Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1879-12-10
Western Union Telegraph Boys.

! ''1N '"l''l'' ~ ''' H'''' -
alloa, tho Western Union Telegraph
Company, whose Wiies extend 0SeI
every state aud territory, aud whose
headquarters are In the great build
Ing at the corner Of broadway aud
Dcy street In Now York, Hat any
hour Of the day or night you enter q
door on tho DCy street side Of this
bailding about ilNy foct distance IRON
Broadway you viii Gnd yourself In q
good.Sizcd comfortable room, fitted NJ
with some plain benches, on which
are seated u number OF telcgraph'boys
whom you see 80 citcu IN the street,
The uniforms Of the Western Union
boys consists Of suits ol dark-bluo
cloth with red trimmings, aud they
wear a cap to correspond, Ia rainy
weather, each boy wca" q complete
cuyrIiug o. rubber cloth, and 80, for
| tlcm an umhcrclla IL never necessary.
80 RAPIDLY ae they expected to do their
work, that even the very short time
lost in opening and shutting umbrellas
is held TO be worth consideration.
The boys arc not paid by the day
or week, but so much ior each mes
sage delivered, This gives every boy
au incentive to deliver every message
as promptly as possible, aud to hurry
back for another one. For each mes
sage Il boy delivers, he receives two
and half cents, aud for each answer
he brings back to be forwarded from
the office, he receives three cents,
This explains why tclegraph-boy is
alway ready to wait for an answer,
The amount Of money which boy
can earn in day thus depends on his
own activity. 1t is found that tho
average number OF messages delivered
from the main office every day is three
thousand, and the average number de-
Iivered by each boy is thirty-fve. A
boy who is slow to walk or inclined
to be lazy will not deliver so many,
while very active boy will deliver
more. Now do you know how far a
boy will have to walk in day and
lcturu TO deliver these messages Not
less than nineteen miles And this
does not include going up and down
stairs, wich Is no small matter IN the
business streets, where offices are
found all the way from the ground
floor to the sixth and seventh stories.
You may be sure that, to telegraph
boys, elevators are welcome machines
The messages at the main Office are
received on the seventh floor which
run wires connecting, with almost all
parts of the world. AS soon as an
operator has written 4 message that
has come in, it is SEPT down the
ground floor through atube. On its
arrival there, a clerk takes it and
writes on it a number, beginning with
No. /, for the first message received
each day. 1t is then put through 4
steam copyiug-press, and it is next
passed to clerk, who puts it into an
envelope, on which he writes the
number and the address. This clerk
passes it still to another clerk, who
copies, on sheet OF paper properly
prepared, the number of the message
and the number of the boy who is to
deliver 1t.
The distribution of the messages
among the boys is made rs follows:
Each boy as he comes into the office
in th morning, receives what is called
a ~, livery sheet, that is a sheet of
ppper with blanks in which to write
the number OF messages. the time of
leaving the office, the name and ad-
dress of the receiver, and the time the
messengers return. Each messenger
is known by his number, and each of
them have pasteboafd cover for his
"delivery Sheet on which his number
is written. These sheets, in their
covers, are put into rack by the side
of the clerk last mentioned above, and
he always puts a message, when
ready, into the cover nearest to him,
AID calls out the number ofthe boy
TO whom 1t belongs. When boy
comes back from the delivery of a
message, he put his cover into the
rack behind those already there, and
sits down to wait until it reaches the
clerk. Through this method, there
can be no chance for any partiali-
ty, and the sooner boy gets back to
the office the sooner another message
will be ready for him. You can see,
now, by what you have read, that a
telegraph.boy does not lead a lazy life.