Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1913-12-09
AUTOBIOGRAPHY Of A TELEPHONE OPERATOR.


to visit the exchange at different
hours in the afternoon.
Charlie Kellen knew every news
paper man in town and during those
days he never slept. Every news
paper man was taken into the ex-
change by bodily force, if no other
way were possible, and shown the
workings of the telephone exchange.
Columns of publicity was the result.
Thousands and thousands of people
in the city, for the first time IN
their lives, read the story of cent
rail-
Be it known that central holds
a fascination for a certain class OF
people very much the same as be-
hind the scenes of the theatre does
for others. Their interest was ar
reused. They came to the telephone
building in flocks, asking to be
''shown through
The big daily newspaper began
to publish cartoons on the front
page. One of the cartoons, Mrs. T..
Payson Smith called disgraceful. 1t
showed pompous society woman,
not entirely unlike Mrs. E. Payson
Smith herself, sitting in magnifl-
Gently furnished home at a table
using a desk telephone. She had
an overfed poodledog in her lap and
box of chocolate bonbons on the
table beside the telephone. The car
toonist must have seen an angry
club woman somewhere for he de-
picted on her face the best example
I ever saw of mean, selfish, UNI
reasonable anger. At the other
side of the picture there was an
immense switchboard, where hund-
reds of girls were working and a
line was shown running directly to
the Young woman who answered the
society woman's telephone. The
cartoonist made the girls face as
responseful, patient, intelligent, as
he had the other woman's selfish,
angry and mean. ! tell you, 1t tax
es a picture like this to tell story
so that people can get at it.
Maybe you think that all this
talk in the newspaper didn't make
a difference with our work!
never saw anything like it In
my life. Our cruelest, crossest sub
scribers were transformed into kind,
gentle creatures. 1t was please
here, and thank you" there, and
maybe we didn't respond to this
wonderful effect. Nothing ever
changed our attitude toward the
work like that. 1t makes all the
difference in the world when you
know you're appreciated-when you
know that there is someone kindly
and considerate at the other end OF
the wire. Girls who did not use to
have the most pleasant voices in the
world in answering the telephone,
suddenly acquired sweet, soft, kindly
tones, where they had used harsh
rasping tones before. The effect
was marvellous. The subscribers
too, noticed the difference they
could not help it, but, of course,
those who felt kindly toward the
telephone operators merely took the
change as an evidence that their re-
gard for the girl was not misplaced
Literally hundreds of people visit
ed the exchange, marshalled there
by the wonderful organizing ability
of Mrs. Perron and a score of club
women who worked in sympathy
with her. tell you, when dozen
or two of the strongest and best
women in community organize
and unite their efforts toward the
furtherance of some good plan, the
effect is instantaneous, far reaching
and quite wonderful.
Hundreds of women, who sought
to emulate the leading club woman,
also organized their little lotteries
and the system worked like an end
less chain.
The city had gone telephone mad
and it was worth your reputation
to take chances in a public place in
calling down the operator over the
telephone. People, who came to the
city, new to the new order of things,
and stepped up to the telephone and
by their customary, hrusque, harsh
way of speaking to Central, would
arouse the antagonism
of someone standing near. If they
began to urge or browbeat the opera
tor, they were gently but firmly
told to desist. 1t is an actual mat
ter of record that, in more than one
instance, fisticuffs finally decided
the arguments in favor of the tefe-