Photo taken in New Baden, IL. Note the wooden box atop the pole in the foreground. These were pretty common in the old days (say, before the 1920s?) for making a dry connection between the open wire and twisted pairs that led down to the telegraph station. Many early train stations can be seen with such junction boxes on adjacent poles (having a telegraph office inside the train depot). The last wooden telegraph pole-top junction box that I recall was in 1967 in Brockton, MA. During that year all of the Western Union copper, crossarms, etc., were removed.