That which is recorded of the telephone girl below is true of great
numbers of both sexes in every walk of life. Patients in hospitals soon
learn that “trained” nurses will never willingly do anything outside
the routine of their directions, which they take mostly from the
bulletin-boards. It is said of some physicians that they would prefer
that their patients should die regularly rather than get well under an
unaccredited practitioner.
A Philadelphia telephone girl refused to make connection with
the Fire Department because the man at the other end of the
line had not the necessary nickel to put in the slot. At the
Earlswood Idiot Asylum, England, we saw several idiots who had
been trained to “self-support under direction,” but they had no
power of self-reliance; indeed, the superintendent informed us
that up to that time there had been quite a number who could
automatically do things after much training, but only three in
the history of the institution (which was then comparatively
young) had been trained to be self-reliant. A reasonable amount
of common sense ought to be required of telephone girls or men.
This girl’s stupid blunder nearly cost a life.
(1620)