Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1908-01-24
TROUBLES OF THE
TELEPHONE GIRLS
LIFE NOT ALL A HONEY-BEES
DREAM WITH THEM.
Talking. Calling, Yelling all Day
Long and Signs at Night. "Oh
dear. It's Over For Today" -
Some POSSESSED With Idea They
Own the Service, Girls and All.

CWH IllC SCl WIG, OlllS 0Ilu All
Lite is not all honey-bee's dream
to the Watertown telephone girl.
For the time she arrives at the ex-
change until she leaves she is talking,
talking. calling, yelling and smooth
ing out old dodgers OF the bachelor
persuasion and Eighty old maids.
All day long she sits and calls and
weeps over the wants of an irascible
population. some very sweet, some
very sour, some very patient and
some with spasm of wrath every
half hour.
At the close of day she signs, ooh
dear, it's all over for today" and oft
she goes hume to poke her nose into
her pillow of down and dream of Mrs.
Constant Oder, late society leader Of
Johnson Greek; Miss Punter Pigeon,
president of the Fat Woman's club
Miss Tappering Lanquid, the literary
phenomenon; the aristocracy of the
hill and the Pigeon Whist club on the
flats; the Society of Literary Attic
lion and the Society of Middle Aged
females who dress like girls.
Visions come and go and nightmares
stampede the brain of our little tele-
phone girl. Yet she returns to her
work the next morning as bright as a
dollat fresh from the mint and as
CHEEKY as bachelor girl on her honey
moon.
There is one man in Watertown
who orders his telephone taken out
for without his telephone the bottom
would drop out of mis- business. This
man is possessed of the strange idea
that he owns the telephone service
girls and all-and hi. does not hesitate
to swear at the girls, swear at the
telephone and swear at the universe.
Finally he looks in the mirror and sees
just what sort of an animal other
people have to look at when he goes
abroad and then ne swears at himself.
"Hello! Hello! Hellov' ne cries;
"who the devil are you, and what in
blank do you want? Hello, what's
the matter with my telephone? Hello
central | say, Hello! Why don't
you tend to business? Who wants me?
Hello! l can't stand here all day
answering every blankety fool in
Watertown. Hello! Who's on my
wire? Central, do you hear me? l
want this blankety thing taken out.
l won't pay for 1T. Send man over
at once to cut this out. It's NUS
ance. HelIop'
Then the great man slams down the
receiver and turns somersault. and
the little telephone girl heaves a long
sigh and takes up her task again.
In minute a woman who doesn't
know what she wants tries to get it
over the telephone, and she cannot
understand why the little girl cannot
understand why she don't understand
what she never will know.
81 want Doctor Blister"
1.-THE wire is busy"
"Why can't get Doctor Blister?"
There il some one on the wire"
This is the meanest service | ever
saw
"I'll call you when get chance. D
81 won't wait -
sST o,ppok holD Doo&n~
Blister now"
is that you Doctor B1ister?"
mo, this il Mrs. Blister; the
doctor is out
"Well. when he comes in, ask him
if the rhubarb pills are to be taken in
the morning or at night, and tell him
to let me know at once if / am to
battle my feet in the mustard-or my
he'd.
What vast volume of business
and human nature flies over the tele-
phone, and think of the little girls
that listen to the tales that are daily
poured into their ears. The telephone
girl is expected TO know what time 1t
is; when the next car leaves for
IxonIa when the next one is due to
arrive, what butte. is selling at in
Watertown and whether it is full
weight; the bargains on Main street,
where husband is and when he will be
back who's sick, who's married who's
dead; where's the fire and who's who
in America.
Hale and Hearty.