1922 fair one of the largest and best to take place in the county

From the Pope County Tribune, Thursday, Sept. 28, 1922.

The Pope County Fair of 1922 will go down in history as one of the largest and best fairs that has taken place in Pope County. The main thing that made the fair a success was the fine weather which brought thousands of people from all over the county. The exhibits this year were exceptionally good. The people of the county were willing and brought in their various exhibits. The livestock department had a larger exhibit this year than it has had for several years. 

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From the Glenwood Herald, Thursday, Sept. 28, 1922.

“Number please? Number please?” Repeat this phrase three thousand five hundred times a day and you will begin to realize a little of the daily work telephone operators in Glenwood have to do.

Next time you tell a friend that you waited fully five minutes to get a telephone call through, remember that the operator handled about fifteen calls during that time, at the rate of three a minute or 200 an hour. This rate is the average for the day. During one of the busy hours, 425 calls were handled at the local office. The usual busy hours are in the morning and the early evening. Toll lines are busiest from 9:00 when the rates go into effect until 12:00. Afternoons are usually rather quiet, an operator told the Heralds reporter, but as we watched her fingers fly over the keyboard connecting up calls at a rat-a-tat made us dizzy. We wondered how much faster calls could possibly come in.

A visit to the telephone offices will reveal many interesting facts about the telephone service and make one understand a little of the effort and expense on the part of the telephone company in handling the city’s communications from day to day. Installing the telephone is the first task of the company. For this service a charge of $1.75 is made to the customer, although the material and time costs the company from $15 to $50. This is but a small item in the cost of giving telephone service, the reporter was told, taking but 15 per cent of every dollar paid by subscribers. Sixty-three cents of every dollar is used for salaries, 7 cents for taxes, 3 cents for rent, and 12 cents on miscellaneous expenses. On account of the tremendous investment involved, the company must do business on a cash basis and adhere to the policy of extending no credit.

Glenwood seems to be fairly well supplied with telephones, having 495, or one telephone for every four and a half persons. There are 166 rural telephones making a total of 655 stations. To handle this business 10 people are employed here by the Bell Telephone Company, four in commercial and plant and six operators. All bills are made out at the division office in Minneapolis and collected at the local office. Inspections and tests are made once each month on all rural lines to ensure good service. All local lines are tested every three months for any trouble. Long distance or toll calls are timed by a calcugraph, a machine which stamps a ticket at the time the two parties begin speaking and again when the conversation stops. This machine makes it impossible for the operator to make a mistake and leaves a permanent record at the office so that calls may easily be looked up.

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From the Starbuck Times, Friday, Sept. 29, 1922. 

B. G. Signalness, of Blue Mounds, who is well known as an auctioneer as well as breeder of Duroc Jersey hogs, captured two first prizes and two third prizes with his exhibit of pure bred hogs at the Pope County Fair.

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From the Cyrus Citizen Friday, Sept. 28, 1922. 

Installation of a bookkeeping machine which makes the intricate accounting work at the Farmers State Bank 95 percent automatic, was announced today by the bank’s officers. The Burroughs Adding and Subtracting model, which makes all figure work practically error-proof has replaced the pen and ink method of bookkeeping formerly in use.