The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-12
Telephone Operators Worked
Hard During Peace Celebration.
Girls Were Called From Beds
to Go on Duty.
QUICK SERVICE IMPOSSIBLE
Long Distance Operators Also
Were Kept Busy.
Big Rush Was When People
Began To Get Up.

While the all-citizen parade went
skidding up and down the avenue all
day Monday, furnishing its own cur
tain calls, a set OF girls were just be-
ginning to take a series of long
breaths after the hardest stretch of
labor they had ever done or probably
ever will do.
The hello" girls stayed on the job
and many of them were called out of
their. beds at 4 o'clock in the morning
to go on duty acting as a public in
formation bureau to assure inquirers
that the whistles and the bells and the
horns were all proclaiming the truth
that the German nation had actually
quit cold.
The chief operator, Mrs. Alice Baird,
heard the first peal Of the BELLS and
few minutes after 3 O'Clock she was
at her desk in the telephone office.
She received notice that the war was
over. and that the news was official
All calls could be answered to that eff
feet. 1t took about five minutes to
find out that ''all calls" meant more
than could possibly be handled by the
night force on duty. The girls who
lived close to the office, whose regu-
lar hour for going on duty was
O'Clock, were called out, and were in
their places plugging in" as fast as
their hands could fly by $3.50 o'clock.
Couldn't Handle Calls.
"After that" Mrs. Baird said, 1--WE
got out the girls who go on duty at
eight and had them at the board about
six. There are 40 positions at the
switch board Mrs. Baird continued,
tho shortage of help has cut down
our force somewhat. But sixty girls
couldn't have handled all the calls
that came with anything like the
promptness that we expect OF Them
under normal conditions.
hn -
handle day is between 5000 and
$4,000. The calls that we answered
Monday probably went to the number
of 10000. The greatest number
came between and O'Clock in the
morning, and the extra calls about the
$3.50 in the afternoon"
The long distance girls had no easier
| time than the local operators. As soon
as the news Of the signing Of the ar
mistice reaches Topeka. the joy in the
hearts OF the people of the town over
flowed in a desire to communicate the
glad tidings to all their country cou-
sins. A call had to be put in by women
who wanted to notify the rural mother
from whom she buys butter. and who
has son. over there. The daughter
who had gone to the little town up the
line to give music lessons had to be
told before she returned home in the
morning. And half the population of
the city knew some one who must be
told by long distance telephone that
The greatest murder machine in his
tory had been smashed,
Was No Let Up.
| In addition. arrangements for a for
NAL parade had to be maize by phone,
SO the traffic continued unusually
neavy all day, and the girls, with the
supervisors at their backs worked like
mad thru the long holiday.
I But the bottom didn't fail out of
the service, even when all the rest OF
the town forgot that there was room
Tor anything but rejoicing in the worHd.
The girls stuck to their posts. answer
ing the war is oven'' ''the news is Of
ficial." yes, it's true" to the calls that
came in lightning succession. If the
eirls themselves had brothers or sweet
hearts on the battle front that they
knew were suddenly delivered from
the hand of the enemy, from peril and
from suffering. it was not theirs to cell
citrate with the rest of the world. Not
thru the tin horn and the kettle drum
was their rejoicing voiced, but in their
service to their fellow townsmen who
WA ed TO know"