Then she got angry again because "Central" had not "given her a better connection," and finally came away from the telephone nearly in a state of nervous collapse and insisted that the telephone would finally end her life.

I do not think she once suspected that the whole state of fatigue which had almost brought an illness upon her was absolutely and entirely her own fault.
The telephone has no more to do with it than the floor has to do with a child's falling and bumping his head.
The worst of this story is that if any one had told this woman that her tired state was all unnecessary, it would have roused more strain and anger, more fatigue, and more consequent illness.
Women must begin to find out their own deficiencies before they are ready to accept suggestions which can lead to greater freedom and more common sense.
Another place where science and inhuman humanity do not blend is in the angry moving up and down of the telephone hook.
When the hook is moved quickly and without pause it does not give time for the light before the telephone girl to flash, therefore she cannot be reminded that any one is waiting at the other end.
When the hook is removed with even regularity and a quiet pause between each motion then she can see the light and accelerate her action in getting "the other party." I have seen a man get so impatient at not having an immediate answer that he rattled the hook up and down so fast and so vehemently as to nearly break it.

There is something tremendously funny about this.

The man is in a great hurry to speak to some one at the other end of the telephone, and yet he takes every means to prevent the operator from knowing what he wants by rattling his hook.

In addition to this his angry movement of the hook is fast tending to break the telephone, so that he cannot use it at all.