Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-03-26
PUBLIC TELEPHONES.
WOULD RELIEVE THE MONO
TONY OF FARM LIFE.
What One County In Michigan Has
Done and What the Phones Cost
Any Set of Farmers May Have
Telephone Service.

Telephone Service.
The following communication from
H. X. Smith of Mt. Palatine, ILL.,, is so
suggestive of a means by which the
social life of the farm may be i'm
proved, and at slight expense, that we
give place to it here. 1t is interesting
to note that the farmers of Lenawee
county, Mich, realizing the Importance
of easy communication with their
neighbors, far and near, have adopted
a telegraph system of their own and
there are said to be many skilled
manipulators of the keys in the farm
houses of that progressive county.
The farmer owes it to himself and
his family to take advantage of every
means offered to make life on the farm
more cheerful and stimulating to So
ciability. In this day of competing
telephone systems and cheap wire, with
the constructing force already at hand
among the young men of the farms,
there is no reason why every well edu-
Gated farming community should not
have a system of interchange at once
complete and inexpensive. Mr.. Smith
letter follows:
One of the most potent means or re-
lieving the monotony and the isolation
of life on the inland country farms
is a general telephone system, uniting
the various farm residences and the ad-
joining towns. Good phones, with dry
battery can now be bought for $40, and
the wire is quite cheap when pur-
chased by the quantity, and twenty
foot oak poles for every 100 feet OF
line can be had in the home forests OF
most localities. A phone with mile
of poles and wire can be had for about
SIS.
Magnolia township, Putnam county,
ILL.,, began the use of these telephones
in the spring of 1896. This system has
been added to, until now there is in
operation about 100 miles of wire and
fifty or more phones, thoroughly unit
ing more than one township and two
small and five large towns.
The use of these phones to country
folks is so varied and useful as to be
almost incalculable. First Of all, 1t re-
moves the excuse OF runs to town so
frequently. Stock can be sold and cars
ordered while at home. Farmers can
order the corn shelter and thresher
and all hands without leaving home.
If valuable stock is shipped to him, he
knows the minute it comes, can give
directions concerning it, and get 1t
quickly.
If friend comes to the station, they
notify him at once. If he goes to town
and gets his memoranda mixed, he
communicates with his wife at home
and straightens things out. Or If she
finds she has forgotten something, she
meets him at the store with dispatch
for the additional things. If you ex-
pect to take the train, you telephone
ahead to the agent for exact railroad
time. If a social party is afoot, the
driver can telephone ahead and say he
will be there in ten minutes, and you
are ready to the minute. If surprise
party is projected, notices are tele-
phoned around few hours ahead and
all are there at the minute. If the
weather is unpropitious for gather
ing for any purpose, it is called off at
once by telephone and future date
set. Country clocks and school clocks
are kept in proper time by phone. The
doctor is called quickly and the neigh
bors summoned in the quickest time in
case of sickness or fire. If the weather
is Just right for the ice harvest on a
certain evening or morning, you sum-
mon your cutters and teams and are
at work at once.
There is no end to the short cuts and
conveniences of the country telephone.
If you have no pressing business on
hand and are lonesome, throw open the
line and have a one-half hour of social
chat and fun. Or call for little music,
and all enjoy it. The other day a mes
sage came from all outpost on the line
to send certain man ana MS nandS
out as they had prairie wolf corralled
on a certain farm.
A telephone system in the country is
like tile drainage-once started, all
soon have to drop into the scheme. 1t
works so nicely here that most of the
young people at least can distinguish
the voices of all their neighbors
through the 'phone-no need to ask
"who is it? very long. The lines here
are twenty-five miles apart at the
farthest points.
You have no idea until you try it, Of
the great value and convenience of a
country telephone. Try it.-Farmer's
Voice.