The latter is seen on the right within this New York State village after a light snowfall. Paired telephone cable supported by bridle rings and a supporting (messenger) wire is seen along the upper portion of this image. This type of telephone line construction was pretty new when this picture was taken and became very commonplace across the United States and Canada in following years/decades. Such construction was a lot more storm and tree-resistant than openwire, thus making it a lot more economical.

Generally cable with lead sheathing was the rule. Such lead-covered cables like you see here (owned by Verizon) are still in use very nearby where in live (in southeast MA)...some rather hefty with lots of individually paper-insulated copper pairs within them.