Jim Bradshaw: In Telephone 101, be clear, be courteous, be patient

Back in the days when telephone service was in its infancy, a lot of folks were just as confused about how to use the new-fangled things as lots of us are about apps, mis-apps and other such things these days. That’s why the Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Co. ran a series of ads in South Louisiana newspapers explaining how to use them.        
The  ads, begun in 1905, were, of course, also intended to lure new customers by explaining just how remarkable their service was and how a telephone could change your life for the better.
The one headlined “Telephone Talk No. 7,” for example, claimed, “So rapid has become the development and use of the telephone … it is a difficult matter to locate a city or town [without] an up-to-date telephone exchange. Especially is this true in the territory of the Cumberland Telephone &Telegraph Company. Any business house or residence that has not the telephone service cannot be considered complete.”
The fact that every city had a modern exchange didn’t mean that Cumberland connected to them all. A report published in April said the company’s lines “enable you to talk to almost anywhere in Southern Indiana, Southern Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana,” but not to every U.S. city. Another report said Cumberland had 152,665 subscribers as of May 1, 1906.
That wasn’t exactly universal coverage. It was less than five percent of the 3.5 million households found by the 1900 census in the company’s service area, and potential customers weren’t rushing out to get hooked up.
A lawsuit in Louisiana in 1908 over the company’s rates reported that Cumberland was “transacting its … in a territory which is said to be 400 miles wide and 1,000 miles long, beginning in Indiana and Illinois and extending through the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana to the Gulf of Mexico.”
The company said it had spent $4,711,000 “in the purchase and construction of exchanges and toll lines in Louisiana” between its founding in May 1898 through June 30, 1906, and that it was expensive to operate here because its lines and poles were “subject to great and rapid deterioration from exposure to the weather and other causes.”
That’s why the company needed to be sure users kept their phones and that they encouraged their phoneless friends to get one.
Telephone Talk No. 11 gave specific advice on using the phone. Users should, first, “always consult the latest directory and secure the proper number of the person you wish to call.”
When making the call, “speak the number distinctly into the mouthpiece of the telephone, and after receiving your connection immediately tell the person who it is calling.”
That connection could take a little while, so users were told to “not get impatient if the telephone operator informs you that the line is busy. That means that some one else is talking to the person.”
When you finally got connected to a once-busy line, Cumberland  wanted you to help promote its business. It advised that “you should always inform anyone … that their line was busy in order that they may have installed ample telephone facilities for their needs.”
It seems not everyone heeded the call for patience. Another ad advised “if you are courteous to the operator, you will be treated courteously.”
Courtesy and patience were important, according to Telephone Talk No. 12. It reminded users that busy lines were not the company’s fault, and once again suggested that cheapskate businesses were to blame.
“Many business houses often have their lines reported busy, and in the majority of cases this means they are not amply supplied with telephone facilities.”
No. 12 also reminded businesses that “many hundreds of calls are lost on account of lines being reported busy, and among them are valuable orders which have gone to one’s competitor.”
Cumberland suggested that one lost order could easily have paid for the expense of “ample” facilities, which was one of the things disputed in the 1908 lawsuit over its charges.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.