The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-10-26
THE RURAL TELEPHONES
Bell People Seek to Make the Service
More Certain.

For the past ten days E. B. KEEL
! lam of the Bell Telephone co. at To-
! peka and two or three assistants have
| been travelling over Shawnee county
| in an auto doctoring the troubles of
the telephones in the farmers houses
| They kindly took newspaper man
| along the other day for an outing and
an educational experience in one dose
| 1t was worth While.
The farmer has more telephone
troubles than could be dreamed of by
the city man. He is so far from the
| trouble man. 1t takes 80 long to
pair broken connection. Then, too.
! all farmer lines are party lines, and
the more people on one line thu more
possibilities for trouble.
The Bell proposes to improve the
rural phone service in the county and
is arranging now for surer call to
central and a more stable connection.
1t will also do away with the nuisance
Of one call calling all the lines between
the caller and central. Under the new
service only the central can hear the
subscribers call. Also the rural lines
will be connected with one section of
the switchboard and expert rural
operators alone will handle rural calls
Mr.. kellam took Gilman, the rural
contract man, with him the other day,
and Ogden, an expert trouble man.
About twenty farm houses out Silver
Lake way We're visited. 1t was an in
teresting afternoon. The farmer is pa
tient and long suffering, but when he
has phone trouble and sympathetic
listener he is not backward in his con-
versation. Gilman is q good listener
and he talks some himse1f-talks as
smoothly as oil being poured from a
dipper. ogden fixed obstinate phones
while Gilman explained the solar
system and the origin of electricity and |
magnetos to the farmer and his wife.
1t was like Aristotle teaching the
Athenians
Gilman is English. He is serious
and sincere. He takes pride in mis-
work and values good phone service
in the rural regions of Shawnee coUn-
ty more than he does precious stones. !
but he missed all connections the ether
day and run into the ground and |
broke the transformer and demcral !
lied the circuit just after leaving one
house on the route.
The lady of the house received the
emissa ries of the Bell at this place. |
She was pretty and had black eyes
and hair and was frying doughnLts in |
new service and Ogden corrected the
old. The newspaper man looked at
the doughnuts with hungry eyes.
After leaving the house there was
some talk in the auto about the phone
battery being burned out. Also some |
praise for the neat kitchen and the |
tidy housewife and the savory odor of
those doughnuts. Gilman was silent
ing of the telephone troubles and joys
of the Shawnee farmer.
How was the service back there, |
Gilman ~ asked Kellam.
'-She was a peach, replied Gilman |
earnestly.
Everyone laughed but Gilman. He
sat silent and grave and annoyed at
his slip. Gilman is English and rural
telephones are his hobby. His crossed |
signals on Kellam's question are un- |
explainable. But those doughnuts |
surely looked fine
The Bell company's efforts to keep
in close touch with farmer subscrib- |
ers and their phone trouble are sure |
to bring good results. The farmer ap-
preciates the effort and meets the |
comp any half way in the effort to i'm |
prove bad service caused by storms. |
falling poles. careless handling of |
phones and all the natural handicaps
of phone service far from the central |
Offices