New-York tribune., 1911-12-17
CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VII.
The army Of telephone girls IN the United
States is over one hundred thousand
strong, and better picked. better organ
lied. more intelligent army you couldn't
find anywhere. To serve in this army Is
an education in itself II does for young
woman what a training in the national
guard does for a man. 1t sets her up,
ouickens her senses Of sight and hearing
and. above all else. steadies her nerves
This army Of telephone girls-in spite Of
its goodly numbers as exclusive as any
crack regiment going. for out or every
eight odd applicants for admission TO the
telephone exchanges In the large ciues
only one is found acceptable. However the
telephone authorities are so anxious to get
capable. Quick pitted girls that they are
alvays eager TO examine new applicants.
For the girl with no previous training
save a grammar school education VINO
wants to be self-supporting for few years
or for many-who wants 10 work up TO
steady position OF from SIS to S2S week
In the course Of four or five years-there
is no more healthful. womanly work than
that OF telephone operator.
II YOU want TO start your daughter out
on q career Of this sort go straight to the
nearest telephone and get connected with
the office Of your home company's local
traffic department. Here you can learn the
! location OF the most convenient training
school for telephone operators. These
schools are maintained in all large cities
where the telephone is used and 1t IS
Z for the would be tele-
phone girl to make personal application to
one OF these schools. where. If she passes
muster, she spends two or three or Tour
weeks in training before she is trusted with
a real switchboard
Three things, at least, the applicant VINO
hopes to pass muster must be-healthy,
through grammar school or its equivalent
and at least five feet tall. Too bad, IT
seems. to turn down a nice, bright little
girl Just because she lacks half an inch
of five feet, but that is the rule. a girl
under that height would not be able to
reach the top Of the switchboard.
II the applicant has these three qualifi-
cations. she is taken into an inner office
where a skilled woman adviser sizes her
up" If she is fairly young, it is in her
2 4
five usually being preferred. If she has not
earned money before It is in her favor, for
if she has worked in a factory OF a store
so the telephone authorities are inclined 10
think-she may have acquired careless hab-
ITS which unfit her for the eXacting work
Of the switchboard.
Then the applicant is put through a test
OF hearing and eyesight. She has TO read
a paragraph aloud 10 show that she can
speak distinctly and pleasantly, and she
has to write a sentence set before her to
show that her handwriting is legihle
enough for the records she must keep at
the switchboard
That is all the applicant actually has TO
DO. but while she is doing 1t the skilled
examiner, seated at her desk. is studyi
the girls general manner and appearance
II her coat lacks a button or her shoe
lace is united. showing carelessness; If she
cones out with n quick. snappy answer
revealing a tendency 10 impatience or
rudencss. or II in any OF her actions she
seems listless or Indifferent fatal defect
I'm the telephone busnoss-the examiner Is
likely 70 turn her application down.
In a day or so your daughter if she has
satisfactorily gone through this test will
receive word from the telephone school 10
report at tha school on certain day In the
near future II YOU live I'm one OF the
larger cities the school will be within easy
access. But II you live in small town
or the suburbs your daughter will probably
have TO 60 daily to a school some distance
from home
From the first day your daughter goes
into training she will receive payment at
the rate OF "a or s. week-the amount
depending on the size Of the city. When
the student is considered sufficiently famil-
lar with the routine Of her work when she
has acquired considerable speed at the
dummy switchboard ana knows the mean
ing OF trunk" and lack" and hundred
or so other terms OF telephony, she is as
signed to a regular exchange in most cases
the one nearest to her home
Usually the operator begins at s. a week
in the large cities, ana IL she shows any
sort Of ability she is advanced within a
few months TO s.. and from that figure TO
( IS or s.. The next line OF advancement Is
to one of three positions" supervisor" I"