# Before the telephone, how did you get someone's attention if you needed them quickly? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 21, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945 "2025-06-21T18:42:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/41 "2025-06-22T17:42:10Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > we delivered an awful lot of messages by postcards, pinned to or pushed under the door, Similar, then, to calling cards, which were popular in the 1800s > [@](#): > > Leaving one’s calling card at a friend’s home was a way to express appreciation for a recent dinner party, offer condolences for an illness, or simply to say hello. If the recipient “wasn’t home” a servant would accept a calling card or the card would be left in a silver tray in the entrance hall. A tray full of calling cards was like social media for the Victorian era, a way to advertise who was in one’s extended social circle. Often the cards of the wealthiest or most influential people were purposefully displayed at the top of the stack to impress future visitors. > **[Calling Cards and Visiting Cards: A Brief History](https://hobancards.com/blogs/thoughts-and-curiosities/calling-cards-and-visiting-cards-brief-history)** > > Calling cards, also called visiting cards, visiting tickets, or compliments cards, originated in their paper and ink form in France in the 18th century and their popularity quickly spread across Europe and the United Kingdom. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/42 "2025-06-22T17:49:06Z")
A bit, though more often like "Can’t make Tuesday, how about Wednesday?’ ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/43 "2025-06-22T18:01:48Z")
> [@Kzbre5m](#): > > And in the “All I need to know is from Sherlock Holmes” vein, The Adventure of the Six Napoleons had an express messenger, which Holmes used to urgently send a letter some 15 miles from Baker Street. Thinking back, it must have been a Holmes fan who wrote the “Sherlock Hemlock” sketch on _Sesame Street_ where he has only five minutes to deliver an urgent message across town and tries flagging down a passing jogger to do the job. (Of course SH then realizes with seconds left that there was a pay phone behind him the whole time.) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/44 "2025-06-22T20:18:51Z")
A major scandal in the Jackson administration involved the wife of Jackson’s Secretary of War, who was considered unladylike. The wives of other Cabinet members would not call on her - and when she called on them, they were “not in.” Jackson (whose beloved wife had also been the victim of similar shunning) was outraged by this, leading to a major reshuffle of the Cabinet, and selection of van Buren (the one member of Cabinet who did not shun the wife of the War Secretary) as Jackson’s successor. "James Parton, in the 1860s, would famously state that “the political history of the United States for the last thirty years dates from the moment when the soft hand of Mr. Van Buren touched Mrs. Eaton’s knocker” (her door-knocker, you!) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/45 "2025-06-22T23:38:15Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > A major scandal in the Jackson administration involved the wife of Jackson’s Secretary of War, who was considered unladylike. The wives of other Cabinet members would not call on her - and when she called on them, they were “not in.” Pretty sure this would have been my life. It seems like the only thing for upper class women to do in those days was obsess over their social status and throw parties, which for me would have been a right nightmare. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/46 "2025-06-23T00:59:44Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > In the Melville story Bartleby the Scrivener, the office employs a 12 year old boy to run messages and errands. It’s set in New York and was published in 1853. Most commercial offices had at least one messenger on staff — usually, but not always,a boy. Jerry Cruncher, a bank messenger, is a signficant character in _A Tale of Two Cities_, which admittedly is set in the late 18th century, but he would be just as credible in a nineteenth century setting. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/47 "2025-06-23T01:48:14Z")
Me too. I’m watching the “Gilded age” on HBO. It’s the equivalent of Downton Abbey in America(in fact developed/written by Julian Fellowes). I could never have managed that life. Their letters, cards, invitations alone would’ve done me in. Maybe below stairs. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/48 "2025-06-23T03:02:29Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Pretty sure this would have been my life. It seems like the only thing for upper class women to do in those days was obs The Wife in Downtown Abbey, as you may recall, is an American. As was Winston Churchill’s mother. Part of the attraction for rich American women was that the structured, class ridden, life of the English Aristocracy, was so much looser and freer than the straight-jacket of upper-class NYC. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/49 "2025-06-23T03:40:28Z")
Oh they could get up to a lot of mischief. Alice Longworth Roosevelt, thirty five years old, not allowed to legally vote, still made the rounds in Washington DC and killed the US’s entry into the League of Nations ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/50 "2025-06-23T17:24:37Z")
Even in wartime London, my mother had three mail deliveries a day. She could mail a letter in the morning, and it would be received that afternoon (within London). And before planes took over, you could post a letter in London in the afternoon, and it could be delivered next morning in Northern/Ireland. [Irish Mail - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Mail) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/51 "2025-06-23T19:41:28Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I can’t find it now but _vaguely_ remember a site that said the volume of mail exceeded the weight capacity of the mailbag, and that was a reason for multiple deliveries each day. I was a summer substitute carrier in 1970. Real carriers had trucks, but they didn’t trust me with one. I used a rolling mail bag or a shoulder bag, but I picked up mail in relay boxes (those black or dark green things without slots) which I had a key for. Those were put close enough together so that I could carry what was in it in a shoulder bag. One delivery a day, though I think businesses might have gotten more directly from the office, since they might have a lot of volume. This was in outer Queens county, NY. > [@UDS1](#): > > Most commercial offices had at least one messenger on staff — usually, but not always,a boy. I was a messenger for an accounting company in NY the summer of 1969. It would be a bicycle messenger today, but back then the subway was so cheap it paid to take it. I walked to close by offices. I mostly carried contracts and records, things that would be faxed a bit later or emailed today. