Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-03-21
A MARRIED MESSENGER BOY.
He Has to Hustle to support His Wife
and Three Young Children.


He Has to Hustle to Support His Wife
and Three Young Children.
As an elevator in one of the big office build
tngs ia Broadway was passing one OF the upper
floors on its downward trip shout of "Dowh"
was heard, and a messenger ran at full speed
along the corridor just in time TO leep into
the car. The incident excited no little merri-
ment among those in tho elevator, who in the
free and easy American way began to make
comments.
"You must be new at the business, +" said
one man to the messenger, who was evidently
thirty or thirty-five years old and wore full
beard
"Well, not exactly was the answer; "it's
fifteen years since went into it,"
''Then you probably had fit of absent
mindedness, didn't you" asked another man,
and everybody laughed, especially the author
Of the joke.
"You're wrong there" was the reply: 81
am paid by the job, and here the elevator
reached the ground floor. The messenger.
who had taken his stand near the door, was
the first man out, and before the car was
empty he had entered building two doors
down the street.
In spite of the jokes of the "funnyn man
and the general idea of the public, there are
many messengers who do not spend an hour
and half tossing pennies, looking in show
windows and reading dime novels every
time they are sent to deliver message. Es-
pecially is the popular belief untrue as far as
the western Union messengers down town
are concerned. The reason is plain. They
are paid less than two cents for every tele-
gram they deliver, and if they were as gla-
cier like in their movements as the comic pa
pers would have us believe they are, they
would not earn enough to pay for their uni
forms Not a few Of them are married and
have children, and it will be readily believed
that they have to get around at lively pace
TO earn enough to support their families
Bearded messengers always arouse more or
less curiosity. People cannot understand how
a man can make a living at boys work.
Yet the adult messengers find their occupa.
ton profitable as well as to their taste. II
fitted for their work, they can generally
make from $12 to SIS a week, which is more
than they could earn at many other callings
As beginners at the business make only a
quarter as much, the question arises how can
a man, even with many years experience, do
four times the work of green" boyi In
answer to this messenger, who has gotten
married and raised three children since he en-
tered the SERVICE said;
''There's good deal more science about the
messenger business than you might think. In
the first place, have always been in the de-
tail which delivers messages In the district
which lies within half dozen blocks Of the
Western Union building. In the fifteen years
that have been at the work Ihave delivered
kilograms to about every firm In the district
and have come to know Just where the Office
of every one of them is located. This means
a big saving in time, as new man finds out
after he has spent ten or fifteen minutes read
ing the directory in the hall of the building.
asking questions Of the elevator man or going
from one room to another making inouiriss
"Another way In which have an advan.
tage is that know Just where to get nv
book signed. The bashful 'greeners' will
hang around until somebody takes notice of
them, and the fresh ones will interrupt n
man who Is adding up column Of figures,
and get jumped on. / always go to the
right man at the right time, and will have
three kilograms delivered before a new mes
senger gets rid of one"
do you expect to stay In the business all |
your lifef' seemed natural question to ask.
well, don't see any way out Of it. l |
make enough to keep my family and that's
more than l would be sure of doing at many
other things. have given my Oldest boy a
good common school education, and am going
to make messenger Of him next summer
l believe that 1t will give him better bust
ness training than anything else would. He
will get around everywhere, see everything,
meet all kinds OF people, learn how business
Is done, and get to be bright sharp, quick
and active. After he's been with the West
ern Union few years I'll try to get him
place Of the same kind in brokers' Office.
II he's the right sort he can get to be clerk
after while, and sometimes brokers' messen-
gers become partners in the firm. Why
shouldn't my boy be Wall street millionaire
some dayi Jay Gould and the rest didn't
start in life with much better advantages
than he has. New York Tribune.