The Morning examiner. [volume] (Ogden, Utah) 1904-1910, 1910-05-22
lex AN oPERAToR.l

Did you ever teke a trip through
a telephone office? And If you have
had this privilege did II not impress
YOU as being one OF the busiest places
YOU have ever seen?
You were naturally impressed by
The quiet, orderly manner In which the
work is executed, when YOU had ma
turally supposed all was hurry and
confusion.
served as operator for five years
ana during that time had many
strange experience with my callers.
who sometimes were as capable OF u.s.
ing a telephone correctly as | am Of
painting the North pole black. and,
sorry, To say, the most frequent OIL
fender belongs to my own sex.
once heard OF firm whose opera
tor received cull from a bride Of a
few months vhcsc father had Just ar
rived from the south on a visit The
call ran thus:
MIR. Hall. please; this Is Mrs. Hall W
The operator thought she heard q
break in her voice as She spoke. Your
husband is attending directors
meeting. I'll have him call up as
soon as he comes out.
A shrek came from Mrs. Halls end
of the line The receiver dropped.
oh, he Is dying, He's dying"
The operator knew IL must be her
father dying and she was there alone.
She at once called Mr.. Hall. who
left for his apartments and had the
meeting adjourned only to find that
Dcdo, the poodle, had just passed
away in n convulsion. and the inno-
cent operator who failed TO understand
that it was the poodle instead OF her
father, lost her position.
Then again. we have the most soil
citous people you could imagine, who
never get vexed because the party
tc whom they wish to speak hap
pens TO be engaged in conversation
or because a storm has crippled the
long distance wire In the town where
Mirandy has gone for two weeks
visit and stayed six, or because yon
don't happen to know the score OF the
first half of football game
An operator can complete about
500 calls per hour. of course, calls for
an outlying exchange must be made
through trunk line and handled
again by an operator In that exchange:
This necessl;ates careful as well
as instantaneous understanding be-
tween the operators OF each oince, ana
when ycu consider the number oil calls
handled pei minute you Wlll agree
with me. am sure, that 1t is mar
velous as we'll as interesting, thl6
work of your unseen friend.
In the telephone work. as IN many
other fields of labor. theer is the luil
and again the rush, which has always
immersed me as being like the in'
coming wave followed by a much
larger one aud then several more be
fore YOU could recover your foothold.
You sit answering and wondering IL
each one is getting his turn and Try
ing to answer all without veXinG any
for when a subscriber is vexed he
sometimes forgetS the number he was
going 10 call and delays the game
several seconds valuable ones. too
for the operator, as the next call may
he on, for the fire department. Ihere
is scarcely anything that happens IN
our busy city thai does not come
under the telephone call,
Give 1t up? Well( If the right man
saws the right thing be.
Ask an operator who is Interested
in her work IL she Is satisfied with
her position and she will answer she
loves the excitement OF rush just as
much as d fireman does big fire.