The Opelousas courier., 1904-02-13

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telephone patents in this country, has
had many striking developments, bui
none more remarkable than those
which have given every farmer in the
land the chance to rig up a telephone
and thus put himself in direct touch
with the outer world. The ubiquitous
trolley, running out into the rural
regions from the nearest urban centres
has done much to change the eondi
tions of rural and agricultural life; but
aver and above all, the telephone is
proving the fundamentally Of what
is, as a matter of fact, a new ciViiza'
ton.
Only those who have travelled 81
late through the rural parts of the
great Middle States and those in the
Northwest can have the remetest idea
OF the manne in which, finding the
telephone available and cheap, the
farmer has seized upon it with avidity;
and connected himself up with seme
cooperative system in his own neigh
borhood or again, with holder effort.
has pushed out and Joined his own
line with the network Of some adj
joining village. The cooperative prin'
cipal has in this way received a new
and striking exemplifcation while the
economic outcomes, even at this early
stage, are SO wide reaching that it
is hard to determine just where the
effects of this change will stop.
It is estimated that during the last
five years telephones have been put
into nearly half q million rural homes,
The farmer finds that with the tele-
phone he can keep in touch with the
market, selling his produce OR live
stock when quotations are most favor
able,
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 market,
he now saves q vast amount of time
in the course OF a year. When he is
assured by information over the tele-
phone that he can sell to an advantage
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 trans
actions in broom corn in Illinois is re-
lated. A prospective rise in the
market was preceded by great actiyi-
ty on the part Of the brokers.
Buyers from the outside began to
clean up the broom corn at $50 a ton,
when a telephone manager called up
the farmers on his system and told
them the market was rapidly rising.
The result was that before the season
ended they got $240 a ton for their
crop. One farmer reports that In adj
dition to getting nearly double the
usual work out of his teams, through
their being saved futile trips to market,
he has been able to do away with the
hire Of two men, as he could spare
more time on his farm and save the
diminished output of the hands at
work in his absence.
Another farmer saved all his build
ings by being sble to summon help
quickly from a nearby town and also
from his neighbors when a fire broke
out. Still another, by getting a physi-
clan promptly, saved the life Of his
only son, when the delay Of half an
hour would have been fatal.
It is now q common practice for
the country doctor to give directions
by telephone for caring for the pa
tient. both diagnosing and prescribing.
In Illinois the speeches Of a recent
political convention were listened to
by the farmers ON a rural system as
they sat In their homes from fifteen to
thirty-six miles away. Being in speak
ing distance of his neighbor, not only
does the farmer feel a new Of
personal security, but he knows that
his belongings are safer from molesta-
ton than they ever were before. The
has been instrumental in
causing the arrest of many horse
tricts the farmers have almost broken
up chicken stealing and petty larceny
by telephoning the police and COM
mission merchants of their losses, and
thus enabling prompt arrests to be
made.
The women and children come in for
their share of benefits of the telephone.
the dreary winter nights, they
can gossip with their neighbors, and
they no longer live in dread when the
men are away. The tramp is wary of
performing his professional stunts
where he finds q telephone wire rum
ming into the house, for he realizes
thahn necessary the whole neighbor-
be called in a few minutes.
That some women have ingenious
OF their own as to the purpose
If the telephone is evident from the
that crop up from time to time
If the experiences of the inspectors.
0ne Of th~esasaficers relates that one
il his linemen Wghr4to d house to
inspect a telephone on Rrural line
Adams County, Ill. Seated in : rock
ng chair, contentedly occupied with
Ter knitting, was the wife of the sub
to the system.
At first sight the lineman thought
The was wearing a novel kind of a
leaddress. but a second glance dis
Covered the fact that she had tied
he telephone receiver to her eai and
vas listening to every conversation
hat passed ore the wire.
Another woman wanted to 60 on
d erraIld some distance down the
-illage street, so she took the re-
lever on the hook and left it on the
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