Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-30

mark often made to us when i'm &C
cordance with instructions, we ask them
II they're still using the phone. When
the line has been in for an unusual
or inOrdinate time on one call, it is ouI
business to interpolate the question Are
you waiting?' We do this to ascertain
II the receiver has been replaced on the
hook, for there are so many careless per-
sons who forget to replace the receiver
after using the telephone
ABOUT three times out of five, l should
say, we are CURLY requested to quit
rubbering' on their conversation when
WEE make this query in the cases where
women are holding long telephone con-
fabs with each other 1t is horribly irri-
tatng. the constant repetition of this
accusation. because it is so utterly I'M
Just. Operators haven't the slightest de-
sire to overhear the conversation of sub
scribers They have no interest what
ever in the personalities of the people
using the phone. And if they had all
the interest in the world, coupled with a
desire to OVerhear what the subscribers
talked about, operators, of course, could
not attend to their business and rubber
on conversations at the same time. The
phone stations of the exchange are so
arranged as to keep every girl busy, right
UP to her ability. every minute she is on
watch; it is case with the operator OF
all that the traffic will bear" Some
times there are half dozen calls de-
handing her immediate attention at the
:,
then, would an operator have to listen to
subscribers conversation, even if she
had enough interest in that sort of thing
to want to do so? | wonder If it ever
will be generally understood that a tele-
phone conversation is just as private as
If the talk were being held between the
parties in a cellar or a cemetery.
If men were the operators, instead of
girls. the woman users of the phone
would talk to them very differently l am
sure of that. Please is a word that
many woman phone users seem to have
forgotten completely how to use in call
ing for number. Men nearly always
say please when they ask for a num-
Der
Another thing-a man nearly always
looks up in the book the number he
wants before he takes the receiver off
the hook. No matter how busy a man
may be-and men always are buster than
the women who use the phone, of course
he will futter over the pages of the book
and get the number he wants before call
ing up. He knows that this saves time
in the end
But women have a habit Of virtually
demanding that the operator know off,
hand the number of every subscriber
in the telephone book.
Give me Smiths dairy woman
will say to the operator. Now, Smiths
dairy may be a little bit of concern
away on the outskirts Of the town. But
the operator is supposed by the woman
to know the number right out of hand
and to connect her with that number
instantly. She won't take the trouble
to look in the book. Why can't the
operator do that? That is her view.
Il will give You Information is the
reply we make, under instructions. to
such calls.
But, for PHYS sake. don't you know
your telephone numbers?" the woman
nearly always asks us in such a case.
mot all OF them" we reply. also un-
der instructions. We should dearly
love to reply that we are not register
ing machines a1d that therefore we
scarcely can be Expected to remember
the numbers of all of the tens of thou
sands OF telephone subscribers in the
book.
We'll, you ought to know them-I
don't see what You're there for II you
don't know the pokey old numbers"
is what they often say when we tell
them that we do not know all of the
numbers.
"Whats Mrs. jones' NUMBER" is an