The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-01-08
The District Telegraph.

great many services 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 a 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 system
is the American District Telegraph Com
pany. The boys in this company's en-
ploy have many duties to perform
which are not required of the Western
Union boys, and they therefore have a
great many things to learn before they
can be provided with work. When the
hirer of District instrument calls for
a messenger, the boy can never know
what he is wanted for. He may be
told to hurry for physician, he may be
given package for delivery, or bill to
collect, or he may be sent by broker
to deliver stock or to have check GER
ti6ed-in fine, his duties are too varied
for me to name them all. When it is
remembered that about $500 District
instruments are now in use in New
York, and that 1,513,265 messages were
delivered by the District boys in the
year ended September 80, 1877, some
notion of the manifold services required
Of them can be formed.
1t is easy to see that an inexperienced
and unskillful messenger in such an en-
ployment would only prove himself a
nuisance to the public and an injury to
the company Every boy, therefore,
who is employed by the Americon Dis
trict Telegraph Company is put into a
training school, and this school is very
interesting one.
This school-room is provided with
wooden benches, like those found in old
fashioned country district schools, but
the instruction given is entirely in re-
gard to the business of the company.
Every candidate for place must know
how to read and write before he can be
put into the school. 1t is Of course
necessary for the boys to know the stu
alton of every street in the city. A
large map of the city is therefore placed
before them, with the streets marked on
it, but without their names. The teach
er points out different streets to his pu-
pills, and they are required to name
them. In this way messenger-boy
soon acquires more complete know
ledge of the city's thoroughfares than
many an old resident can boast of. In
one part of the room are telegraph in
struments such as the company uses, and
the boys are taught how to send ard re-
celve messages on them. There is a
miniature bank, where they are taught
about the use of checks, and there is a
make believe brokers' Office where they
are taught how to deliver stock, etc.
Much attention is given to the instruc-
ton in the bank and in the brokers' Of
fee, as bankers and brokers use the mes
senger boys constantly.
There is, besides all this, great deal
for the boys to learn about the com
panys methods of business, which need
not explain in detail. They must make
themselves familiar with the "tarit,
book" which tells them how much
boy must charge for going from any one
place in the city to any other. They
must learn the use of the different kinds
of tickets, on which the temporary rec
cord of their service is kept. They
must know when to charge for car or
stage fare and when it was proper for
them to walk.
The American District Telegraph
Company employs, on an average, $50
boys, who are distributed throughout
the city among twenty-three offices.
Each office has from five to eighty boys
in attendance, according to its location,
and every boy is expected to serve ten
hours a lday. In some of the offices,
constant employment cannot be found
for all the boys during this time, and
one form of prom otion is to send boy
to an ''easy district
When boy arrives at his office in
the morning he goes 10 the sergeant
who notes if he is in 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
neatly brushed. If he passes this ex-
animation successfully he takes a seat
for duty. The boys respond to calls in
the order of their numbers early In the
morning: aftcrward they take their