'Get me long distance'

In the early spring of 1900, for example, the Lafayette Gazette marveled that from any of the 134 phones in town "you can talk to …seven different states, and it is not necessary to test the full capacity of your lungs to do that. A voice just above a whisper will reach the fartherest [sic] point on the line."

This was made possible through the ministrations of "three efficient young ladies, Misses Lucie Judice, Nita Martin, and Leila Miller," who were "in charge of the operating department."

 The Cumberland Telephone Company, which was part of the fledgling Bell system, was one of the first providers of long distance service for many south Louisiana towns, and marketed its services pretty aggressively for those days.

For example, the company advertised in 1913 that farmers in the Abbeville area might be able to get phones on their farm for as little as 50 cents a month, and that they needed one for security as well as for pleasure, According to an ad in the Abbeville Progress, "On the farm the telephone dispels loneliness and is the means of bringing help in any emergency that may arise."

At the beginning of that summer, Cumberland suggested patrons needed phones not only at their homes and businesses, but also at their camps. The ad in the St. Landry Clarion pointed out that "telephone service linking together city and country and shore is never more appreciated than in the summer months. … At the vacation home … the telephone proves so convenient in arranging … outings with friends and ordering supplies from distant markets."

Cumberland was also one of the first to begin what has become a long tradition of fights between phone providers and state regulators.

In 1907, Louisiana attorney general Walter Guion posted a notice in a number of newspapers that the Louisiana Railroad Commission — which had jurisdiction over telephone companies — had ruled that long distance rates at night and on Sunday could be no more than half the regular day rate. Cumberland sued in federal court but apparently lost the case. Guion's notice proclaims that Cumberland was "without authority to charge patrons the same rates" at night and on Sunday and told patrons to contact the Railroad Commission if Cumberland tried to make them pay more.

For local calls, you generally didn't need to know the number of the party you were calling, and if you did they were pretty easy to remember. According to an old Lafayette directory that fell into my hands, First National Bank had the honor of telephone number 1. To get Dr. O.P.  Daly, you asked the operator for No. 2. The Commercial Bank of Lafayette was   No. 3.  The Levy Brothers store was 86-2. That meant the operator plugged up 86 and rang twice. Lafayette Drug Company was 86-4, meaning four rings.

A good number of businesses in south Louisiana still had single‑digit telephone numbers until well after World War II.

Operators were still on the job in the summer of 1951, when it got so hot in the telephone office in New Iberia that the operators walked out and went into a "continuous meeting" — not to say "strike" — in the city park. Company officials brought in more fans and put tubs of ice in front of them to cool the room and the operators' tempers. I.C. Milsted, the local manager, said the cooling breezes brought the thermometers in the St. Peter's Street building down to 83 degrees.

But that was one of the last hot summers for most of the operators. In November 1951, the phone company introduced direct distance dialing and automated switching that soon did away with the old plug-in switchboards, their operators, and presumably fans blowing over ice-filled tubs.

 

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You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.