. St. Nicholas [serial]. pplied it that it can, in a largecity, be made to do a multitude of services at a very-small cost. So in New York we find that there aretwo classes of telegraph companies, one principally 152 TELEGRAPH-BOYS. [December, employed in sending messages between distantplaces, and one which works only in the city. Ineach of these branches, boys have a great dealto do. Let us first make the acquaintance of the boysemployed by that great corporation, the WesternUnion Telegraph Company, whose wires extendover every state and territory, and whose head-quarters are in the great bu
. St. Nicholas [serial]. pplied it that it can, in a largecity, be made to do a multitude of services at a very-small cost. So in New York we find that there aretwo classes of telegraph companies, one principally 152 TELEGRAPH-BOYS. [December, employed in sending messages between distantplaces, and one which works only in the city. Ineach of these branches, boys have a great dealto do. Let us first make the acquaintance of the boysemployed by that great corporation, the WesternUnion Telegraph Company, whose wires extendover every state and territory, and whose head-quarters are in the great building at the corner of trimmings, and they wear caps to correspond. Inrainy weather, each boy wears a complete coveringof rubber cloth, and so, for them an umbrella isnever necessary. So rapidly are they expected todo their work, that even the very short time lostin opening and shutting umbrellas is held to beworth considering. The number of boys employed by this companyvaries with the season of the year; for with tele-. THEY SEEM TO FORGET THAT MY TIME IS VALUABLE. Broadway and Dey street in New York. If at anyhour of the day or night you enter a door on theDey street side of this building, about fifty feetdistant from Broadway, you will find yourselfin a good-sized comfortable room, fitted up withsome plain benches, on which are seated a num-ber of the telegraph-boys whom you see so oftenin the street. The uniforms of the Western Unionboys consist of suits of dark-blue cloth with red graph companies as with other kinds of business,there are busy times and dull times. The largestnumber is employed in the main office in the springand autumn, when it sometimes reaches one hun-dred. In February, I found about eighty boys onthe pay-roll, and this may be taken as a fair the main office, this company has nineteenbranch offices in the city, each with its messengers,and these offices add seventy boys to the list. I879-] TELEGRAPH-BOYS. 153
Size: 1288px × 1939px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthordodgemar, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1873
