A Boon to Farmers' Wives

Southland Times, Issue 15056, 27 September 1901, Page 4

A Boon to Farmers' Wives

The loneliness of farm life, which h»« been considerably reduced by rural mail delivery, ha? been still furthrr lessecel in a number of western Amerio* communities by the inirorluction of the telephone. The chief obstacle *.o the wider use of this great modern convenience has been the high rateß charged by the regular companies. Soveral plane to obviate this difficulty have been tried. The simplest is the actnai buildiog of a line and the installation of a email circuit by those who wish to use it. Groups of western formers have thetnsolves cut and set the polea and strung the wires for their i > va line, and after buying receivers, insulators, batteries, and ether material, have divided the cost and shared the expense of maintenance, says the Youth's Companion. Lately another plan bus been tried with excellent results in a number of Wisconsin towns. A stock company is formed of those who deaire to use the servic*. The shares sell for a uniform price of 50 lols.the average cost of installing each telephone in a good exchange: but jno stock is sold to anyone exoept thtss who rent a 'phone/ and only - one share is allotted for each receiver in use. t The cherge3 are ao regulated that the s'ockholders receive a dividend if 1 percent % month. Tim is applied to the reduction of the regular rental. la one of the Wiscons n towts, for instance, the rent for a phone in a busneas office i« 2 Jols 25 cents a month, and in a residence Idol a month. The dividends average 75 cents a month, so fhat the actnai coßt to the 'consumer' ia only Idol oOoents for a phone in an oSue and 25 cents for one in the home. This ie less than half the usual cos". Many a farmers wife, tied to her work and cut off from social opportunities, would gladly pay twenty-five centa a month merely for the luxury of hearing a neighbour's voice at will, and the farmer himeeif, if be U alert, finds constant od vantage id closer connection with his neighbours.