How to use your phone .... old, old

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HOW TO USE YOUR TELEPHONE

[These are the actual rules taken from a 1917 telephone book.]

1.  USE THE DIRECTORY.  Never try to remember a telephone number.  It's
all right if you do remember it; but to try to remember is to begin to
guess.  If you have the least doubt about it, look it up and thus save
time and trouble.  (As a matter of fact, you know, you have no more
right to disturb a subscriber by guessing that his number is the one you
want than you have to disturb him in any other entirely needless way.)

2.  SPELL OUT ALL NUMBERS, by giving each figure separately, as "Main
one, three, seven, nine," for "Main 1379."  The following of this rule
is essential to good  service.  A majority of "wrong numbers" can be
ascribed to the spoken usage of numbers such as "fourteen" and
"thirteen," "twenty-three," and "thirty-three," etc., which sound so
much
alike over the phone; also to the fact that subscribers do not correct
the operator if she repeats the wrong number.

3.  SPEAK  DISTINCTLY, especially when giving the number to the
operator, and when talking over a toll line.  Talk into the mouthpiece,
loud and close enough so they hear you easily.

4.  ANSWER YOUR BELL PROMPTLY.  A ring means a friend is calling you --
don't make him wait, or perhaps miss you entirely.

5.  CALL CENTRAL by giving the crank two or three quick turns.  Don't
ring too long.  Always ring off when through talking.

6.  UNTIL YOUR BELL STOPS RINGING, do not remove the telephone from the
hook.

7.  BE BRIEF but courteous to the operators.  We require them to be so
to you.  They have no time to converse with you.  Courtesy, like virtue,
is its own reward, but pays extra dividends in connection with the
telephone service.  Try it!  P. O.  By the way, when you know that a
false call is due entirely to your careless use of the wrong number, why
not acknowledge it to the "innocent bystander" who answers the call?
Why
leave the operator to shoulder the blame?

8.  CALL FOR "INFORMATION" when you can't find the telephone number you
want, or to get answers to any questions regarding subscribers' names,
numbers and addresses.

9.  REPORT ALL COMPLAINTS TO THE MANAGER.  To be most effective they
should be not only prompt but should describe accurately the trouble
encountered.  Many forms of trouble look alike at first, and most of
them we will not know about till you tell us.  If you can't get Central
at all, call up from a neighbor's or send us a postal card.

10.  ADVERTISE THAT YOU HAVE A TELEPHONE, but don't put its "number" on
your letterheads, bill heads, cards and wagons.  Why?  Because this only
increases the amount of trying to remember such numbers by the public --
also the continued use of obsolete numbers -- which in turn only hurts
the service and doesn't help your business at all.  Think this over!


--
 ______ ___   __ _____ __    __   __  __ tnally@iquest.net
|_    _|   \ |  |  _  |  |  |  |  \ \/ / tgnally@prairienet.org
  |  | |  |\\|  |  _  |  |__|  |__ |  |  T. Nally - "A M.I.M.E. is a
  |__| |__| \___|_| |_|_____|_____||__|  a terrible thing to waste."