The Washington herald., 1913-05-18
lone CLASS OF WOMEN CAN KEEP SECRETS

people are saying over the wire. But
| the telegraph operator must read and
understand thoroughly the message be-
fore she can send IL. She must under
stand thoroughly any message she Is
receiving over the wires. And yet very
few men hesitate TO send the most per-
| sonal kilograms on that account. There
is a tacit understanding on the part OF
| the men who use the telegraph to any
| dgree that the operator. even though
she be a woman. never repeats the con-
tents of any message.
Newspaper men in particular have am
pie opportunity to test this. II often
happens that exclusive news is sent over
the wires from special correspondents t.
their papers. Sometimes the operator
who sends or receives the message hap
pens to be a woman. This character of
news is usually very important of q
kind that would naturally induce a per-
son TO be bursting to tell it, so to
speak. And yet there are so seldom
leaks of this character that they are
negligible. No correspondent harbors
any fear that his beat" will filter to
rival paper through the operator, even
in instances where the operator is a
woman.
Telephone girls and telegraph operators
however, do not by any means exhaust
the list of women who are daily engage
in keeping secrets. There are numberless
others. Stenographers, private secr.-
taries, women physicians, trained nurses
and many, many others are continually
coming into possession of facts that
ought not be repeated, and there is no
complaint that women betray such trusts
more often than men. Indeed, il there
is any difference. a woman is less liable
to repeat things OF this character than a
man is
II Is hardly necessary to point out how
often business men find II necessary to
trust their stenographers' and private
secretaries with information upon which
depends a great deal In the Offices of
railroad officials, real estate men. bust.
ness men OF various kinds, public officials
professional men. and practically every
class OF men who do business of any
Kind where II is necessary to keep certain
things secret while they are being put
through" there will be found women
who are trusted absolutely and who never
betray these trusts. There is abundant
testimony, II one wishes to look for IL.
that the statement is true that at would
be impossible to carry on business IL
women could not keep secrets"
A little incident which occurred recent
ly will give an idea OF just to what ex-
tent this ability to keep secrets is some
times carried. A certain lady who had
to undergo an operation in which ether
was used. asked the trained nurse who
attended her at the hospital what she
talked about while under the influence
of the ether. The nurse smiled, but an
swered firmly:
I'VE are not allowed to tell any one
what a person says while under ether,
not even the persons themselves"
And she did not tell. This is only one
Of the many occasions on which the
trained nurse and the woman physician
are called upon to keep silent about
things which inevitably come to their
notice while discharging their duties.
Here. then, is a formidable array of
facts to controvert that old theory that
women cannot keep secrets. They show
conclusively, not only that women can
keep secrets, but that there are a large
number OF women in this city who &C
tually do keep them. With the entrance
of woman into the business world many
things are being learned about her that
were not known before. Many other
things that were believed about her
have been shown to be not true. 1t
would seem that the ancient tradition
of her inability to keep a secret must
now be added to the list Of myths
about women"