A Telephonic Conversation
Consider that a conversation by telephone--when you are simply siting by and not taking
any part in that conversation--is one of the solemnest curiosities of modern life.
Yesterday I was writing a deep article on a sublime philosophical subject while such a
conversation was going on in the room. I notice that one can always write best when
somebody is talking through a telephone close by. Well, the thing began in this way. A
member of our household came in and asked me to have our house put into
communication with Mr. Bagley's downtown. I have observed, in many cities, that the
sex always shrink from calling up the central office themselves. I don't know why, but
they do. So I touched the bell, and this talk ensued:
CENTRAL OFFICE. (GRUFFY.) Hello!
I. Is it the Central Office?
C. O. Of course it is. What do you want?
I. Will you switch me on to the Bagleys, please?
C. O. All right. Just keep your ear to the telephone.
Then I heard K-LOOK, K-LOOK, K'LOOK--KLOOK-KLOOK-KLOOK-LOOK-
LOOK! then a horrible "gritting" of teeth, and finally a piping female voice: Y-e-s?
(RISING INFLECTION.) Did you wish to speak to me?
Without answering, I handed the telephone to the applicant, and sat down. Then followed
that queerest of all the queer things in this world-- a conversation with only one end of it.
You hear questions asked; you don't hear the answer. You hear invitations given; you
hear no thanks in return. You have listening pauses of dead silence, followed by
apparently irrelevant and unjustifiable exclamations of glad surprise or sorrow or dismay.
You can't make head or tail of the talk, because you never hear anything that the person at
the other end of the wire says. Well, I heard the following remarkable series of
observations, all from the one tongue, and all shouted-- for you can't ever persuade the
sex to speak gently into a telephone:
