|
The Fun And
Troubles of Toronto Messengers
They have all sorts of
errands to run
Toronto Star, September 15, 1906
It’s a case of “out in the rain, and the hail and the snow,” in
downright earnest for the hardy youngsters who carry messages and
parcels for the various messenger companies in the city. Sunshine or
storm, it makes no difference to the messenger lads.
They have to “hike” on their wheels, far and near, over clean asphalt
pavements or through mud puddles as the command of the boss dictates
for people have messages to send at all times and in all kinds of
weather.
With the idea of getting an insight into the work of these busy little
fellows, The Star spent a couple of hours one afternoon this week in
the office of the City Messenger Service. Here fifteen boys are
employed and the extent of the business may be judged from the fact
that from 100 to 250 messages a day are delivered. The number delivered
varies based on the weather and the time of the year. January,
February, July and August are the slack months, while around Christmas
time, and Exhibition, business fairly hums and the boys wheel
“centuries” nearly every day.
Letters and parcels are the cause of most errands and it is a common
thing to see a boy go out on the six o’clock trip with from 20 to 30
letters and parcels, small and large. Generally however the patron
requests speed, and then the boy attends to only one errand at a time,
using the utmost dispatch.
“What are some of the most peculiar things you have been asked to
deliver?” the manager asked.
“Well once a man came in with his little boy, whom he had brought
downtown and asked us to take him home.”
“Did you do it?”
“Sure! We can deliver anything if we get the proper directions. We
never know failure here. Several time people have come in and asked us
to take a horse and rig back to the livery, while dogs, cats and canary
birds give the boys quite frequently.”
“Do you ever carry money for patrons?”
“Oh yes, quite often. We always do it safely too. C.O.D. parcels form a
large part of our business and we are often asked to call for checks
for certain people.
“Can you always trust the boys in these financial transactions?”
“Yes we have very little trouble with dishonest boys. You see our
system is so perfect that the boy can’t escape detection if he returns
to the office. A signature has to be obtained from every consignee by
the messenger and in the case of C.O.D. he has to take the money back
to the employer, and obtain his signature also, before coming back to
our office. Not one boy in a year gives us any trouble. We soon find
out whether a boy is going to turn out all right and a bad one won’t
last around here more than a day or so. This is no business for slow,
stupid and dishonest youngsters.”
Just here the phone rang and the desk man turned around to answer it.
“Hello.”
“Yes.”
“All right |, sir,” and the conversation was over.
“Here No. 3, you go up to Roxborough Avenue for a parcel,” said the
manager to one of the boys, and in less than 10 seconds the willing boy
had jumped on his wheel and was off.
This procedure was gone through thirty times while the Star was in the
room, and the alacrity with which the boys responded to the calls was
an eye-opener to the visitor who had previously believed in the
messenger boy joke as illustrated in the comic papers.
Wheels are employed mostly in the delivery of messages, but the
streetcars are also used considerably. This company owns all its own
wheels and has a well-equipped repair shop in the back, where damaged
wheels are fixed up in short order. Messages will be sent any place.
Out-of-town trips are sometimes made, but generally people object to
the cost of these. Railway fare is of course added on to the cost of
the message in such cases. The suburbs are often visited and one
messenger holds a record for the trip to Church Street, Mimico, and
back to Teraulay Street at one hour and fifty minutes.
“All classes of people use the service, I suppose?” suggested the
reporter.
“Oh yes. People in society and out of it. Business and love are the
cost of most of the boys’ trips, while our patrons live in all quarters
of the city. We get calls both from St. George Street and the
“tenderloin.” It makes no difference to us. Business is business.”
“I expect you deliver quite a few sweetly-scented pink envelopes, to
say nothing of bon-bons, flowers and other articles of love’s
merchandise?”
“You bet we do. Why if it wasn’t for the lovers, our business would be
reduced one-half. And the boys know a good thing too. They would sooner
deliver a tender message in a pink envelop to some business man buried
in the cares of office downtown than a suit of clothes to the same
man’s residence. Lovers are always more generous with their tips than
ordinary people and the boys know it. Disappointments and surprises are
the features of these errands of Cupid but the boys don’t see much of
it. We hear of it the next day or so, when some anxious one calls up to
enquire particulars of the sending of a certain message. We don’t give
them, however, for it does not do for us to betray the private affairs
of our customers.”
“Still you could make some interesting relations that would disturb
many homes?” suggested the Star.
“Well we could all right but we don’t. There’s no money in it for us to
give away secrets.”
Here an anxious looking lady stepped in to the office to ask the
particulars of a certain message sent to King Street the day before.
She was trying to explain a certain absence, apparently but the manager
used diplomacy in answering her questions, for he did not want to get
mixed up in any family difficulties.
The reporter gathered that every message the husband sends home from
the office, explaining that business will detain him downtown and that
he won’t be home for dinner would not suffer careful investigation. But
the messengers don’t give anything away.
“Why should we?” the manager said. “It’s none of our business how
genuine the message is. We deliver anything we are paid for.”
The messengers are cheerful and bright and great mischiefs. “You have
to keep them busy or they won’t keep quiet,” explained the boss, as
“Buck,” the star messenger tried to hold another youngster under the
tap in the workshop.
They work on a commission basis, getting half of the price paid for
delivering a message, and one boy was known to make as much as $7 in a
single day, including tips. This is a record of course. Tips average
about 30 cents a day the year round.
“Where do you like delivering messages best?” one fair-haired courier
was asked.
“Oh, it don’t make much difference. They generally treat us square
every place. But sometimes we get told to go around the side door and
when you get inside the yard, it’s two to one a bulldog will make a
rush at you, which would scare you out of two years of growth.”
“Did you ever get bitten?”
“Once, but you bet I don’t get nipped a second time. I’m wise to the
tricks of them bulldogs now.”
“Did you ever get kicked out when trying to deliver a message?”
“Not very often but some stiffs are mean enough to do anything.”
The boys favor men to run errands for, as they consider them easier to
please and more generous in tips. One lad told of getting a copper from
a lady, and he evidently did not like her a bit.
Looking over Wednesday’s list of messages, one gets an idea of the
great area covered by these busy hustlers. The top of Dufferin Street,
Toronto Junction, Dunn Avenue, Parkdale, the end of Queen Street West,
Mimico, Tranby Ave., Pape Ave., the island, the steamer, Turbinia, the
Union Station, all the principal hotels and several other steamers are
a few samples from an average day’s list.
Message can be sent from eight o’clock in the morning until after ten
at night ever day except Sunday. The hours are long and this makes it
difficult to keep a boy long. They can’t stand seeing their boy friends
playing ball on the corner lots in the evenings and Saturday afternoons
when they have to work. Still, no difficulty is experienced in finding
boys, as the wages are much better than can be got in other things.
Sometimes a youngster playing “hookey” from school gets a job. He
generally lasts only a few days. A visit from the truant officer or an
angry parent severs his connection with the messenger service in short
order.
The average age of the boys is fifteen, but in one case a father and
son are working for the same firm. As a rule youngsters make the best
messengers.
|
|
