The sun., 1918-09-29
BY JOHN WALKER HARRINGTON.

0CENTRAL'' is helping win Ameri-
~ can victories overseas. She Of
the smiling voice has been aiding Gen.
Persling for months, and has been amaz-
ing all France by the work of her agile
fingers and the rapid volleying Of her
French
The men operators have been in front
line trenches and dugouts, but the great
wire exchanges are in charge of young
women from the United States. They are
the pick Of those keen witted maids of the
switchboard upon whose quiekness and
dexterity the business men of New York,
Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia de-
pended for carrying on transactions in the
hurry of commercial life. Just as they
once helped out the stock market and the
wheat pit, so now they are plugging for
our military success.
Long before the United States entered
the war Telephone Reserve Corps was
formed in this country, under the direc-
tion of Col John J. Carly, chief engineer
Of the American Telephone and Telegraph
Company, who is HOW in charge of wire
communications with the American Expe-
dictionary Forces in France. The men
volunteers were drilled as infantry and
then put through intensive technical train
ing for military work. Some Of them
went over with Gen. Pershing on the first
ship, along with his staff. As soon as
they landed they started to work out n
system of communication, and they have
been in the thick of fighting ever since.
Prove Themselves Brave Near Front.
For places which were not directly ex-
posed to gunfre, or at least were not sup
posed to be, the girl operators were sent
by hundreds Many of them have heard
the roar of artillery and the whir of the
Hun air bombers, but what does an Amer
lean hello girl care for that! Hardly a
day passes, even in piping times of peace,
but that We read of the telephone heroines
They stay at their posts in burning build
ings, they spread the news TO countryside
villages and farms when dams burst and
they serve like good soldiers in perils that
would daunt the stoutest hearts.
While the girl soldiers of the switch
board are waiting for their call on this
side of the Atlantic they are drilled in all
the technique which they will need in
emergency work. Then they are sent to
the environments to work IN central Offices
under military conditions which are much
the same as those which they will find in
France. Up to the time they step aboard
the transports they are going from one
large central Office to another, operating
wherever there are extraordinary Difficult
ties.
They are soldiers just as much as the
men in khaki On the firing line, and they
wear a uniform. Perhaps you have seen
some Of them in the streets just before
they sailed from here. Their skirts and
blouses are Of dark navy blue, their hats,
which are wide brimned and worn ex-
aetly straight, have the orange and white
cord of the Signal Corps, to which they
belong, and their brass buttons are duly
marked for the U. S. A.
On the right sleeve of the operators Of
the first class is a white brassard ON which
is the blue outline design Of telephone
mouthpiece. The supervisor, who has the
rating Of platoon sergeant, wears the
same emblem with wreath around it.
@Top," that is, the chief operator, has q
wreath, transmittter and flashes of blue
lightning shooting around above it. "Top"