The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 20, 1899, Page 29

UNDAY CALL: THE S 29 By Marian &est. Scene From “Clover,” the New Comic Opera at t e Grand Opera-House. the sort who would wee at Caliban “Peh replied ~ Alice; “I'm_on to them. Some one's been taiking about m. That's one of the company’s spies, 1'll be: mg hal I know I seen him some- wher The next afternoon I went down to the office to aek to be put on the day force, for I could not stand the night work. I was told if I couldn’t stand the wo! there were others who could. One of the girls_tn the lunch room suggested that I see Miss Sheridan. Miss Sheridan ie a “real lady,” quoth my informant, who evi- dently thought otherwise of the ladles officially ed chief operators. Mise Bheridan, traffic manager, is one of the most charming women 1 have ever met. She is loved and respected by all the telephone girls. A woman, tall and stately. in a positio: that bespeaks at least thirty-five vears. she looks scarcels twenty-five. A sweet and rare sympathy cling word and ac In_ diverse ratlo lked, so is Miss Kernedy not during my ersonal encounter Kenned saw her once 0 must con- fess that 1 was d her, 1t is nedy’s duty sten over the Miss Ke 3 . If she wills she car very operator. She immediately reports the slightest infraction of the rules on the part of the operators. Nine out of ten onerators los t ositions through Miss Kennedy's report. The doors of the telephone company are forever bolted and barred to a dismissed operator. Tt is unfortunate bu the cémoany use the hear any or ssary that 2" method. wpevience as a CTelep Y here is no me At 11:30 the matron woke me from a .l sleep and I reported to the local rocm to whfl‘h 1 had been changed. ere there were new and different detalls to be learned. The room was much larger n that of ‘‘Sunset” with more than twice as many operators. One long table was devoted to the *‘800"—& dozen girls, and the chief 800" a pink-cheeked golden-haired maiden. I worked untii Sunday night. I now felt partly initiated ahd thoroughly un- derstood the workings, though I manipu- lated clumsily. hours, nine (n all, were from 11:30 until 8:30. On Sunday ght I told them that I would not re- b}: actual experience that one can realize the health-breaking work of the telephone girl. I should never have believed it without going through it my- a day passes that some s not faint-at her work. telephone system requires pecullar labor. Mr. Sabin requires 1t is on! iffer nine hours of it. The telephone system cannot be changed But Mr. Sabin can reduce the number of hours and put the telephone office on a plan ahove the sweat-shop. As long as there iris in the world who have to work Mr. Sabin will find no difficulty filling the positions, though he incre the hours to ten. A telephone girl should not be made to work _over seven ho y includ tue thirty minutes is would necessitate an additlonal force of operators at $20 a month. Perhaps it would be worth while. Then if a telephone girl committted sulcide Mr. Sabin could plead not guilty at the bar of her soul. ed %o 1an girls. Nor jnfluenced- t T simply want to show that T did not drink carbolic acid because some telephone girl swallowed poison. “As for the reasons why I did attempt to end my life, I really don’t know just exactly why I did it. People seem to have at last realized that the telephone girl is about as sinned against as sin- ning. “They ask me whether I blame the telephone company for the rash act. Of course 1 don’t blame the telephone com- pany directly, but I think that my work in the teléphone office was the indirect cause. “If T hadn’t been all unstrung from my work I'm sure 1 should not have tried to do anything so foc Telephone work is a terrible stra{n. It makes your n go ting-a-lin been particu finement and phone office lephone girl lives in constant dread of losing her position. She never knows trom one day until the next whether her name will be on the b ard that announces dismissals. You just as though you were living feel with a sword hanging over yvour head ready to fall and chop it off at any moment. “The hours are very long and you never SWALLOWED THE PoI§ hone Operator < the First why She mmit Suigide. If you work $ %t boar for girls to work fuse. They pay them they ask e they can't re 10 cents an hot rather do without very much put out such chances of wished to give me she gave me to my position. I useless to try he strongest {nfl to bear they never take 3 operator. er wer understand t knew that it woul get it back, for unless ence is tired of it Over and over ag: ing beyond measure “She asked me all sorts of questions about the poison. I never for a moment thought she had & reason. 1 remember she sald to me just before going: ‘So you're sorry that you did it, Edith?" I told her never, never to think of suicide. She sald good-by very sadly, but I thought it was pity for my sufferings. “The next morning I saw the morning paper on a chair across the room. ‘An- other telephone girl empts sulclde’ stood out in black lines. You can imagine my horror when I read that it was Miss Griffiths. “She must have thought of it before com- ing to see me, but the sight of all my agony and all my regrets over the rash act falled to shake her purpose. They saved her life, too, and I heard from Chicago, where kind friends sent her, that she too thinks 1f th living now. “For two mon eath in life. i me 1 was ain providing only Tibly experien ant T very likely to at not a few of e i suicide. As 1 said before the tele company can't be blamed directly girls - develop melancholia. “But I hope that no more of them wil seek death. The polson cup s very tempt- ing at the rim, but when you get down to the dregs and it's too late life seems more tempting.”