The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1899-01-13
THE LION AND THE FOX.
Not Until the Millennium viii the Citizens
and the Bell Lie Down Together.

AMI Co-As
Not Until the Millennium win the Citizens
and the Bell Lie Down Together.
"The Citizens Telephone Co., is
practically dead" was the newsy
remark recently made by an EN-
ploye of the Cumberland Tele-
phone Company, who also "otfered ~
to bet $50 that the BELL" would
soon toll the Citizens funeral dirge
and Leland II. lessee be invited to
compose an epitaph. 0! M0reS! O!
Temporal! That we citizens should
be 50 cruelty Matted.
1t has been our observation in
days happily past, that the BELL"
was a great old toller. Time was
when their seventy little wires
seemed instinct with suction power
and sucked with octopus deXterity
the reservoir in our neither garm ents
where abided perchance "a little free
silver.
The wish to see our corpse is doubt
less father to the faith that scents
it afar off.
But, the top of the morning to you
right hearty ourselves THANK you.
Were it otherwise We should die of
modification, having several mid
ding good doctors who find it salts
fying to their souls to occasionally
drop US hint touching the laws
upon which health aud longevity
depend.
TO the friends of the Citizens Tele-
phone Company: Permit me to say
that we are in a most tiourishing
condition. Our liabilities are moth
ing, our surplus little more, and
our stock a most sturdy growing sys-
tenn of telephone poles upon which
you may graft your wires aG pleas
ure.
Our system which terminated in
the filthy greed of our rival, and fer
tilted by its dirty competition, IS
now growing to proportions highly
gratifying to its most sanguine pro
moters. Let us compare the status
of telephony in Maury County be-
fore and after the Citizens Company
came into existence.
When the Bell had the field alone
Columbia merchants paid SOL per
year for a telephone in their stores.
Paying this sum, however, was like
paying an entrance fee to the
''Streets of Cairo" where il you
wanted to see 1.-The Most Beautiful
Woman On Earth" you had to pay
again. Likewise, having paid SOL
for a telephone, if you desired to
speak to some beautiful girl in the
country or to her father who pays
the bills, it required a quarter to ap
pease the gaping NAV of greed ere
YOUR voice could pass on to the Ely
sian Fields where the farmer sings
solos to the meek and lowly mule,
and the most beautiful plays frill5
on the washboard.
have heard trustworthy mer.
chants assert that they had paid al
most or quite as much per year for
toll service in the county as their
yearly box Rental.
A conservative estimate would put
the annual cost of telephone to a
business house and the added county
toll service, at not much If any less
than 1854 rental X $40 tOll) $74. That,
too, was when there were compare
lively few county points connected
| What would it cost, with al
most every point of Importance in
the county connected, If we were
Obliged to pay toll each time it was
desirable to call up country sta
ton? 1t would be difficult to esti.
mate. A first rate business house
would pay out not much less than
500 or 1925 for the privilege of tOwr
and county service. All this we gel
from the Citizens Company for $l2
To the farming community stats
tics cannot make the greater econ
omy and convenience of the Citi
zens' Company clearer than the fac
that the Citizens Company made /
possible for it to have telephones a
all. Previously to the birth of tn,
Citizens Company the Bell Com
pany required country communities
to put up as much In money, or ma
terial, as does the Citizens, and thel
demanded from SO near town to s
per month ten miles out, with tn,
precious privilege added of payinJ
extra about every other time on
wanted to talk.
Now as to the practicability o
peFpeGudlluS systehi "neIe VI
only charge is 81 per month. Tn
writer of this has studied somewha
the economics of our Citizens
system.
With other promoters it was hi
conception that if we could star
with 250 subscribers we could Tu
u or 10 years without increasing on
list; $3.50 per month paying all ordi
nary expenses. But, we are asked
what Will you do when your pole
rot? Our answer is, we started on