Our Collection

At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Blackwell, Alice Stone (1857-1950) to Judith W. Smith

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06975.08 Author/Creator: Blackwell, Alice Stone (1857-1950) Place Written: s.l. Type: Postcard Date: 1908-1919 Pagination: 2 p. ; 8.9 x 13.9 cm. Order a Copy

The front of this postcard is an image and a poem about the Telephone Girls of Springfield, the poem is entitled "Think What You Owe "The Telephone Girl"". On the back is a poem by Blackwell also about the telephone girl.

[Draft Created by Crowdsourcing]
THINK WHAT YOU OWE "THE TELEPHONE GIRL."

The telephone girl sits still in her chair
And listens to voices from everywhere,
She hears all the gossip, she hears all the news,
She knows who is happy, and who has the blues:
She knows all our sorrows, she knows all our joys;
She knows every girl who is chasing the boys;
She knows of our troubles, she knows of our strife,
She knows every man who is mean to his wife;
She knows every time we are out with the boys,
She hears the excuses each fellow employs;
She knows every woman that has a dark past,
She knows every man that is inclined to be fast;
In fact there's a secret 'neath each saucy curl
Of that quiet, demure looking telephone girl.

If the telephone girls would tell all she knows
It would turn half our friends into bitterest foes;
She'd sow a small wind that would soon be a gale,
And engulf us in trouble and land us in jail,
She would let go a story (which gaining in force)
Would cause half our wives to sue for divorce;
She would get all the churches mixed up in a fight
And turn all our days into sorrowing nights,
In fact, she would keep all the world in a stew,
If she told a tenth part of the things she knew.

Now doesn't it set your head in a whirl
When you think what you owe the telephone girl?

SPRINGFIELD has 16,000 telephones and 225 direct toll lines to 40 cities and towns. 100,000 calls are made daily through the central switchboard on which are 15,000 tiny electric lights. There are 350 local employees, and 30,000 miles of wire in the city. A Million Dollars is invested in buildings and equipment. We are at the top in per capita use of "Hello."

[2]
The telephone girls are exceedingly
wise;
All the sins of the world are
revealed to their eyes.
If they knew all about Mrs. Smith-
yes, and said it-
No word they could speak that
would do her discredit!

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