Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-08-13
THE TELEPHONE PEST
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
Writer

\ YOUNG man asks me 70 write a
~ few feeling words about the tele-
~ phone pest, and more especially
about the female OF the species. who
is more deadly than the male. Also,
there are more OF her, which makes
he a proportionately greater menace
to the peace and happiness OF the
community.
Says this young man Il know a
very nice girl OF whom used to think
a good deal. In fact. was on the
verge of falling in love with her until
] discovered that she was victim of
the telephone maitland, believe me,
Id about as soon marry a woman with
the morphine habit.
Il am beginning to dislike and dread
this girl because she makes my life
a burden TO me by telephoning me.
There is never a minute Of the day
or night that | am safe from her.
She calls me up at my business office
and she insists that every evening at
eight o'clock | shall call her up, no
matter where ! am. It's contounded
nuisance. | see this girl two or three
times a week and we've got nothing
on earth to say to each other over the
telephone, but there | am held up on
the end of a wire to chatter like an
idiotic monkey about nothing.
why, oh, why, do girls annoy men
by ceaselessly calling them up on the
phone? Why haven't they got enough
sense to know that nothing gets on
mans nerves so quickly as to be inter
rupted in business hours, and that
there is absolutely no other one thing
on earth that q girl could possibly 90
that SO surely makes him feel that
she Is an old woman Of the sea tied
around his neck with a wire that he
can't break, as for her to always be
on his track with the phone"
That's what one young man says,
girls. and take it from me, he's no
peculiar old crouch. 1t is what every
Young man would like to say to every
girl he knows. IL he had the courage.
Indeed. SO great have been thelr SUI
ferings in the matter that nave
heard more than one youth express
the fervent wish that Mr.. Bell had
died with his great invention unin' !
vented.
Whom the DDS would destroy they |
first make mad" says the OLD adage'
q modern feminine version Of this an;
cient bit Of wisdom might be, the girl
who would make herself unpopular !
with men gets busy with the tele-
phone"
Certainly there is no way in which |
a young woman can queer herself
quicker or more completely. 1t dis
pels every scrap Of illusion about her.
II shows her up, baldfy and coldly, as
4 huntress stalking her prey, instead
of a timid dear that the man must
pursue at the risk of his life to cap
ture. II puts her in the light OF
sleuth forever logging his steps. And
II drives man to frenzy by interrupt
ing him in the great game Of business.
TRY to look at the subject from the
mans point Of view, girls, and you
win see how idiotic a thing you 90
every time you take up telephone
receiver and call up man.
Suppose the man is in business Tor
himself, He is q merchant or broker,
or lawyer or doctor. It is in business
hours. He has customer that he has
been working over for a couple OF
hours TO get him to the buying point.
Another minute and the trade would
Be clinched. Ting-aling-ling, goes the
taleDhone. He picks 1t up. A voice
AT the other end of the wire says:
aThis is Mabel. Didn't we have a per-
fectly lovely time last night at the
party? Wasn't sally Jones dress just
perfectly sweet, and wasn't Tom
Smith mad" ETC., ETC.. and so on, and
50 on.
The man grinds his teeth in help
less rage. He can't beat a girl over
the telephone, though. he would like
to, and by the time he has choked
Mabel off 1the customer has had
sober second thought and backs out
Of the bargain.
Or, If the man is a lawyer, he may
be just on the point Of catching
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