40 . Mr. John Lee on 



known to be a brute on the telephone. Not that he changes his 

 spots like the leopard, but that the telephone reveals the spots. 

 There is something to be said, therefore, for the Cupid-blind 

 method of making perfect marriages, not in Heaven, but by the 

 telephone. Only those who do it must trust the telephone abso- 

 lutely and, as I have shown, it is not easy. For the average man 

 or woman amongst us the telephone will be an enemy to love- 

 making. It will l•e^■eal that skeleton in the cupboard of our 

 characters which, at any cost, must remain hidden. The tele- 

 phone is the Mother Hubbard who goes to the cupboard and 

 finds not merely a bone but the complete skeleton. 



There is room yet for a vast amount of research on this 

 subject. Not indeed that those of us who have spent years of 

 our lives associated with telephone practice have ignored the 

 subject. But for the true investigation the student will need a 

 considerable knowledge of the mechanics of voice production and 

 of the science of acoustics. Even so, he will be imperfectly 

 equipped unless he has some acquaintance with the modern 

 developments of psychology. For some of the margin of these 

 studies belongs to psychology. You will readily understand now 

 how .strange errors occur in telephone speech. There have been 

 instances where whole phrases have been imagined, to use the 

 popular phrase. It is as if the sub-conscious mind, in building 

 up the material which I have indicated, was sometimes urged 

 forward to operate beyond its proper limits. And other senses 

 come into play. I once knew a telephonist who, whenever she 

 had the task of controlling a certain circuit, always declared that 

 she could smell the chemicals, which were notably allowed to 

 escape in the town at the other end. The remedy was simple. 

 A telephonist who had never been in that town was altogether 

 unaware of the smell. Indeed we have found that the active 

 co-operation of the sub-conscious mind in telephone oi)erating has 

 produced the most curious results. It has not the check which 

 vision places upon it, and in some temperaments has lieen 

 rather inclined to lead to difficulties. But you must remember 



