Kol - 
     
    
   
   
    
     MODERN LMPROVEMLNYS 
     
    
   
   
    
     For years, a telegraph line followed the Tryon Road from Charlottetown 
     
     to an office in Victoria. This was used for communication between 
     
     wholesale merchants in the city and up-country dealers whose chartered 
     
     schooners were loading at the Victoria wharves, Between Charlottetown and _ 
     
     intermediate points, there was no contact. Somewhere about 1#Q0, a | 
     
     telephone -lins was run from the city to a local office in MacMillan's 
     
     store, at New Haven Corner. About 1910, a rural telephone system was set 
     
     up linking Kingston with the City by way of New Haven. Immediately,” 
     
     several area residents had telephones installed in their homes -- a few 
     
     for business purposes, but. others out of curiosity. When a ring: was heard, 
     
     it was the signal for everyone to listen in; at times, there so many 
     
     simultaneous euvesdroppers that the power supply was overloaded and the 
     
     line rendered inoperative. One inveterate eavesdropper was said to have 
     
     instructed :aembers of his family to listen in on all communications carried 
     
     on the line during his occasional absences, and, on his return, give him 
     
     a detailed account of all that was said, and of who had said it. Haves- 
     
     dropping became a nuisance, but, since the practice was so general, little 
     
     was done toward corructing it. Besidesm there was no stigma attachedito 
     
     becoming known as an eavesdropper. 
     
    

    
     After a time, complaints from legitimate users became so frequent that 
     
     the phone company issued a list of strict regulations covering use of the 
     
     line. Most subscribers obeyed; others, .however,. continued to flout them. 
     
     One morning, telephone company linemen appeared at the home of the most 
     
     notorious offender, disconnected his phone, and informed him that phone 
     
     service would be denied him for a period of one year. -- a step that had 
     
     a salutary effect on the listening-in problem. 
     
    
   
   
    
     With the expansion of the system, a new central exchange was opened