Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 120, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1916 — ELLEN WHO DARED [ARTICLE]

ELLEN WHO DARED

By MARY PRIME.

"See here, Tom,” Mr. Plum Bald to me as I was going out to the outer offices, "no more wax dolls on this switchboard. We want someone built lor hard work this time.” I might have reminded him that the wax doll he referred to, that simpering ■Miss Rose we had before, who kept a mirror fastened on the switchboard, was his choice, not mine. I may not be any mind reader, but il could somehow tell that even if Ellen Dowd was only a mite of a girl II just naturally knew that she had it in her, although of course I didn’t dream that she had quite such a nerve. After I had told her the hours and ithe wage and put her wise as much as I could without saying anything ithat I oughtn’t to about the boss, she isaid she would take the Job. “Mr. Plum is a very busy man,” is ithe way I put it. “He’s more than •quick sometimes, and of course it is lup to the people who work for him ito make allowances. You see what I mean ?”

Ellen opened her blue eyes wide and looked at me without smiling. “I imagined he was that kind -of man when I heard his name. Perkins (Plum —could he be anything else?” I didn’t think at the time that it rwas a very fitting answer, but there 'was something about the honest way ishe leveled those eyes at me that made ime feel that she could handle almost any situation. So I told her to come around the next morning and the job would be hers. Plum had caught a glimpse of her going out of the door. 'He was not in one of his best moods, ibut I am used to that. As private secretary, I had always thought it was part of my Job to take his moods •as they came complacently. “You blockhead, you double block' head,” was what he called me. “Didn’t I tell you to get a girl that wasn’t a wax doll? She is only as big as a pint of beans. Why don’t you go to the day nursery and get a babe in arms to manage my switchboard?” I began to sharpen a pencil ready for his dictation. That made it easier not •to answer back, for, of course, it isn’t up to me to say anything when he is In a mood like that. “New, I suppose, you have hired her. •Can’t I trust anyone in this office? You would think you would want to save me and sometimes attend to these details for me. But, no. Just because the girl is pretty, or petite, or flirtatious, you forget all that I told you and tell her to come and take the job. How do you ever expect to get ahead in the business if you can’t even hire a telephone girl with horse sense?”

I went on sharpening the pencil, although I must say I was sore enough at having him_ mention my chance of advancement that way, for only two days before I had got my courage up to the point of asking him Jfor a chance of a better job. Still, I didn't say anything. I had an idea that when the boss saw how the girl would handle things he wouldn’t call her a wax doll. I knew just to look at her that she had It in her, but I never guessed a nerve she had. ——- Well, to begin with, Ellen just minded her business, and the boss seemed to want to make an impression on her. It’s often that way with big men like him —they are as anxious to make a good impression on their telephone operators and office boys as on a possible client. But about two days later the newness wore off and he started out on one of his regular rampages. We are all so used to them that aside from feeling nervous and not being able to get much work done while they last, we don’t really mind them. But Ellen was different. The boss called for three numbers all at once and then started to bawl at her because she didn’t get them all at once. She didn’t even get flustered, although I did notice that she got a little more color in her cheeks. Sometimes new girls got so rattled with Plum that they would cry. And I kndDv Ellen was young and hadn’t worked long, so I kept my eyes on her.

"Why In blazes don’t you get me that number?” yelled the boss through the door, without letting her know which of the three, numbers he wanted first. Well, Ellen got right up and Heft the switchboard and walked over to the boss’ room and went in. She iseemed as cool as a cucumber and I must say she looked pretty. Mad as he was, the boss must have noticed it. "Pardon me, Mr. Plum,” she said as coolly as a society queen.. “It is quite Impossible to get three numbers at once, and we lire only wasting time to <shoyr such impatience. Now if you will please tell me which of the numbers you wish first I will get it as soon as possible.” Well, no one had ever spoken to •the boss that way before. I think I gasped out aloud, I was so surprised. I thought at first he would eat her for jit or send for the patrol wagon for her he was so mad, and then the mad expression seemed to fade away and he llooked just natural. He told her which number he wanted and everything •went as smoothly as you please for ithe rest of the day. Ellen had charge of the office boys—(that was part of her job—and not long jafter that the hose went off on another Itirade. One of his clients had refused fio' rebew fils contract and so Tfe was {taking It out on us. I had never {thought before that it was unfair. Well, that day he had it in for the office boys and they were so scared that they icouldn’t even answer a question without stammering. I know how It was,

for it wasn’t so many years ago thal I was in their shoes. Ellen stood it about as long as she could. And then, with a lot of dignity tucked away in her little person, she walked into his room. “Mr. Plum,” she said—l was taking his dictation at the time, so I heard her—“l wish to make a suggestion. When you Bpeak so abruptly to thooe boys you actually terrify them, with the result that they don't know whether they are telling you the truth or not, and it takes them twice as long to do what you want them to because you don’t take time to tell them. Will you please give me your orders and let me tell them? We would save a great deal of time that way.” What Ellen had said was as plain as the nose on Plum’s face and I guess it had occurred to everyone in the office but Plum loads of times before. -He looked as if he had been hit at first and then he just grumbled something that sounded like “All right,” and when he went back to the dictation hfe wasn’t half so snarly. I forgot to say that I had been going , home with Ellen for a week or so. She lived in the same end of the city and she was such a little mite, I hated to think of her fighting the half-past-five-o'clock crowds alone, so I began to go home with her. And sometimes she asked me to come and see her in the evening—she lived with her old father and married sister and brother, and such a nice, neat little home I had never seen, and one so full of simple happiness. But in office hours we had little to say to each other. That was Ellen’s way—not to let people know all her business at once. i it was one morning when she had been with us about three months and I was beginning to think of her as the most important thing about that office, even if she was only the telephone girl with only a few more dollars a week than the youngest girl. It was one of Plum’s nervous days. He wasn’t exactly raging, but snappy and curt. He was giving dictation at the rate of a couple of hundred words a minute, and I don’t know what got into me when I said, “Pardon me, Mr. Plum,” —just the way Ellen would have said it —“but when you give dictation so fast I am not able to get it complete. We would save time if you gave it a little slower."

Plum stopped short and looked at me in'surprise. I thought for a minute I was going to be fired. Then he said, “Boy, you are too valuable a man to waste in this work. I had thought you were merely a machine. I see you have brains besides. You can start in as office manager tomorrow. I’ll see about the raise.” Later, he called Ellen into his office. I admit that I went in the next room where I could hear through the partition. I got there just in time to hear him say: are the one woman in the world whohaait in her to make me even more of a success than I am. I have decided that I want to marry you.” I surely did almost fall over at that. Naturally my first feeling was one of pride and joy that the girl I had discovered should become Plum’s wife, but just as the little green demon of envy was creeping in I heard her answer: “I am very much honored, Mr. Plum, but I am not free. I am already pledged to another." With that answer humming in my brain I had to go through with the day’s work, and even the note that told me of a substantial raise didh’t much mend matters. Promptly at half past five, I started out with Ellen. I told her I had heard the conversation. “Who is it, Ellen?” I asked impatiently. “I am sure I ought to know.” She laughed delightfully. “Silly, you do know, don’t you? You hadn’t actually asked me, but I thought you knew as well as I that you are Mr. Plum’s only successful rival.” (Copyright, 1916, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)