BY KAREN HANSEN
The other day a telegram was sent from Council Bluffs at 12 o’clock and reached Walnut between 3 and 4 o’clock. This is not mentioned to show folks that we enjoy the proud distinction of getting dispatches, once in a while, but to illustrate the rapidity with which messages can be transmitted by telegraph. It is a great improvement over the old method of sending a letter down by some one who is going to mill with a grist in an ox-cart. The man who invented the ox-cart telegraph admits he cannot compete with electricity and lay up anything. (Walnut News, July 28, 1882, p. 3)
Joe Moore left for his home at Menlo last Friday noon, the Rock Island having closed the night telegraph office here and set Andy O’Loughlin at work days. (Walnut Bureau, June 30, 1893, p. 4)
The telephone girl sits in her chair and listens to voices from everywhere. She hears all the gossip, she hears all the news, she knows who is happy and who has the blues; she knows all our joys, she knows every girl who is chasing the boys; she knows every man who is mean to his wife; she knows every time we are out with the boys, she hears the excuses each fellow employs; she knows every woman who has a dark past, she knows every man who is inclined to be “fast”; in fact there’s a secret ‘neath each saucy curl of that quiet, demure-looking telephone girl. If the telephone girl would tell all that she knows, it would turn all our friends into bitterest foes; she would sow a small wind which would soon be a gale, engulf us in trouble and land us in jail; she could let go a story (which, gaining in force,) would cause half our wives to sue for divorce; she could get all the churches mixed up in a fight, and turn all our days into sorrowing nights; in fact she could keep the whole town in a stew if she’d tell a tenth part of the things that she knew. Now; doesn’t it make your head simply whirl when you think what you owe to the telephone girl. (Walnut Bureau, Friday, May 21, 1909)
Walnut Exchange and Country
PARTY LINES AND RULES:
Do not make calls before 5:30 a. m. nor after 10 p. m. except in case of sickness or accident.
Remove the receiver and listen.
If the line is in use, replace the receiver immediately and wait a few minutes before trying again.
The length of conversation should in no case exceed five minutes, but you are requested to make it as brief as possible. Allow an interval of a few minutes to elapse before calling another party. Some one on your line may be waiting to make an emergency call.
When the line is in use, do not permit your employees or others to listen. It is not only discourteous, but also interferes with the service.
Operators will be expected to answer calls BY NUMBER ONLY, except in cases of unlisted subscribers.
Do not enter into a controversy with any of the parties on your line.
If your conversation is interrupted or you are otherwise interfered with, notify the company’s office by telephone or letter and the matter will be given immediate attention.
A telephone in a residence used as a “place of business” will be classified as a “business telephone.”
A small additional charge above the usual rate will be made for all extra names listed to any telephone number.
Each subscriber is held responsible for toll charges on all calls from his instrument. If an office or place of business is asked for on toll calls and the same is secured, the regular rate will be charged. If any particular person is wanted the fact must be stated when the call first given to the toll operator.
GENERAL INFORMATION:
Telephone numbers are the property of the company and may be changed at any time that necessity demands it.
Every precausion [precaution] is taken to avoid mistakes in ilsting [listing], but this company will assume no liability for mistakes or omissions. . ..
The nature of telephone service is such that we cannot guarantee uninterrupted service. Everything is being and always will be done to give reliable and accurate service, but we are not responsible for delays or damages caused by interruption in service.
We are at your service at all times, and our constant endeavor is to make it the most efficient possible.
Telephone rentals are due in Walnut as follows: the first day of February, May, August and November. Subscribers having no place of business are requested to call at the office to make payment. Collector will call at the business houses only. (TELEPHONE DIRECTORY, Musson Bros. Company, August 1915)
THE MISTAKES OF TELEPHONE GIRLS.
There are nearly 300,000 telephone girls in the United States.
They answer about 30,000,000 telephone calls every day.
They probably make about three mistakes each, per day, or 900,000 in all. That makes 6,300,000 errors a week.
In 50 per cent, or 3,150,000 of these cases, the victim is a man, who uses not less than three profane and six abusive words to the telephone girl, or a total of 28,350,000 peevish words daily, a total of 177,450,000 words per week.
This Niagara of language helps make the telephone girl more likely to make more mistakes. That’s the way with everybody, men, women and children. It’s human nature.
It doesn’t tend to sweeten her disposition, either.
Her’s [Hers] is a nervious [nervous], jumpy job anyway.
She works at it because she needs the money.
She’s often a heroine. She warned the victims of the Johnstown flood. She stood at her post as long as the post lasted in the San Francisco fire. Her “hello!” was melody to the ears of our boys in France a few weeks ago.
She’s a good girl; we never heard of a bad telephone girl.
She isn’t the telephone company.
Thank you. You’ll bear these things in mind next time. (The Walnut Bureau, January 30, 1919, page 1)
WALNUT TELEPHONE COMPANY
(Incorporated)
Office: — 2nd Floor Walnut State Bank Building
WE ARE TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OLD
MOTTO: Yours For Service, First, Last and All the Time.
Use The Telephone Wires And Save Your Tires.
DIRECTORS: A. M. Jacobsen, August Kohlscheen, Peter Diedricksen, Otto Matthies, Henry Rossmann, Henry Matthies, J. A. Schuttloffel
TERMS:
The rent on Telephones in the country and three or more on a line in town is $2.25 per month.
Two party line $2.50 and one party line $2.75 per month, and for all telephone rentals paid on or before the 10th of the current month a credit of 25 cents will be allowed.
All Telephone rentals and tolls are payable monthly or quarterly in advance. The quarterly payment dates are January first, April first, July first, and October first, all accounts payable at the office.
(Walnut Telephone Directory With Postal Telegraph Service, 1942)