The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-24

do if she could-she would hear little
but social conversation. Date max
ing makes the telephone load"
nearly as heavy between and
o'clock as it is~between l and 2.
After o'clock the load decreases
little but not until after O'Clock,
after many long after-dinner CONVEX
sations are over, does the demand for
service show a marked decrease. The
load" goes down rapidly after
o'clock until the late night and early
morning hours when calls for doctors,
calls to railroad stations and for taxi
cabs furnish almost the entire traffic.
Complaints of Patrons.
THAT central girl on my line GER
tainly has it in for me-" an observa-
! ton which nearly every telephone Gus
terTer has made at some time in his
telephoning career is nearly always an
unfounded suspicion. For it is pos
sible thru the shifting and relief ar
rangement for centrals at the switch
board that one telephone line may be
answered by five or six central girls
in one day.
why is it you always give me the
wrong number" a question often
asked Indignantly by the patron. Cen
girl who has served at her post few
| minutes before when she says: BEG
your pardon"
No Need to Get Mad.
| When you get impatient for central
to answer you it does no good to jiggle
the telephone hook, according to care
full observations made by a spectator
at the switchboard. When the impa-
| tient one jiggles the hook rapidly to
attract centraPs attention, the little
electric signal which shows her that
service is wanted flashes and goes out
unevenly and she is not certain of
when to plug in your call, and it is
/ Iii .fr-sar inn 1nr- oh hot
ter plan to hang up the receiver and
make new start on your call.
| Operators Are Polite.
! Politeness over telephone wires is
| mostly on centraPs side, according to
| further observations of the spectator
at the switchboard who was allowed
to be an eavesdropper for an hour and
| listen to the Number, please" the Civ
| ing of the number, and the Lines
| busy" Thank you" BEG your par
don" of central but seldom the
| please of the patron. Many pre-
| liminaries to telephone conversations
are like this:
| Number. please"
Indistinct mumbling of number-pa:
iron.
Il do not nderstand"-central.
Repetition of number in thunder
ing tones-patron-
Gentle repetition of number-cen-
YES" in still louder tones-pa-
iron.
Thank you''-sweetly by central.
! Only about one out of ten persons,
it was noted after careful listening, an
swer centraFs repetition of the number
with Yes, please" Yes" or I'm
huh" is the common response of the
| patron, but often central is given no
| assurance that she is heard rightly.
| Frequently the answer of the patron
| is pruff or impatient
Men Lose Tempcrs.
Altho men lose their tempers over
the telephone much quicker than wo-
men, the central girls say that men are
more polite when they receive good
service than are women. Most OF the
| patrons who answer please" to the
repetition of the number are men.
But perhaps if we had men cen
| trails women would say please,
pretty central girl remarked.
| Weather affects the mum Der OF calls
registering on the switchboard, it was
pointed out. Unlike other places of
| business, the telephone office receives
a much greater amount of business on
\ a rainy day than on bright day
Often the day the merchant considers
the dullest may be the busiest of the
week for the telephone office. The
reason, obviously, is that housewives
and business people prefer telephonlne
to moisture.
If there are 100000 calls over the
Topeka switchboard in the average
| twenty-four hours, when nothing an
usual has happened to Topeka, to the
United. States or to the world in gen
eral. kindly imagine how choked were
I the wires on November IL, 1918, wheI
everyone wanted to know ''if peace haC
really been. declared Central girl
had little time to celebrate that day
News Increases Load.
Fires accidents and floods, tn
mysterious blowing of whistles, cleo
| lions, world series baseball and otheI
events that do not occur every day in
crease the load" to an unbelieva b1'
degree.
Troubles. of telephone girls ar,
worth considering. one of the mos
attractive rest rooms in the city i
fitted up for them in the local build
ing. They have enjoyable social gath
erings "on the company. But tn
chief joy of the central girls. it is cas-,
to see. is the cafeteria fitted up T.
serve employees of the company only
where clean, well-cooked food
served at prices that would make mos
any Topekan or fighter of Hy Cos
fall in a faint.
Food at Cost.
Food is served in the Bell cafe
terra at all hours of the day at strictl
cost prices. No profit is allowed t
come from the service. 1t is hard 70
eyes to remain securely in the head
of those who gaze at the menu boar
at the cafeteria. Here are some item
carefully copied from the food pric
list:
Swiss steak Observation-Disclosures .0s
| Mashed potatoes -..............-.. .0f
Strawberries Observation-Disclosures. 10
sandwiches OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. %
| Salads NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. OF
Pie ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. .O5
Q. E. D.: That a whole meal an
more, including strawberries, can b
purchased by telephone girl in tn
telephone employees cafeteria for tn
price of strawberries anywhere else i
Topeka Which may explain why