The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1905-08-31

body knows that club, however small,
finds opportunity for endless discussion
and arrangement and Encouragement,
at other times than when in session.
The telephone makes this conference
possible and easy; 1t is boon of Eoons
to the club woman.
Once in personal experience, cnco
only. and the incident lives in mem
DRY as startling, the telephone was
found successful in reducing the
amount of an exorbitant gas bill!
Householders know how difficult an
enterprise this is, how seldom accom-
plished. On previous occasions, letters
had proved abortive, and interviews
had found officials adamant. but the
talk over the telephone. party wire
at that, proved Immediately reassur-
ing. The percentage asked for was
granted; the obnoxious bill was re-
duced to its rightful proportions.
If you want doctor IN the dead of
night, it is not now needful for the
man of the house to G-ess and go hasti-
ly out in the cold and darkness; the
telephone will ring signal at thu
Doctors head, and lie will rise from
his bed, tell you what to do, or come
himself in half the time it used t.
take to get him to t.la patient. When
there is sudden illness in the home,
you cry blessings on the telephone,
and they are heartfelt.
And yet, it has its drawbacks. There
is tyranny of the telephone that has
done something to make life less sim
pie than it used to be. There are
moods in which one wishes she had
never seen, never heard, never touched
or handled the little affair which has
done more than any other single agent
to rob life of privacy and independ--
ence.
We have often heard that a mans
house is his castle. It is, ana it isn't.
1t depends on whether he has tele-
phone.
You may bolt, you may bar, you may
lock at your will,
But the telephone demon will pounce
on you still.
No shutters exclude him, no key keeps
him back,
At the sound of the bell, he is here on
your track.
To cut off the service is the only
way to exercise the invisible imp WHO
disturbs you at yo"r meals, breaks in
on your prayers, and demands an in
slant answer to his summons with a
pcremptory haste, not unlike the old
challenge of the footpad on Hounslow
Heath: "Your money or your life!"
For instance:
You have decided to spend day in
quiet retirement, withdrawn from The
world and its cares. You have planned
to admit nobody; you wish to rest.
to relax, to let life's flood-tide refresh
yon, since too much work, too much
talk, too much distraction of business
has brought your powers to the ebb.
In vain is your planning and precau-
tion. The telephone rings and you
take down your receiver.
Aunt Frances, Uncle Jonathan and
the children are on their way to spend
the day with you. They have just de-
cided that they can come to-day, and
will be with you about noon. Now
you love your kinsfolk, and Johns,
too. You like Aunt Frances better
thai: any other of Johns aunts, and
Uncle Jonathan is an "old dear" The
children are Objectionable when you
have a headache and are tired; they
are stirring children, always on the
rampage; always meddling; not we'll
trained or well-bred, and you would
willingly omit them from the pro-
gramme, but Aunt Frances is devoted
mother, who never leaves her brood
at home.
To put them off for a day would
give offense, be misunderstood, and
hurt John, who is most loyal to mis-
own people, and always delighted to
have them under his roof. Therefore
you fly around, dust chairs and tables,
get out the best china. make. salad
order ice cream, and slip into fresh
and dainty frock. No time to relax
| till Jonathan and Frances shall depart
But for the telephone they would have
notified you via Uncle Sans mail, and
you would have bad your rest day as
you meant to have it without
+, hindrance or interruption.
Here is Johns side of it. address
John. John is good citizen, hope
! Perhaps you belong to the public
in some detail of your life. Most OF
us do. Very few of us escape wholly
from some obligation to the community
in which we; live, and We are con-
Stantly reminded that the wishes OF