eek, and then provides her with a job when
she graduates. But it demands that every girl shall be in good health,
quick-handed, clear-voiced, and with a certain poise and alertness of
manner. Presence of mind, which, in Herbert Spencer's opinion, ought
to be taught in every university, is in various ways drilled into the
temperament of the telephone girl. She is also taught the knack of
concentration, so that she may carry the switchboard situation in her
head, as a chess-player carries in his head the arrangement of the
chess-men. And she is much more welcome at this strange school if she
is young and has never worked in other trades, where less speed and
vigilance are required.

No matter how many millions of dollars may be spent upon cables and
switchboards, the quality of telephone service depends upon the girl at
the exchange end of the wire. It is she who meets the public at every
point. She is the despatcher of all the talk trains; she is the ruler
of the wire highways; and she is expected to give every passenger-voice
an instantaneous express to its destination. More is demanded from her
than from any other servant of the public. Her clients refuse to stand
in line and quietly wait their turn, as they are quite willing to do in
stores and theatres and barber shops and railway stations and everywhere
else. They do not see her at work and they do not know what her work is.
They do not notice that she answers a call in an average time of three
and a half seconds. They are in a hurry, or they would not be at the
telephone; and each second is a minute long. Any delay is a direct
personal affront that makes a vivid impression upon their minds. And
they are not apt to remember that most of the delays and blunders are
being made, not by the expert girls, but by the careless people who
persist in calling wrong numbers and in ignoring the niceties of
telephone etiquette.

The truth about the American telephone girl is that she has become so
highly efficient that we now expect her to be a paragon of perfection.
To give the young lady her due, we must acknowledge that she has done
more than any other person to introduce courtesy into the business
world. She has done most to abolish the old-time roughness and
vulgarity. She has made big business to run more smoothly than little
business did, half a century ago. She has shown us how to take the
friction out of conversation, and taught us refinements of politeness
which were