Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-11-03
FARM PHONES FOR So A YEAR.
Success of Novel System Adopted In
Central Michiqan.

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Success of Novel System Adopted In
Central Michigan.
Farmers of Central Michigan have a
telephone system which costs 50 year
1t is not a barn to house makeshift, nor
even a barbed wire fence telephone, but
legitimate incorporated octopus. A
central Michigan farmer standing IN
his parlor can talk to New York CITY,
Canada or Mexico.
The phone originated two years ago
in a single line of wire five miles long
It was a private wire between Horton,
Mich, and the residence Of E. M.
Crum. says the New York Herald.
This line started a telephone craze.
Telephone meetings were held at dlf-
ferent houses and lasted far into the
night Men, women and wagon loads
of children attended them. The men
spoke of talking direct to the market OF
Detroit and Chicago; women told OF
sickness when a quick message to the
doctor might have saved life. Old
men who had not spoken in public for
twenty years, told what telephone
would have done in the hard winter
before the war;
Capitalized telephone companies were
organized to build telephone lines. each
company included about dozen fami-
lies, whose members were officers, the
board Of directors, corporation presi-
dents and subscribers all In one. They
divided the distance between their re-
spective homes according to poles,
which each stockholder grubbed out of
his own woods in an assigned quanti-
ty. They bought wire and telephones
and set the young mechanical geniuses
who were bent on making "fyin' ma
chimes" at something useful.
The entire cost Of the lines averaged
but s26 apiece to the stockholders.
This price equals the yearly rent for a
city telephone of the cheapest sort, a
So o-called party line, which has several
families on the same line.
A ring on one telephone being heard
in every house on the line, the farmers
invented a Morse telegraph code of tel
ephone rings. Each family was given
its own distinguishing combination OF
long and short rings. OF course any
one could listen to his neighbor's con-
versation; in fact, the yearly fee In
cludes all the neighborhood gossip
without extra expense. But good Will
prevented serious quarrels.
Experience proved every stockholder
to be in the same boat. Each one made
mistakes-each one was in the position
of the absent minded minister who
mistook a ring for the saloon keeper as
his own, and received an order from
the deacon for a keg Of beer. Some
companies were family lines, includ-
ing only blood relations-fathers,
grandfathers and great grandfathers.
The second step in the telephone sys-
TEN was when switchboards connect
ing half a dozen companies were In
stalled in the country mills, and the
mills were connected with each other.
At present, near Jackson, this consoli-
dated farmers telephone covers forty
square miles and includes 100 families.
Several switches connect with the Bell
and Long distance state phones. For
the price Of ten cents a farmer stand
ing in his own house can talk to city
broker.
The SO a year rent Is the miller's foe
for acting as telephone girl. Even at
this low rate switchboard Is one OF
the best paying investments in the mill
It occupies the same place In the mil
ler's business as his family truck gar
den, and is more profitable. His wife
and children help tend the phone. just
as they formerly helped pull weeds and
bug" potatoes. Furthermore, the tel
ephone is more congenial work, since
the miller's wife and children can learn
more in ten minutes at the telephone
than in a weeks contemplation Of po-
tato bugs.
At present the farmers telephone is
undergoing a third step Of transforma-
tion-a reduction in the number of the
houses on line and an increase in the
switches at the mills.
The largest central Is at Liberty,
Mich. where nine lines converge at the
mill. and where the business of the
town has been remodelled to fit the
new tangled telephone. The general
store, owned by a former Methodist
minister, now takes its orders almost
exclusively over the phone and deltV-
ers them according to the line OH which
| the order was given, each line having
it's own particular day of the week for
delivery of it's own orders.
Other prosperous lines are the SOM
erset Center, Cement City and Choate
companies. The last two have metallic
circuits. the kind of telephone which
rents in the city for s53.33. The stock
holders in place of profits receive spec
| ial privileges, none but a stockholder,
| for instance being allowed to put on
an extra phone without asking permis-
sion Outsiders usually pay fee of
SIS for joining company, though they
sometimes enter free, except for buy
| ing telephone.
The farmers telephone, while still
imperfect, has become a necessity in
Central Michigan. Farmers use 1t to
transact their business. 1t keeps them
posted on daily fluctuations In prices.
Buyers no longer travel about among
farmers, but purchase stock and pro-
duce over the telephone.
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