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/52 "2025-06-24T10:43:04Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > . I walked to close by offices One of my school friends was a delivery boy in 1977. He walked between city locations carrying jewelry and loose diamonds, between the jewel stores and the independent contractors who did the diamond setting. He would have been about 18, so I guess they wanted a cheap ‘responsible adult’. Quit that job to become a nurse. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/53 "2025-06-24T11:35:12Z")
My father’s first “office boy” job was to walk the 10 minutes or so from the office to the bank, pick up the payroll (in cash), and walk back. Never had a problem (or course - this was in the late 1930s). ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/54 "2025-06-24T12:05:31Z")
Before the telephone, almost everyone lived rurally or in villages and small towns. The world moved much more slowly. The post came once or twice a day, in England, but this was exceptional. If you were a typical citizen, you probably didn’t know anyone outside a few hours walk or ride, and rarely if ever would you need to communicate anything that wouldn’t wait until a gathering. Remember that virtually everyone went to church on Sundays. Market days, work parties like harvests and quilting bees, etc. gathered the whole community and were common. If you had a servant or hired man, you could send him with a letter or a verbal message. Or you could go yourself, with an urgent message. It wouldn’t be something like Tuesday won’t work, it would be more like If you want to say last words to Aunt Hazel. Time was different. Now we think everything has to happen as soon as we think of it. That’s not how it was. ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/55 "2025-06-24T13:08:38Z")
The historical reenactment TV series [The 1900 House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1900_House) from 1999 set up a family in London’s Charlton neighborhood to live for three months as a family from the year 1900 would. It’s a fun little 4-hour proto-reality-show that spends the first hour as a This Old House style program where they find the right home, source period fixtures and appliances, and restore it to the period in full working order. The rest of the time chronicle’s the family’s experiences, and I highly recommend it. Anyway, Charlton was at the time the suburbs, though it’s pretty urban by today’s standards with attached row houses on narrow deep lots. The narrator for the US version of the program states that mail pickup and delivery was three times a day, similar to US cities. I don’t know how thoroughly researched that statistic is, but based on the previous comments that sounds reasonable for a middle class residential district where there was still a decent need for correspondence, but you were unlikely to have a servant or a street boy that could spare the time and expense to hop on the nearest trolley and take your message across town. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/56 "2025-06-24T14:06:29Z")
I think this is a vast oversimplification. The telephone began to be widely used commercially in the 1880s. By that time, Western countries had already undergone decades of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, and communication networks in the form of railroads, telegraph lines and the mail were expanding. A system of time zones was emerging that standardised clocks to a precision of seconds. It’s not as if mid-to-late 19th century life was still the pastoral idyll that had characterised human life for millennia before. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/57 "2025-06-24T17:27:40Z")
In 1880, 72% of the US population lived on farms. Approximately .1% of households had telephones. These would have been large businesses in major cities, and perhaps the extremely wealthy. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecc23a/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada_Jr)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/58 "2025-06-24T17:51:21Z")
In one of the PG Woodhouse semi-autobiograpies (Woodhouse never met a story he didn’t like) there is an anecdote about visiting another writer (Guy Bolton?) In his fifth-floor walkup in London, and seeing Guy seal and address a letter and throw it out the window. When asked why he said the honest hardworking Londoner who found it would hasten it to the nearest post box, and it was a lot faster than walking it down the stairs. Wodehouse had Bolton test the process by sending him a note the next day, and he received it hand-delivered within an hour of defenestration. That is, the stranger who picked up the letter took it directly to the destination. Wodehouse said the man declined a tip but accepted a drink. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/59 "2025-06-24T18:58:31Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > In 1880, 72% of the US population lived on farms. If you’re taking this from the 28% urbanization figure from [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization_in_the_United_States), then no, this is not correct. The definition of urban population in this census was based on places with a population of more than 8000: [Source](https://www.census.gov/about/history/historical-censuses-and-surveys/census-programs-surveys/geography/urban-and-rural-areas.html). That means that the non-urban part of the population is not just those living on a farm; it included a lot of small-town residents as well. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945/60 "2025-06-24T19:00:53Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Approximately .1% of households had telephones. I’m not disputing this. The point of my post you were responding to was that even before the widespread adoption of telephones, communication in the form of railroads, telegraphs and mail existed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-telephone-how-did-you-get-someones-attention-if-you-needed-them-quickly/1019945.md?page=4)