The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-25
THE DISTRICT MESSENGER.
The Endless Variety of Work Imposed Upon
Him Does Not Help His Morals. y

A dissipated- looking young man, who was per-
fectly dressed and ~languid. alighted from a ham
som in front of the Hoffman House, looked up at.
the driver and said:
How much?"
Two dollars" said the driver, promptly.
The youth passed up a dollar bill, smiled,
turned on his heel, and walked into the hotel.
Inc driver protested for a moment, and then
Grove snrlliy away. The young man rang for a
messenger, and when a pale. round -shouldered
ana slckly looking lad stumbled into the corridor,
the young man took him aside and said:
tommy, nave a friend who lives in Twenty
seventh street, between Broadway and Sixth
avenue, but L can't remember his number.
Heres the name on a slip of paper. Go and
ring every bell on the block until you find the
man. and be quick about it. I'll wait here"
The boy was gone about half an hour. and
when ne returned he looked even more sicklvs
than when he departed. But he had found the
number, and he pocketed the ffty-cent piece
and departed cumbrously.
The superintendent of the telegraph company.
to whom the incident was related shortly after
this said:
They use our messenger boys now for every
sort of disagreeable service. AS a rule, when
something turns up that a man doesn't feel like
doing himself the idea of a messenger boy oc-
ours to him instantly. The dudes no longer
think Of waiting 1T the stage doors themselves,
but send our boys around to tell their charmers
where they viii! meet them for supper after the
play is out. That's why so many messenger
boys are to be seen about stage doors every
night. Not long ago a little chap in our employ
came crying into the office after having been
tossed down the steps of Wallick's Theater. On
investigation we found that the boy had been
called to the Gilsey House billiard room
by a young man who is violently smit-
ten by the charms of one of the chorus
girls at Wallack's Theater. He wrote her an
affectionate and gushing letter, and made an APP
pointment for supper and sent the boy around>
to the theater with it. The letter was read by
actresses husband, and the boy was promptly fired
out The following night the same precocious
dude repeated the experiment, and another boy
was slightly abused. | heard nothing more of
the case after that, and / suppose the love-sick
swain got tired of writing to the girl. Perhaps,
how ever, he is still sending messages to her by
the boys of other Offices. You see, there is
no way of regulating such a thing as this,
because we have no means of knowing what
is in letters that customers send by the
boys. 1t is a very safe thing for the dude, too,
for he goes away as soon as he has sent
the boy, and so the angry husband cannot catch
him. Altogether the messenger boys are a great
thing for Washers. The boys are smart and
trustworthy, and they will undergo any sort of
peril for a quarter. A very fly specimen of a
boy, who had been with US for three years, -e-
Gently got a position as valet and confidential
servant to a club man who is very we'll known in
New York. The boy went down to the Union
Club one day toanswer the call of this bachelor.
lie was to deliver a note to a young lady without
her famllys finding out anything about it, and
he did it by waiting across the street for
three mortal hours, until she went out to drive
with her mother, and then he slipped it into her
hand quietly as lie closed the door of the car
riaee. The boy is very proud of his livery and
buttonSnow, and he has been around here several
times to showthem to us. He says that his duties
consist of putting his master to bed at d O'clock
in the morning ana of pulling him out again at 2
o'clock the next afternoon"
"All this must have more or less effect upon
the morals OF the boysl"
1T has" said the superintendent, land a very
bad effect at that. Boys are quick to learn by
exam pie, and the mildest and greenest boy
imaginable becomes n very knowing sort Of a
young sport before he has been in the business
long. There seems to be no end to the uses to
which messengers boys are put. Take yes
terday as an instance. At 0 in the
morning we had a call from Thirtieth street.
We sent a little shaver. and he came back and
said they wanted a bigger boy, so we sent a
stronger specimen, and found out that it was
the ~landlady in a clearinghouse moving furni-
ture from one floor to another. Another boy
about II o'clock went up here to a bachelors
apartment house and helped a young man, who
had been out two or three nights, get through
his bath and thoroughly dressed before he went
down town. Two boys were called in the after
noon to assist a family in packing trunks before
they went to the country, and another boy took
charge of an old lady in a trip to Coney Island
and back. Take it all in all, the messenger boy
has become a convenience of NJ little Importance
&c the New Yorker.