AT THE TELEPHONE

Shannon News, 16 March 1926, Page 4

AT THE TELEPHONE

WOMEN TAKES LONGER THAN 'MAN. A British, Post Office official, asked by a reporter to state the estimated annual loss of revenue caused to the telephone department by garrulous women who use public telephone callboxes, said; There are 20,000 public call offices in Great Britain, and if each of them is used by only three persons daily for more than the three minutes allowed for the 2d. fee the loss is about £IBO,OOO. How great the exact loss is cannot be calculated, because many people seem to think that 2d entitles them to a lease of the cabinet for the best part of the day.”

Fifteen minutes’ observation of the call-boxes at any post office is sufficient to show that women have not the capacity or the willingness of men to condense a telephone talk, and that they take full advantage of the inability of the post office to check the duration of their _ calls. While a. man usually arranges a luncheon appointment in three or four sentences, a woman generally seems to. require thirty or forty, and finds the fortunes and fashions of her friends an essential part of the conversation. \ In her preliminaries to raising the receiver a woman also wastes time. One who entered a cabinet at Waterloo Station ,on a recent Saturday spent lmin. 12sec. before making her call in— Examining the door to make certain it was closed. Removing her gloves. Opening a handbag , and glancing at her face in its mirror. Searching, a memorandum book for tiie number she, wanted. Taking a purse from Uhe bag and extracting the necessary 2d. Replacing, the purse. Consulting the memorandum book again. Closing the handbag and putting on her glovese. Her conversation lasted 11 -minutes, but she was not asked once to renew the call; and although a notice on the wall of the cabinet intimated that the occupancy of the box was limited to six minutes she did not even smile, an apology to those who had ;to wait until she was finished.

Among many correspondents who; have written to the “Daily Mail’’ on the subject of telephone gossip there is only one apologist ,for the women. Mr James .Ward,, East Finchley, says: "This apparently frivolous conversation may cover a’ diplomacy in feminine affairs quite as vital to women as, are business dealings to men.” Another, correspondent suggests that the Post Office should provide special telephone cabinets for women, so that they may tty only each other’s tempers.