. St. Nicholas [serial]. bill to collect, or he may be sentby a broker to deliver stock or to have a checkcertified,—in fine, his duties are too varied for me toname them all. When it is remembered that about4,500 District instruments are now in use in NewYork, and that 1, messages were deliveredby the District boys in the year ended September30, 1877, some notion of the manifold servicesrequired of them can be formed. It is easy to see that an inexperienced and un-skillful messenger in such an employment wouldonly prove himself a nuisance to the public andan injury to the company. Ever
. St. Nicholas [serial]. bill to collect, or he may be sentby a broker to deliver stock or to have a checkcertified,—in fine, his duties are too varied for me toname them all. When it is remembered that about4,500 District instruments are now in use in NewYork, and that 1, messages were deliveredby the District boys in the year ended September30, 1877, some notion of the manifold servicesrequired of them can be formed. It is easy to see that an inexperienced and un-skillful messenger in such an employment wouldonly prove himself a nuisance to the public andan injury to the company. Every boy, therefore, I879-] TELEGRAPH-BOYS. 157 who is employed by the American District Tele-graph Company is put into a training-school, andthis school is a very interesting one. When I first made its acquaintance, in the winterof 1877, I found it in the second story of a veryplain-looking building at No. 33 Bridge street,—and Bridge street, as even some New Yorkers mayneed to be told, runs toward Broadway from Broad. TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE ELEVATED RAILROAD, street, down in the neighborhood of Bowling school has since been moved to the newhead-quarters of the company at No. 699 Broad- way. The school-room is provided with woodenbenches, like those found in old-fashioned countrydistrict schools, but the instruction given is entirelyin regard to the business of the company. Everycandidate for a place must know how to read andwrite before he- can be put into the school. It isof course necessary for the boys to ,know the situa-tion of every street in the city. A large map ofthe city is therefore placed be-fore them, with the streetsmarked on it, but without theirnames. The teacher points outdifferent streets to his pupils,and they are required to namethem. In this way a messenger-boy soon acquires a more com-plete knowledge of the citysthoroughfares than many an oldresident can boast of. In onepart of the room are telegraphinstruments suchas the companyuses, and the
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