Daily camera., 1897-06-10
DELIVERING DISPATCHES
The Work Of Messengers at Tele-
graph Stations.
Prompt Delivery Sometimes Neces-
states Intrusion in Church and
Theater or Trip to the
Farm.

THE telegraph messenger, SAID an
old-time messenger boy, has to de-
liver messages in many strange places.
The message is not like letter, which
is simply left at d mans house or place
Of business, to be found by him when
ne comes back, if he is out, but it is
often so addressed as to reach him
promptly wherever he may be. Thus
it is not unusual to deliver messages on
railroad trains. One man has occasion
10 send word of something that has
surned up after the other man started.
lie tclegraphs to John Jones, on the
1880 train at Gristleton, of course al
owing sufficient margin of time. The
clegraph office is not far from the sta
on; there is probably an office in the
tation. A boy with the message is
standing on the platfor; when the
rain comes in. The chances are that
he doesn't know Mr.. John Jones. and he
starts at the forward end of the train
and goes through, calling for him. 1t
may be that this is an unusual expert
ance for Mr.. Jones, who, when he hears
his name called, may make himself
Known from halfway down the car; or
: may be that Mr.. Jones is an ex-
1erienced traveller and man of busi-
ness, in which case he waits until the
boy is passing the end of his seat and
then stops him quietly and takes his
message without attracting general at
tention.
"a boy may have occasion to deliver
a message to a farmer at the pillow; or
he may have message for somebody in
a church, or in a theater. In the church
or in the theater, if the person ad-
dressed is not known, he may be called
for from the pulpit or the stage. If the
person addressed is at theater it may
be that in anticipation of such hap
pening he has lett his theater address,
seat and number, at home or at his
hotel, and an usher is thus enabled to go
straight to him, though he be stran-
ger, and deliver the message without
any fuss or furry and without attract
irg attention to him.
Messages are delivered to people in
courts, in police courts as well as high
er courts. They are delivered to cap
tains aboard vessels and to people in
various other places, and under circum-
stances that seem odd at first thought
but that are simple enough when you
come to think them out.
"All this is suggested to me by some
thing that l saw on the day OF the
Grant celebration, the delivery of dis
patch to man in the procession. 1t
might seem rs though it would be diff
cult to find man in procession, he be-
ing, in such a procession as this, one
man among $4,000, and it might be diff
cult under some circumstances, but,or-
it would not be, for the mes
senger would in all probability start
with a knowledge Of the regiment and
to which the man to whom
tile dispatch was addressed belonged,
if he did belong to such an organiza-
ton, and then all that would be neces-
sary would be to locate the organiza-
ton, task comparatively easy with
the aid of programme and little
figuring as to how far the regiment
would march in given time.
This message that 1 speak OF was
for a member of the staff of the gov
ernor of Ohio, then riding up Riverside
drive. Its prompt delivery was as sim
pie matter as rolling off log. The
rovarnor and his staff were singled out
without the slightest trouble by means
of their state flag. Without the slight
est hesitation the boy tackled the gov
ernor and handed him the dispatch.
The governor saw at glance that 1t
was not for him and motioned the boy
toward his staff. The boy tackled then
the first man he met, and that member
of the staff indicated to him the mem
Der to whom the dispatch was ad-
dressed The messenger promptly de-
livered it. To find the right man he