Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1907 — THE FARM TELEPHONE. [ARTICLE]

THE FARM TELEPHONE.

An Efficient Time Saver and a Means - of Protection. Many persons who use the telephone have all manner of mistaken Ideas about central and her w-ork. They often say, for instance, that they know better when central tells them the line Is busy or that nobody answers. In fact, however, much the easiest thing for the operator to do is to give you the person called for If she can possibly get him. By the time she has found out that a line Is busy, or that a subscriber does not answer, central’s work is three-quarters done, and it is, simpler to finish the connection whenever she can than turn the switch on your line and report to you, remarks a writer in American Cultivator. When central tells you a person does not answer, it is only after she has made several unsuccessful attempts to get him. Sometimes people forget to ring off when they are through talking, and that might keep a line waiting as apparently busy when it was really not in use. Convenient In Many Ways. Many stories are told of the ways in which the telephone saves money for the farmer, from protecting his crops by giving him the government’s daily weather predictions to protecting his profits by keeping him posted on prices current. When some of the farm machinery breaks down, the damaged part can be replaced in dr day by telephoning a supply house. If there is an accident or sudden illness, a word from the doctor over the wire may save a life which could not wait unaided for him to take a long drive. If fire threatens, the whole countryside is summoned in a few moments. Tramps and marauders notoriously avoid places to which the telephone wires lead.