Western Union Telegraph Boys

Let r.s mako the acquaintanceof tlio boys employed by that greal tio'n, the Western Union Tcljgraph Company, whoso wires exleiy over every State and Territory, and whose hoadquarters are in the great building at the corner i Broadway aid Dcy gtreet in New York. Hat anyhour oL the day or night yon entera Qoron the Dey Street sido of this buiding, about fi'fty feet distant from Bread' you will tind yourself in a gooá comfortable reom, (itted up wittrsome plain on which are number of the tokyr j - UI IV uniforma of the Western I oonsist of suits of dark-1 i red trimmings, and they wear (japs 16 correspond. u rainy weátl boy wears a complete coverins'of rubber c!oth, and so, for them anumbwlla is ncver neeessary. So rapidljare they expected to do their work that even tlio very short time lost in opqbJng and shutting nmbreüas is held to be wörth considerinsr. The boys aro not pnid bytlio rnor.th or week, but so muoh ior oucii m delivered. Thisgives every boy an incentive to deliver every fcessage as promptly as possible and tofhurry back for another ono. For eath me which a boy dèlivers hn receiyes turo and i half centa, and for eaoh answer that ho briogs back. to be förwarded from the oiiice, lic receivcs tliree cents. This explains why a telegniph-boy is ftlways ready to wait for au answer. The, amount of money whieh a boy c:;n earn in a day thiis dependi, it will be seeu, on his own aetirityi lt is founl that the average nuraber of measages delivered from the main oflice everj day is three thonsand, and the average number delivered by eaoh boy is thiriyíive. A boy who is a. stow walk inclinad to 'bc lazy will not delifi many, while a very activo boy wi; livor more. low, do you kucv how far a boy will have to walk in a day, delivering lioso messages and retnrning to the office? Kot loss than nin miles! And this does not ineludo goina; lij) and down stftirs, which is no smáíl matter In the business streets, where olfioes are found all the way from the ground Boor to sixth ar.il aeventh ntóries. You may be sure that, to teicgraph bojs, elevators are wclcume machines. The messages at the main office are received on the seoond floor, from which run wires c onnecting with almöst all parta of the world. As booh as au operator has written a message that has come in, it is sent down to the ground Hoor through a tube. On its arrival there a clerk takes it and writes on it ;i number, beginning with No. 1, for tiio first message reeeived ep.cli day. It h then put through a steam copyin-preá%, and is next passed to a clerk, who it into an envelope, on which he ■ the number and the address, clerk passes it to si 11 another who copies, on asheel of paper proper ly prepared, the number of tho me and the number ot' the boy vvlio is to deliverit. The dlstribution of the mes . nmeng the boys 'm made as foüovvs: Each boy, is he comes int o the office in the moraing, receives wbat is called a "delivery sheet" - that is, a sheet of paper with blanks in whieh to writethe numbera of mes?ages, the time of leaving the office, the name and address of the receiver, and the time of the messenger's return. Each messeneer Í8 known by hia number, and each of then Jkis a paste board cover for hia "delivery sheet," on which his number is wrifcten. These sheets, with their covers, are put into a rack by the side of the clerk last mentioned above, and he always puts aïne , . ' en ready, into the cover nearest to him, and calis out the number of the boy to whom it belongs. When a boy comes back from the delivery of a message he puts his . iiito tlio ro.olt ijoli"il lijn. ■ ready there, and sits down to wait uatil it rcaches tho clerk. Through this method there can be no chance ior partiaJity, and the sooner a boy gets back to the oflice, the sooner will another message be ready for him. You can sec, now, by what you have read, that a telegraph-boy does not load a lazy life. His hours of duty, if he is a day boy, are from7 a. m. until 6-oü p. m. Of course, only a few bo3"s are required to deliver messagrs at night, as a rule. But thore are times in the year when a great many messages come iu for deliver, frotn between 1 and 7 a. m. At such times ambitious boys are given an opportunity to do extra work. Sometimes a boy can do a good day's work by 8 a. m.. and he is then allowed by the superintendent to "lie oíV," or, as you will better understand it, take a holiday. If a boy in this business does havo a holiday, lie usually has tho satisfaction of knowing that a good day's work, and a good day's pay have