My dad used to work for the phone company. If any phones were out of kilter, he asked and would get permission to bring them home. He would fix them up and run lines throughout the house. We did not have a large home, but there was a phone in every room and yes even the bathroom. Once when my sister and mother and I were home we were on the phone to my aunt. We had a signal when we had an emergency. It was to let the other person know we needed help. Someone had broken into my dad's shed so we told my aunt that "Dad nearly burnt the shed down". Neighbors were at our house in minutes and held the guy til police got there. The thing was we were on a 4 party line and so was my aunt so multiply by 2, you have 8 people. We knew there was someone in the shed because my dad had a very loud ticking clock and you could here it in the back ground. We had the "Princess style", French, Cat, large speaker, phone with rotary dial in receiver, phone with pushbutton in receiver. Just about any style. He did eventually take the phone out of the bathroom. You could tell where dad was in the house by the way he answered the phone. Once the priest called and Dad answered, " Bob's *&%# house. I'll let you guess where he was. He was so embarrassed when he saw the priest the next morning.