The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-02-21
Connecticut A
 1 alkative State

| This state is one of the greates
 little conversational centers in thes | great and glorious United States. Tha | statement is made to contradict tn, | British critic of American manner. | and customs who recently said tha | Connecticut folks are reserved, taci | turn, dull conversationalists. He wa. all wrong, and the annual report of tEe
 Southern New England Telephon> 1 Company, just received, proves it. For instance, there were 274, 4,S29,00t | telephones conversations, including | toll calls, in Connecticut during 1922 which, as flippant person might say, | is some talk via the telephone. Ger tainly these figures fail to support the | thought that Connecticut is a re- served. vocally suppressed common wealth.
 The telephones in this state were used, on the average, 753,0OO times daily in 1921. No indication there of vocal trouble in our merry midst. Reducing our conversational powers to more simple figures let us say that there were 31,375 telephonic conver- sattons every hour, or 523 converse tions every minute in every hour of every day in the year 1921. On the basis of these figures Nutmeg folks talk night and day at the same rate, but are known to the cautious in what they say in their sleep.
 The number of telephone converse t1ons mentioned is, please bear in
 
 traffic counts made by the telephone company.
 The company has also figured the average length of time of a telephone conversation. It is 76 seconds, on a local can with which the following statements will deal.
 By test it has been shown that two normal male persons will use 135 words in 3S seconds. The number of words a woman might use in the same z Of ha
 There were, to repeat, 274,S29, 900 telephone conversations in Connecti- cut last year and with 1855 words spoken in the average IS second con- verSation, there were no less than 57, 101,7S0,0 900 words sent speeding on their coppery telephonic way in our state in one year. Which refutes the statement that Connecticut folks use their words sparSe1y and with care, as if they were hard to get and of some value.
 Some of the millions. of telephone calls were not answered, you say? Surely. But the number not answered is so small as to be negligible and try ing to figure them into this account of Connecticut's conversational abilities would make this story prolix and a bit involved.
 Telephone records show, too, that the average lapse of time between the lifting of a receiver and the Number, please" of the operator, is five sec- oEds. Anyone is at liberty to make his own test as to the accuracy of this statement on any 20 or 25 calls.
 To answer 753, ,0OO calls day, with in five seconds after each call is sig nailed. indicates that telephone opera tors have no time while on the job to crochet or read novels. Answer. And as for that old wheeze about chew ing gum, why gum is absolutely bar red.
 If telephone operators listened in," yxbi ioh baI ha the inclination to do, the billions of words that would whack against their ear drums would land them in an asy- lur1 in less than two weeks.
 Instead of being subjects for the ward they are sharp-wit- ted, versatile resourceful young wO- men, working hard every day and giv- ing service of ines 9mable value to the community at large, and giving it cheerfully and politely, despite the fact that they are the defenseless marks for the fiery tempers of some ill-natured men and women.