The Republican journal., 1907-11-07
A Telephone Convert.
BY MABEL L. TRUE, DOVER, MAINE

Hello, 'Lias, come right in. Yes, tits
cool for the time Of year. Lucy? She
went over to Mirandy Atwood's tc
supper. an to spend the evenin'. I'm
goin' to hitch up bime-by, and fetc
her home. Yes, does seem kind OF
onesome alone so, but there! faint as
bad as twas fore we had telephone.
set against it at first, and went so far
thing house-room. And when that
young solicitor-feller drove out here
from Bramley and was in such takn'
for me to have a phone, | said: No
stree, I've lived fifty years without the
blamed thing and | guess l can make
out the rest of my life without it.
Well, he hung pretty hard but the hard
er he hung the more | baked, and at
asst he give it up and rode away.
Well, all the neighbors had phone
guess, even Aunt Polly Richards, and
you know she lives all alone and is def
as post, so't l guess she wouldn't
near 1T ring If she sat right under it.
Wen, 'tWant a week fore Lucy begun
tellin' how much they all liked it, an
now nice it was for the wimmen folks,
an all that, and then 'twant long fore
she was thornin' me to have one put in
Well, | didn't put much stock in it
TILL 81 Turner's horse ran away with
little Joe in the wagon and Marthy
Wilson saw him runnin' by an called
up SINNERS folks and Tom went out
an stopped him just before he came to
mat sharp turn by the mill brook.
Wen. after that told Lucy we'd have
IL three months on trial, | guessed.
We've had it most that now, and I'd
hate to Civ it up as bad as Lucy.
The Teller came and put it in one
afternoon when l was away and he was
IN tearln' hurry, Lucy said, so he just
tod her, how to ring an what our call
would De an went away. We called up
two or three that night just to see how
IL would work an made out all right
guess. Lucy got to be quite a hand to
ring but she laughed at me and said
she guessed they'd never want me down
to the Central office if [ couldn't ring
better'n that. We didn't 60 near it
the next mornin' till Marthy Wilson
called up to see how Lucy made her
chocolate frostin' look SO smooth an
taste SO good. There want nothin'
more said until dinner-time.
>, we had 1t early that day, | guess,
bout eleven O'Clock. We'd just got
started in in good shape when there
came a ring about mile and four rods
long. What in time" SEES to Lucy,
Guess somebody must be mad a calm
Central like that | thought 'twouldn't
do no harm, so after a while | stepped
along and took the receiver down.
Somebody way off said, Did you all
get it?' Get what?' thinks l. Yes,
thank you,' someone s'es and that's all
there was to it except forty-leven
receivers bangin' up. l told Lucy what
had happened and she s'es 'Good-land,
Eben, that's that Weather Report
Marthy Wilson told us about, but
didn't think about it when twas ringin'.
We'll you bet | got there in time the
next day to hear it all.
What's that? Oh, yes, they hit it
right a good deal of the time. There
was one week that they disagreed with
the daily every day, and neither one
hit 1T. But | s'pose they got day
ahead or behind and couldn't seem to
get started right again. What? Oh,
yes! L made lots of mistakes at first
and got into some trouble with Cen
tral, but I'm getting used to it now.
The worst time | ever had, though,
was when | tried to get Luey's cousin
Jim over to Millbury. Of course |
knew that was Long Distance, but
didn't just know how to 90 at it to get
him, and Lucy didn't neither. Well |
rung up and when Central says 'sNum-
ber?" | says ''54-12 Millbury." | was
goin to wait on the line till she got
them but she said something that |
didn't just catch, but the last end of it
sounded like Call up later Well |
s'pose the line was busy or something,
so hung up the receiver and waited as
much as ten minutes. Then | thought
I'd have another try. So l told Cen
trail again what l wanted and by
George. If she didn't say the same
thing! only on the end of it she said
Give her your call"
SO l thought I'd wait and see how
the land lay before l hung up this time
In minute another one says, kind of
brisk and business like, "This is Toll
Operator, what's your number please?"
could make out what she said real
plain (and l guess likely that's what
the other one said instead of Cali up
later.O Well, sir. She got more infor-
nation out of me in the next two
minutes than I'd have allowed she
could, If anyone had asked me. She
found out who l was, where l was,
what my number was, what number l
wanted and where, who l wanted to
talk with, and what I'd do if he wasn't
there. l guess if she'd kept on two
minutes more she'd have found out
how many head of cattle l had, my age,
my politics, and how big a tax l paid.
She surely was daisy when it came to
getting information.
What! Going as soon as this. Now
that's too bad. I've enjoyed your call
ever SO much, 'Lias. l don't know
when I've had such good chat with
anyone. Have a phone put in, why
don't ye and then we can have some
more Just like it. Well, good bye
N. E. Telephone Topics.