That's what it appears like in this picture, photo taken in Lum, Michigan. The pole in the foreground is "buck-armed" (that is, a crossarm bolted on both sides of the pole) for physically dead-ending open wire circuits. From there individual cloth or rubber covered wires led to the junction box immediately below as you can also clearly see. From there it was paired cable to the brick building which likely led to several telephone operators' stations for routing calls.