telephone has no more to do with it than the floor has to do with a
child's falling and bumping his head.

The worst of this story is that if any one had told this woman that her
tired state was all unnecessary, it would have roused more strain and
anger, more fatigue, and more consequent illness.

Women must begin to find out their own deficiencies before they are
ready to accept suggestions which can lead to greater freedom and more
common sense.

Another place where science and inhuman humanity do not blend is in the
angry moving up and down of the telephone hook.

When the hook is moved quickly and without pause it does not give time
for the light before the telephone girl to flash, therefore she cannot
be reminded that any one is waiting at the other end.

When the hook is removed with even regularity and a quiet pause between
each motion then she can see the light and accelerate her action in
getting "the other party."

I have seen a man get so impatient at not having an immediate answer
that he rattled the hook up and down so fast and so vehemently as to
nearly break it. There is something tremendously funny about this. The
man is in a great hurry to speak to some one at the other end of the
telephone, and yet he takes every means to prevent the operator from
knowing what he wants by rattling his hook. In addition to this his
angry movement of the hook is fast tending to break the telephone, so
that he cannot use it at all. So do we interfere with gaining what we
need by wanting it overmuch!

I do not know that there has yet been formed a telephone etiquette; but
for the use of those who are not well bred by habit it would be useful
to put such laws on the first page of the telephone book. A lack of
consideration for others is often too evident in telephonic
communication.

A woman will ask her maid to get the number of a friend's house for her
and ask the friend to come to the telephone, and then keep her friend
waiting while she has time to be called by the maid and to come to the
telephone herself. This method of wasting other people's time is not
confined to women alone. Men are equal offenders, and often greater
ones, for the man at the other end is apt to be more immediately busy
than a woman under such circumstances.

To sum up: The telephone may be the means of increasing our
consideration for others; our quiet, decisive way of getting good
service; our patience, and, through the low voice plac