Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-12-13
.DIsTRICTu TELEGRAPH BOYS.

The telegraph is made to do a great many ser
vices in the large cities. Instead Of merely
sending messages from one person to another,
instruments are placed In private houses, and
the occupants by merely pressing a knob. can
summon policeman, or give an alarm in case
OF fire, or call messenger to do any service that
may be required. The principal company in
New York which controls such telegraph sys-
TEN, is the American district telegraph COM
pany- The boys in this company's employ
have many duties to perform which are not re-
quired of the Western Union BOYS, and they
therefore have great many things to learn be-
fore they can be provided with work. When
she hlref OF district instrument calls for mes
senger, the boy can never know what he may be
wanted for. He may be told to hurry for a
physician, he may be given a package for de-
livery, or bill to collect, or he may be sent by
a broker TO deliver stock or to have a check
certif1ed,-in fine his duties are 200 varied for
me to name them ALL When u IS remembered
that about 4.5e0 district instruments are now in
use IN New York, and that 1.5l3. PCS messages
were delivered by the district toys in the year
ended September 80, 1877, some notion of the
manlfold services required OF them can be
formed.
1t is easy to see that an inexperienced and I'M
skfllful messenger in such an employment would
| only prove himself nuisance TO the public and
an injury to the company. Every boy, there
fore, who is employed by the American district
telegraph company is put into trainings ;hool,
and this school is very interesting one.
The school-room is provided with wooden
benches, like those found in oid-fashioned coun-
try district schools, but the instruction given is
entirely in regard to the business OF the COM
pany. Every candidate for a place must know
how to read and write before he can be put into
the school, 1t is is of course necessary for the
boys to know the situation of every street in the
city. A large map of the city Is therefore
placed before them. with the streets marked Oh
1t, but without their names. The teacher points
| out different streets to his pupils. and they are
required to name them. In this way a leSsen-
ger boy soon acquires more complete knorvl-
edge of the city's thoroughfares than many an
OLD resident can boast OF. In one part OF the
room are telegraph instruments such as the COM
pany uses, and the boys are taught how to send
and receive messages on them. Then there is a
miniature bank where they are taught about
the use OF checks, and there is a kind of make
believe brokers' Office, where they are taught
how to deliver stock, etc. Much attention is
given to the instruction in the bank and in the
brokers' Office, as bankers and brokers use the
messenger boys constantly.
There is besides all this, a great deal for the
boys to learn about the company's methods Of
business, which l need not explain In detail
"tartf book" which tells them how much q
boy must charge for going from any one place
In the city to any Other They must learn the
the temporary record of their service is kept.
They must know when to charge for a car OF
stage fare and when 1t is proper for them to
walk.
The American district telegraph company EN-
ploys on an average $50 boys, who are dis
tr1buted throughout the city among % Offices
Each Office has from to so boys in attendance,
according to its location, and every boy is eX-
pected to serve 10 hours day. In some of the
offices, constant employment cannot be fonnd
for all the boys during this time and one form
of promotion is to send a boy to an .'easy dis
trict.'
When boy arrives at his Office in the morn
ing, he goes to the sergeant, who notes If he is
Oh time, or not. Then ,he puts on his uniform
and reports to the manager, who ascertains
whether or not his hands are clean and his
hair is neatly brushed. 1fhe passes this examt-
nation successfully, he takes a seat really for
duty. The boys respond to calls in the order of
their numbers early In the morning; afterward
they take their turns
A faithful boy in the employ of this company
is never discharged merely because business Is
dull, the designations of boys who tire of their
duties or leave for other causes, and the dsmts-
sal OF boys who are unsatisfactory, rapidly de-
creasDg the force when additions are not made
1t has required no little skill so to arrange the
service that inefficient messengers may be de-
tected among so many; but this has been &C
complished by an admirable system of records
and discipline is enforced by means of fines and
extra hours, which soon lessen the wages, or pro-
long the period of daily service, Of those boys
who prove remiss.-IW. A. Linn, in 81. Nicholas
for December.