ahe you In earnest or just fooling?" I'm in earnest. Say, if you'll tell my her name, and tell me yours, I'll send around the biggest box of candy"
 Well, 1t must have been Nellie Dawson; here she is''
 And then something like this happens:
 ''Is this Miss Dawson?'
 ''Ye-e-e-s."
 Say, Miss Dawson, I'd ike 10 meet you very much"
 Are you in earnest or just fooling?'
 "Oh. say. I was never so much in earnest in my life"
 Well. then and so on.
 Then this appears under the head of Marriage Licenses Issued Yesterday: Ellen Jane Dawson. Chicago ...........25 William Brown Jones, Chicago ..........2o
 And so it goes. Says the telephone man. ager, with special reference to the Nellie Dawsons:
 I would gladly give several hundred dollars if I could induce them to tell us about their weddings a month or so be- fore. We would keep their secrets for them, but, instead, some evening they tell us:
 ''I won't be down in the morning"
 Well. and who can blame them? Ger tainly not the men who hear certain sweet voice for a month or so, who sud denly miss it. who realize that they may never hear it more, but who know that It is, if possible, in better business. That is to say, instead of talking to miscel- laneous lot of strange men, it Is in all portability talking to the one man Tn the world who was waiting all his life to hear 1t.