Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1903-10-28
BENEFITS OF THE PHONE.
It Saves the Rancher Many Long and
UNNECESSARY Trips 70 Town.

S''SSSSSe '''bS W TWIN
1t is estimated that during the last
five years telephones have been put
into nearly half a million rural homes.
The farmer finds that with the tcle-
phone he can keep in touch with the
market, selling his produce or live
stock when quotations are the most
favorable.
BY sparing himself and his help
useless trips back and forth for the
purpose of delivering his products. or
of ascertaining the status of the mar
ket, he now saves a vast amount of
time in the course of a year. When
he is assured by information over the
telephone that he can sell to advan-
tage he loads up his wagon, and not
till then.
As illustrating the advantage OF
keeping in telephone touch with the
market. an incident in last years
is related. A prospective rise In the
market was preceded by great activity
on the part of the brokers.
Phone Shapes Broom Corn Market.
Buyers from the outside began To
clean up the broom corn at $50 a ton,
when a telephone manager called mp
the farmers on his system and told
them the market was rapidly rising.
The result was that before the season
ended they got $2i0 a ton for their
crop. One farmer reports that In ad.
dition to getting nearly double the us.
ual work out of his teams, through
their being saved futile trips to mar
ket. he has been enabled to do away
with the hire of two men, as he could
spend more time on his farm and ave
the diminished output of the hands
at work in his absence.
Another farmer saved all his build
ings h. being able TO summon hell
quickly from a nearby town and also
from his n%eighbors when a fire start
ted. Still another, by getting a ply
only son, when the delay Of half an
hour would have been fatal. says tho
Chicago Tribune.
Help the Country Doctor.
Ii is now a common practice for the
country doctor to give directions by
telephone for caring for the patient
both diagnosing and prescribing. In
Illinois the speeches OF a recent pOlit
ical convention were listened to by
farmers on a rural system as they sal
in their homes from fifteen to thirty
miles away. Being In speaking dis
lance of his neighbor, not only does
the farmer feel a new sense OF per
sOnal security, but he knows that his
belongings are safer from molesiati0r
than they ever were before.
The telephone has been instrumcn
tal in causing the arrest OF many
horse thieves and outlaws, and IN
some districts the farmers have al
most broken up chicken stealing and
petty larceny by rerephOning the po
lice and commission merchants oI
their losses. and thus enabling prOmp.
arrests 10 be made.
The women and children come II
for their share OF the benefits Of thu
telephone. During the dreary winter
nights they a gossip with thcil
reighbOfs. and they no longer live il
dread when the men are away.
The tramp Is chary Of perlOrmin;
his professional stunts when he find!
a telephone wire running into thu
house. for he realizes that If necessar!
the whole neighborhood can be Gale,
in "A few minutes.
often Put to Strange Uses.
That some women have ingeniou.
ideas OF their own az 10 the purpOs,
OF the telephone is evident from tn,
stories that crop up from time to tint
of the experiences OF the inspectors
One OF these Officers relates that on
OF his linemen went into a house Il
inspect the telephone on a rural lin
in Adams county, III. Seated in
rocking chair. contentedly ~occupIe,
with her knitting, was the wife OF IN,
subscriber 10 the system.
Al first sight the linemen though
she was wearing a novel kind of head