Milford chronicle., 1911-02-17
HOW THE TELEPHONE
BEATS THE AUTOMOBILE

Deen surviving. But plain, marc
working instrument like the tele
phone, which is always at every
body's elbow, can give a lesson i
quickness to the fastest motor ca
ever assembled.
An automobilist. caught withou
his tools on a stretch of bad roac
far from his destination, a shor
time ago, had cause to thank tn,
rural telephone for rescuing hin
from his predicament. Soon after
ward he recounted his experience
in these words
"Severa1 weeks ago. I left Bing
hamton, N. Y, headed in my auto
mobile for Philadelphia. Several
miles out out from Binghamton
passed through town-Nsw Mil
ford-beyond which is long stony
hill which is heralded in the Blue
Book as a bad one. Before start
ing up this hill I stopped to tighten
NV clutch and started up, forgetting
to replace nv pump and spare tubes
which I had removed from the tool
box and laid on the ground.
About ten miles from the top of the
hill I realized my predicament-
about half way to Scranton on the
most abominable road of my ex-
perience, no tubes, no pump, mo
nothen' to get me going in case of
tire trouble. So I trusted to Pro-
vidence, and was well rewared.
"For the next ten miles was in
a most unhappy frame of mind.
Suddenly a farmerwoman stepped
before me and wildly waved her
arms. I stopped and she asked me
if I had lost my tools. Well, I
thought then that I had lost my
mind also. Here, twenty miles from
the lost articles, on a lone country
road, a woman suddenly tells me
that my tubes and pump are now in
the Office of DR.. Snyder New Bed
ford Then she told me how it
happened. The rural telephone
service was responsible. Good DR..
Snyder had found my stuff and
promptly sent out a general notice
over the telephone service to stop
me. l asked the woman if she had
a telephone. With the utmost pride
she informed me that she was the
central. Well, the finest exchange
IN our big Philadelphia never
looked so good as that simple little
wall set in the farmers dinning
'oom. In a second she plugged in,
,alled for DR.. Snyder, and in two
minutes I was talking with the doc
or while the farmers family fin
shed their dinner. We made ar
for shipment of my
hings to the next town, and so !
vas saved considerable expense |
md much worry.
For the far sighted men who have /
pushed this telephone system
trough the country districts, have
most honest respect. If this great
,eneft could arise in the way have
described for me, a stranger, inn
-gine what boon it must be for
hose who live there always"
The rural telephone in its wide
pread use is nearly as new as the
motor car, and has had a rapid de-
.elopment nearly as wonderful.
comparatively few years ago the
elephone was rarely seen outside
f cities. To-day the rural sections
f the country are covered with a
of wires, and new extern
ions are constantly being made.
The fact that a great many pros
erous farmers are using motor cars
lakes a further comparison of the
uto and the telephone of consider
Bile interest. The telephone be-
ause Of its extremely low cost is
ccessible to everyone. 1t reaches
pots which railways and automo-
lies could not hope to touch.
furthermore, it beats the automo-
lie at its own game-the game Of
nnihilating distance t
Anyone can reach a point fifty r
tiles away by using his telephone /;
less time than it would take the !,
laufeur to crank up preparatory
starting up his car. The manner I
which the automobilist was over 7
ken by the telephone when he q
ad lost his tools is striking ex-
nple of the relative merits Of the
70 from the standpoint of a resi- n
mt in the rural districts. t
The rapid growth of the rural t