THE "HELLO" GIRL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 895, 15 August 1910, Page 8

THE "HELLO" GIRL.

: SECURES DR..BELL'S SUPPORT..' . NO MORE RED-HOT WIRES. .The seventy winters! which'have pas'sed over Dr. Graham Bell's head: have crowned it with snow-white locks, .and when he/speaks one is. ready to. believe that he possesses the accumulated wisdom of. conluriM.. Certainly, his great mind has shown its forte to be invention. Even now' he is exercising his special faoultics upon a wonderful flying ma ; ohiue, also something 'in the "wireless" line. But few people realise what he has already given to the world as a result of his genius. For hot.only did-ho invent that fear!nl .and wonderful.machine called, a telephone, but he also discovered \that more exciting and • nerve-racking pieco of the. "Hello" :giii. ~ . Ho liiinself acknowledged the fact in Sydnoy -recently when speaking, am he thought,. exclusively to a deputation of the telephone girls in the Central' Exchange. With the subtle wisdom .of his years he flattered Ihem so highly that, in future his name -will occupy a heartniche with all of them. ■ ' •'•.

"When the telephone was.ifiTst.,- startedin America," ho said, ."we employed men as attendants. It seemed to us that anything to do with eiectricity was man's sphere. But very soon wo got into serious trouble.-.There' were so many coinplaints about inefficient'service and incivility. You see, the, young/men were given to answering, back.' '• So I induced .my company, tho . Bell. ■ Telephone Company, of New York, to-put on a few girls as telephone attendants—-just when tho, wires had become. nearly red , hot. Very soon we found that there wore not so many complaints froni the wires, served by .the"' young /women; as those of the young' men, although there .was just as much reason for complaint. The,fact was that the male subscribers did not like to get/the young women hauled over •ho coals. Also the ianguage that passed over, the wires was .very-, much modified. The Americans are ivory" courteous.- to vomen. So, ultimately,. the . men were turned/out, and young; women took their places as telephone attendants. This furnished ' women with a new occupation at a time when their sphere of employment was. very restricted. And now it is. recognised that the telephone work is peculiarly suited to women. And what . a : change .the telephone girl;has' wrought?. Thero v i 3 no doubt that the general cour-/ tesy with which a man / addresses the telephone girl has'had the effect of raising the. tone of, the community. • The , wires aro no longer red hot."