New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-02-16
Il MESSENGER WHO ISN'T SLOW.
HE HAS A WIFE AND FAMILY TO SUPPORT.
HOW EXPERIENCE TELLS IN DELIVERING MES
sAGES-wHY FATHER WILL PUT HIS
SON IN THE BUSINESS.

SON IN THE BUSINESS.
AS elevator in one of tho big Office buildings in
Broadway was passing Of the upper floors its
downward trip a shout Of Down" was heard, and a
messenger at full speed along the corridor Just In
time to leap into the The incident excited no
little merrtment among those in the elevator, who in
the free and easy American way began to make COM
ments.
"You must be new at the busness.' said one man
to the messenger, who 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,"
"Thcn you probably had a ct Of observation-disclosures,
didn't your" 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 out. and before the car
was empty he had entered building two doors down
the street.
In spite OF the Jokes Of the :" funny" man and the
general idea Of the public there 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-
peclally is tho popular belief untrue as far as the
Western Union messengers down town arc
concerned The reason IS plain They arc
paid less than two cents for every telegram
they deliver and II they as glacierlke In their
movements as the comic papers would have US believe
they are they would enough to pay for their
uniforms Not few Of them arc married and have
children and It will be readily believed that they have
TO yet around at lively pace to earn enough to
support their families.
Bearded messengers always arouse more or less
curiosity. People cannot understand how man can
make a living at a boys work. Yet the adult messen
gors find their occupation profitable as well as 10
their taste. If fitted for their work. they can gen.
rTllfQh Il.
than they could earn at many other callings AS
bcciuncr, az the business make only a quarter as
r,,n tic question arises, how can man, even Win
many years experience, do four times the work OF
grcens how In answer to this messenger who
has GOTTEN married and raised three children since
he entered the service Of the western Union. said
.Theres good deal more science about the messen-
ger business than you might think In the hrst place
I have always been in the detail which dtlVers
messages I'm the district which lies within nall
n dozen blocks Of the Western Union Building IN
the fifteen years that have been at the work nave
delivered kilograms TO about every firm IN inc us
trict and have come TO know Just where the ONCE Oh
every one OF them is located. THIS means ois
saving in time. as a new finds out after he has
spent ten fifteen minutes T1dhg the uireoVo,s -
the hall OF the building. ASKING questions OF inc
elevator man or gong rom o'lc IV0'H ~ "4''''' '
ing inquiries. T.,
Another way In which have an advantage Is
that 1 also know Just where TO get my book signed
The bashfn grecners' will hang around until some
body takes notice OF them, and the fresh ones VIII
interrupt a man who is adding up column OF hgure''
and get Jumped on. l always 20 to the rleht man
:. me rlght lime and will have three kilograms 40
T,,~csl hstnrc a new messenger gets rid of one.
DO vou expect 10 STAY IN the business all your
life seemed a natural question TO ask: ,.
Well ! don't any way ont OF H. l nifAg
enourh 10 keep my family, and tlats more thah l
would be sur. 81 dOnE many other things. nave
given INV Oldest boy good common school educatloh'
and am going to make a messenger OF MN next sum
rr believe that II will give him better business
,rnd veryylerc see everything, meet ell kinds OF
people learn how business Is done, and get to DC
BRIGHT sharp, quick and active. After he's Dccl WIN
no Western nlon for a few years, III Try 20 get
hi,, a placc Of the Kind In brokers' once. II
he, the rigat sort hc can se' to be clerk ai,cr
,,hiln and sometimes brokers' messengers become
mariner, i'm the firm. Why shouldn't my boy be a
Wall street millionaire some day JAY Gould ana the
res, didn't start in life with much better advantages