Evening star., 1902-01-25
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ting in it strictly up-to-date lunch plant.
Though there are tables on the second floor
the fire and fall back system prevails on
the lower floor, because it is more rapid In
| operation. The prices are the same as pre-
vail in the neighborhood, but the advantage
| is that some of the profit goes into the
pockets of the stockholders. Should the
| thing pan out according to program and
expectation, there is no doubt but that
there will be similar lunch concerns start
ed in connection with the down town de-
partments.
X * x X X
"The first telegraph messengers ever en-
ployed were two colored men, slaves" VOL
unteered an old resident to Star reporter.
1T was way back in the SOS when Morse,
the inventor of the telegraph, opened up
in this city the first office for public busi-
ness 1t was on Pennsylvania avenue near
the Metropolitan Hotel. The company was
known as the Electric Telegraph Company.
1t had three operators, one clerk, a couple
of handy men who did about everything
and the two messengers. The latter were
about twenty years old and were slaves be-
longing to a Massachusetts, man who was
quite prominent here at the time a stock
holder in the telegraph company and as a
friend of Prof. Morse. / was employed in
a store nearby and remember the messen-
gers very well. Neither could read or
write, but they were intelligent and sell
dom if ever made a mistake in the mat
ter of delivering messages, though after
while it was found that it would be more
advantageous If messengers could read and
write, and white boys were employed in
their places. 1t happened that l was one
of the white boys employed and 1t also hap
pens that while am not the first white boy
ever employed as a telegraph messenger I
am sure l am among the first three. The
colored boys were pretty well known and
worked for the Electric Telegraph Com
pany for over year. Their owner called
at the office regularly every Saturday night
and drew the pay for their services so
per week for each. Though he was a kind
sort of a master in a general way he never
gave the slaves a penny they earned as
money. He kept them well dressed, how
ever. They managed to get tip every
now and then from the people who received
MESA ges, and in this way they were pretty
literally supplied with pocket money. They
were very good fellows and made lots of
friends, who turned out to be real friends
afterward. There was a man who stopped
at the National Hotel who was famous in
small kind of a way as an abolitionist.
This man never lost an opportunity to ad-
wise slaves to run away to the north and
thus escape slavery, and he took particu-
lar pains to tell the telegraph messengers
that they would be much better off if they
changed their place of residence. He even
went so far as to start a purse to secure
their freedom. Lots of others contributed,
and l have ever been proud to remember
that l put in my mite. The two telegraph
messengers left here the same night and the
next morning their master found them
missing. They first got into PennSyl-
vania via the underground railway, and
from there afterwards got further north.
One of them got up into Vermont and the
other got as far up as Canada, where he
still lives today. He Is rather well fixed
financially. Both were named Tom-one
was known as Black Tom and the other
Brown Tom Both were also named john
son, though there was no blood relation
between them. I heard from Black Tom
last summer. He is rather proud of the
fact that he was the pioneer telegraph
messenger boy of the world, his employ
ment preceding that of Brown Tom by
several days.
x X X X x
81 have at last discovered an ingenious,
yet what has proven to be, at least in my
case, an effective method of getting rid of
somnambulistic felines who persist in sing
ing midnight lullabies on backyard
fences" said an inventive F street cleo
trician to an Evening Star reporter a few
days ago. For some time past" he con-
tinued, my slumbers. as we'll as those CT
my immediate neighbors, have been seri-
ously interfered with, If not entirely broken
up, by several cats with operatic ten
dencies who INDUCED in their nocturnal
arias on the fence directly in the rear of
my residence.
'They invariably made their appearance
about the hour of night when according to
the immortal Shakespeare, grave yards are
supposed to yawn, and when in these latter
days tired mortals not only emulate their
example, but make a bold attempt to snatch
few hours Of sleep as well. An efforts to
get rid of these midnight marauders proved
fruitless. Even the proverbal bootjack
seemed to have no terrors for them and
instead of diminishing rather had ten
dency to increase their diScordant notes.
FINALLY, in desperation 1 hit upon a
plan that 1 thought might perhaps put the
miscreants to flight, and incidentally put
a stop to their hideous music.
''One morning / carefully wired the top
Of the fence where the felines were wont to
congregate, placed a switchboard near the
window of my bed chamber and anxiousIy
awaited the cats and developments. Both
tion of the temperance of the cats 1 stole
noise1essly to my window. There they
were as OF yore, perched upon my back
yard fence. Instantly 1 touched the key
was transmitted from where stood to tho
fence, and instantly the cats fell from their
former habitat all in a heap. A series OF
yells followed this experiment, and all thai
could observe in the darkness were sew.
erai very much surprised and equally
shocked cats fleeing into the night
Strange to relate" continued the cleo
trician. II have not been again troubled
with feline visitors. Whether the cats l
had shocked subsequently died from the
effects of fright or whether they lived to
tell of their catastrophe and impart warn
ings to their 'tabby' friends. has never been
ulsciosed, put they have avoided my back
fences consistently since the occurrence 1
have related, and I would advise all those
who have been disturbed in their midnight
creams by the same causes to throw aWay
for
the electrical treatment"
Two Of q Kind.
From the Chicago News