THE TRIALS OF MISS WALKER

As I dipped into my bag of memories recently, I recalled a tale that might give you an inkling of what it was like to be a fair maid just entering the workaday telephone world of the late 1800's.

Our story begins in 1879 at the telephone office located on the second floor of Tom Murray's Saloon in Springfield, Illinois. Our maiden, a thin skinned girl of seventeen, had just been hired to replace Angus, a quarrelsome young male operator. Angus had been sacked for offering to settle a dispute with a subscriber "out back in the alley."

Her first assignment consisted of watching the not-too-bright manager take and make several calls at the switchboard. He also explained the bookkeeping which consisted of recording the calls by the name of the caller and the date on a piece of scratch paper. The schooling took all of ten minutes and at the conclusion Mister Manager notified her that he would be out all day, every day, as he had to set the poles, string wire, install the phones, collect the bills, answer trouble complaints, care for the company horse and wagon, etc. He was a very busy man and expected her to cope with whatever came along. Some things he neglected to tell her were her wages, hours of work and (later to prove the most stressing) the location of the ladies' "facilities" and how one uses them while attending to the needs of the switchboard.

After such a trying beginning, it might be assumed our girl was in for a time of it. The day, however, went well...that is, until 5:00 p.m. when Murray's Saloon, downstairs, opened for business. She quickly discovered that the floor was nearly as thin as her skin and she observed she could hear every work spoken by the revelers below. Having, during the day, been informed she was to close up shop at 6:00 p.m., she managed to survive the one hour of assaults to her gentility with but a few red-faced moments.

On the following Saturday, however, the saloon doors opened at 9:00 a.m. Our "delicate flower" had to put up with a full day of bawdy laughter and foul words. She bore these indignities partly because she didn't understand much of what was said and partly because she didn't dare complain...being the only female in town with a regular paying job!

Later in the day as the boys were gathering up steam below, she heard a comment too personal to endure. You see, the fledgling operator was named Ima Walker, and Angus, the fired operator who knew she could probably hear his every work, suggested to his companions that her middle name was "Street."

Being of genteel disposition she just couldn't cope with this affront, so she rang up her widowed mother. After hearing of poor Ima's embarrassment, her mother picked up her skirts plus a heavy cane and made a beeline for the saloon. She was hardly through the swinging door before she began swinging. If it was attention she wanted, it was attention she got after smashing every glass and bottle on the bar plus a few fingers that proved reluctant to let go of their booze. She made it plain she intended to deliver a thrashing to the man who had sullied her precious darling's name if he would but come forth. Needless to say she got no takers and there was a noticeable shortage of patrons before she wore out.

Hearing the uproar below and fearing her mother was being harmed, Ima hastened to ring up the town Constable, who, upon surveying the devastation in Murray's, promptly deposited Mother in the hoosegow.

Upon hearing the events in the saloon and of Miss Walker's role, our manager friend fired the poor maiden and replaced her with an older woman who had suffered a less protected upbringing. Later in Murray's, the manager was heard to complain about "all the lost time I suffered training that girl. But that's what I get for hiring a girl to do a man's job."

MA

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