Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1912-02-03
TELEPHONE USE AND ABUSE.
Should use Only for Business and Emer-
gencies--A Nuisance When
Used Otherwise.

Used Otherwise.
Writing in the Chicago Examiner, Ada
Patterson deals severely with the abuse
of the telephone by women, more par.
ticularly addressing her remarks to
wives and sweethearts. The article fol.
lows. 1t should be framed and distrib.
uted in hundred thousand lots:
"a magistrate has granted an injunc-
ton asked for by husband to prevent
q woman calling up her husband at his
Office during business hours. The hus-
band contended that long domestic con-
fabs by wire disturbed business, in fact
cansed him the loss of hoped-for profits
in that business. The judge agreed with
him and ordered the woman to discon.
tinue her calls except in emergencies.
Many men throughout the land are cry
ing Just judgep If that man wants to
run for president, his telephone decision
will make him one of the most popular
candidates.
'The sense of the judges decision is
that the woman not merely used, she
abused the telephone. Many others
have done so, and are doing so every day.
"A harassed business man, hearing
the shrek of the telephone, said: 4
wonder who that isP When some per-
sons always look around for chair.
He knew he was scheduled not for a
brief call but for protracted conversa-
tion. A moment later saw him draw
up chair and sit down before the tee-
phone with look of weary resignation.
1t was not call.
at was conversation, beginning on
his part with: Yes, it's l, dear. Yes,
I'm very busy. l always am in the
Office, you know. What is itp That
should have been sufficient hint.
When left the Office five minutes later,
the conversation was in full swing with
no sign of abatement. The man was
pale and there were deep double fur
rows between his eyebrows. If women
could see the faces of men who answer
their calls, they would not prolong their
telephone confabs. Most of them
wouldn't even call.
"The truth about that enormous busi-
ness convenience, the telephone, is that
it becomes a nuisance when used for
anything outside the business domain
excepting emergencies. 1t is faithful
servant when we wish to call the doctor.
1t serves us well when We must cancel u
dinner engagement because the baby
has chosen that time to have the collie.
But it is q diabolcal agency through
which to quarrel. l know a pair of
nearly lifelong chums who aren't speak
ing to each other now because one mis-
understood the others words as carried
by the telephone. And the telephone
is the worst medium for love-making
ever borrowed by that erratic God
Cupid.
"a girl l know repeated "Je T'aime'
Il love you) by telephone to her young
man and lost him. She, at home, and
he in his Office, amid grinning associ
ates, were in different mental climates
His budding affections were hopelessly
frost-bitten, chiefly by the enamored
girls abuse of the telephone.
"There are several species of the tele
phone habit. There's the telephone
fend who calls you from your bath, say
ing the message is most important, ant
keeps you a shivering, dripping, misera
BILE object answering monosyllables to 8
long harangue, inviting pneumonia anC
perhaps death. There's the other fienC
who calls you from your beauty sleep a
night or your last preserving nap in th'
morning.
"Tbere's the one that calls you to
telephone booth because what she ha
to say is so very private and who keep
you stewing there in your own prespira
ton while she tells you long story o
no interest to anyone but herself
There's the fiend who asks favors b.
telephone that he or she hasn't tn
countenance to ask face to face or VIII
is too indolent to ask by letter. There
the worst fiend who talks personalities
dips into scandal and uses well-knowl
names, an offense that should be pun
ishable, for it is as though the tow
crier surviving until recently at Nan
tucket had gone round the town ringin
his bell and telling coniectural tale
about his neighbors. Abuse of tn
telephone, every case!
"Don't acquire the telephone habit
Don't use it except when actually neces
sary. The telephone is business cor
venience and emergency server. Whe
we turn it to other ends it becomes q
instrument of torture"
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