The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1910-04-29

APRIL %, 1910.
We're you ever In telephone office
Just after an alarm of fire had been
turned in? A News man happened to
be yesterday afternoon just after the
fourteenth fire alarm OF the month
had been sounded
Telephone Service Paralyzed,
It's exciting. A national convention
is hardly in 1t compared with the eX.
citing moving picture show that goes
on for about ten minutes. All real
telephone service is paraly2ed. You
can't call anybody up to save your
soul. The telephone girl simply cant
make the connection. She doesn't
hear you call a number even If you
want one. She's too busy answering
the several hundred anxious inquir.
ers who lift their receivers from the
hooks and then listen to find out
where the fire is.
The switChboards-the whole row
of 'em-are just one solid mass of
white drops. There are a thousand
telephones, more or less, to be an
swered all at once. And the telephone
| girls-more than half dozen of them,
including Information" md Long
Distance"-they just bucl.e down and
run race against time that ought to
get them Carnegie hero medals.
| They talk just as fast as their
breath will allow-and then they pref
| ty nearly get exhausted.
| They keep busy with both hands
sticking plugs around among the var.
ious numbers on the boards in order
to tell you where that fire is. And
they never lose an instant in calling
out "W. - Blakemans residence,
w. II. BlaI EAans residence, w. II.
Blakemane esidence-"
It's 5edIam for Talk.
And you may be able to imagine
that eight or ten girls, all talking at
once and all just as fast as ever they
can, all repeating the same thing over
and over and over and over, give a
weird impression to the person who
has just dropped in to see how they
do it.
And if you ever in your life didn't
want to be telephone girl, or if you
ever felt sorry for human beings
well, this is one of the times, fol
sure.
The chief operator moves back and
forth, cutting in with a plug here and
a plug there to help some girl out
touching another one on the shoulder
and cautioning Not so loud; they
can't hear you when you talk so loud
Don't get so excited; keep cool anC
talk low"
And then the girl throws her should
ers back to get new lease on hel
strength for this Marathon talk race
and, catching her breath, hops to il
again
"W. H. Blakemans residence, w
II. Blakemans residence, w. II. Blake
mans residence, w. II. Blake"
And the Drops Keep Falling.
And the funny thing about it is that
no matter how fast those girls tall
or how fast they keep juggling thei
hands around, sticking in plugs ant
pulling them out, the white polka-do
moving picture show on the switch
boards never stops and never seems t.
grow less. AS fast as one switch
boardful of the eager public gets it
thirst for information quenched, an
other batch gets dry. And down COM
the drops and on goes the chorus
wv. II. Blakeman's residence, w
: H. Blakeman's resi-"
It's a ten-minute vaudeville seem
, that you couldn't duplicate on any cir
E cult in the country 1t just seems t
you that If you were telephone cir
you'd get so darned mad trying to Gu
down the number of white dots u
there on the board by yelling you
head off and having the drops kee
q, coming right back at you like blow
; from a prize fighter trying to put 20
: down and out for the count, that you
! throw up the sponge and cry
= Enough" But the girls are so II
formally busy in their mad talkfes
that probably they don't get time t
g. stop and get mad. And the minut
they should become the least bit e,
!, cited the chief Is on the job, tappin
. a shoulder and cautioning, Talk low
, they can't understand when you tai
J, loud"
; Some Girls Talk Faster.
The girls who can talk faster an
T.. whose eyes and fingers work taste
come to the rescue of the newer hand
/, at the game every little while ant
reaching over onto the neighbor
J. switchboard, cut in with two or tire
J. plugs to help cut down the Imountai
- of calls that have piled up.
. For ten exciting minutes that keeT
i. up. Then all Of sudden, as myster
ously as they had appeared in tn
l.. first place, those white drops begi
:, to fade away and there are only a do
-; en- or so in front of each girl. An
/ the girl all of a sudden switches he
= line of talk and begins to say: Nun
= Der? 49," or This is information
or Long Distance" And that NEAR
y that the town knows where the fiji
| ie ,