The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-27
ARE ESCORTS FOR WOMEN
~
KNOW THE WORLD AND MAKE
SPLENDID CHAPERoNES.
Nearly $4,000 Employed In New
York City-Some Make Handsome
acknowledgements For Banks
Who Are Absolutely Trustworthy
Lettering Messengers Rarity.

It takes more than 10000 boys to per-
form the public messenger service OF
Manhattan yearly. One does not have
to be very old to remember when the
duty of q. uniformed messenger boy was
simply the delivery of kilograms, OF
when the messenger was less ubiquit-
Gus than he is now. But in these fin
de steele times the duties of the mes
Senger boys are as various as the
| phases of modern civilized life. The
larger clubs, hotels and organizations
have their own corps of messengers:
others depend, as private houses do,
upon calling them from one of the
larger companies. Every occasion,
hired messenger. Uniformed boys have
their part in the great financial trans
actions Of the time, in national, state
and city elections, in social doings OF
every sort, and in every form of feStiv-
ity and disaster.
The American District Telegraph
company employs between 1,200 and
1900 boys at a time. This means that
they hire in a year from 5000 to 5000,
for the force is necessarily q shifting,
changing one. They are distributed
among eighty different Offices the num-
Der attached to each varying accord
ing to the demand of the locality in
which it is located. The Postal Tele-
graph company hires about half as
many as the American District, and
there are two smaller local concerns in
the lower part of town, with a con-
slant force of about 100 each.
An applicant for a position as mes
senger must be at least IA years old
must know how to read and write, and
must have recommendation, one from
n former @
most desirable. The messenger begins
work at 81 a week, paying so cents a
week for his uniform. Formerly a boy
paid SIPS a. week until he had bought
his uniform outright. Now. however
he pays the smaller sum and the COM
pany guarantees to keep him well
dressed as long as he continues in its
employ. A new boy receives instruc-
tons from his chief, and if he is slow
to learn he is sent out for a time with
an older boy until he knows the
ropes" A bright boy is always on the
lookout for an opportunity TO step into
a better job, and their work brings them
in touch with many such chances.
Sometimes a boy elects to remain in
the service, for there are chances of
promotion there, the fact that the large
majority of the managers, superin-
tendents and clerks at headquarters
that Besides, if a. boy falls into a good
line of business in the financial district.
he frequently makes as mucn as SIS OF
S20 and in times of great activity even
more a week.
There is no age at which boys" are
retired. They continue at it until they
are men, if nothing better presents it
self; but the average age of the force is
between Is and II. There used to be a
MI how Of l1~fc nri in
service, but the large companies have
pretty generally ceased employing men
of that character.
There is a great deal of cheap jest
ing about the messenger boy who lott
ers and trifles by the wayside while
the message he bears grows stale" said
a superintendent who knows all about
boys, "but where one boy wastes his
time hundred can be depended upon
for dispatch. For the most part [ am
sure that our boys will compare favor
ably with any similar body of en-
DlOyeeS in any other business. You
heard a great deal about the suffering
of the firemen and the motormen and
others during the blizzard, but l didn't
see word printed about the messenger
boys, who showed mighty good stuff in
those days. Almost all of them were on
duty, and when a strong man looked
out of his window and decided that he
could not brave the elements, he touch
ed the call and thought nothing of the
boy that came in answer, buHeted by
the storm and doing his duty without
complaint. l was proud of our boys
then.
1--WE have a set of boys particularly
for bank service, who can be trusted
with any sum of money. Scarcely any
Of the banks or trust companies have
their own messengers. They deoend
upon u.s.
OF the more recent occupations that
mark the evolution of the modern mes
senger boy chaoeronage, police and
guide duty are conspicuous examples.
Women who are sufficiently emanci-
pated to be willing to go out in the
evening without a conventional male
escort, but who are still physically or
morally timid about going alone, have
recourse to the handy messenger boy,
and some of the boys who have been
assigned to this sort of duty during the
social season have developed into most
chivalrous and courteous attendants.
Il have had the same boy a score Of
times this winter" remarked a hus-
bandless and brotherlesS woman, and
we have become excellent friends. He
assumes a protective air that is rather
amusing when one considers that he
rises only to my shoulders, even when
he makes the utmost of himself He has
been cultivating quite a society manner,
too. l think perhaps he considers it ap-
propriate to go with my best clothes,
and l took pains not to discourage him.
LapSeS in grammar and conceits of at
elegance make an entertaining
combination; but he is nice boy. and
never Dresuming or offensive in any
wax"
Even business women do not disdain
the protective influence of boy at late
night hours. One woman whose work
has been keeping her down town until
nearly midnight, began to feel her
nerves fraying, and was easily fright
ened. With a boy in uniform by her
side. the shadows seemed to lose their
uncanny forms, she failed to see an as
sassin in every man who approached
and, in short, she made the homeward
journey with peace Of mind, as well as
bodily safety.
4 would much sooner have a boy
than policeman" she asserted. What
could he do if anything really happen
would be equal to any emergency: be- |
sides, there will be none when he is
she added, conclusively.
Another woman recently has been
overwhelmed with out-of-town visit |
ors. Her strength simply was not equal |
to the continued demands of showing
them about the town. A happy insp1r-
alton suggested the messenger boy.
do you know the city," she asked |
the youth who came in answer to her
reouest.
"Yes'm."
DO you know all the places OF in
terest?"
"Yes'm.''
With this monosyllabic assurance she
committed her guests to his care, some |