CHARACTERISTICS OF THOSE WHO SEND TELEGRAMS.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1759, 18 June 1886, Page 6

CHARACTERISTICS OF THOSE WHO SEND TELEGRAMS.

One of the busiest places in this city, says the Denver Tribune-Repub-lican, is the office of the Western Union Telegraph- Company. Its visitors during the day arc many, and from morning until midnight the throDg continues to come and go, and the street door opens and closes with a lively clatter every few minutes. They come in all styles, the old, the young, and the middle-aged. They come in garments of wealth, in the rags of poverty, and in the seediness of bad luck, wLich soon may change. Faces pale with sadness, furrowed with care, bright with anticipation or radiant with happiness ; all go through the not overwide portal ; and all upon the same sort of errand, either to get or send away messages. Hope and Despair jostle with Carelessness and selfish Jjy, and each seldom notes the other. Often the face which comes smiling goes away dark with trouble, and many times the dull look begotten of hope deterred becomes transformed, aad the owner goes away with buoyant step and a peace which has not been experienced for a long time. A commercial drummer will run into a telegraph office, slamming the door and making the papers flutter all over the place. He will push his way to the desk, seize a blank, dive a pen into the ink, and write a message in just 30 seconds. Before he begins he will push his hat high upon his brow and turn his head to one side. Then he will stride up to the desk, and looking familiarly at the clerk, will push the despatch and a big silver dollar toward that functionary, remarking — "Send that away d — n quick ! " A man who has not been accustomed to sending telegrams will take more time about it, sometimes taking as much time as it would take a bookkeeper to balance a cash account. He will carefully count the words, and study and restudy the message in order to decide that he hasn't got too many words, and to be sure that the message will be clearly understood. Ladies generally write their messages at home and then take them carefully folded to the office, where they will ask many questions. They will want to know how much the despatch is going to cost, and then if the address and signature are to be included in the cost ot the transmission. Then they will want to know how soon it will reach its destination. Then they will carefully lay down their parasols or satchels and handkerchiefs and count out the price for the message, and when the cash is about half counted they will atop to look around and smile at whoever is standing behind them waiting for a chance to talk with the clerk. Finally, when the money is paid and the clerk has been carefully made .to promise to send the message immediately, they will then gather up their property and depart. After they get out upon the sidewalk they will frequently return to ask the clerk if he can read the despatch, as they wrote it quite hurriedly. When a lady happens to write the message in the office the process is doubled, aa

la similar style of preformance is carried on at the desk, where she will want plenty of elbow-room. Of those who enter or send away the announcement of a death to relatives far away their manner is always quiet, and a new father coming in to let the grandparents know that a baby has arrived, will go in smiling all over his face. Not infrequently the sender will go to the extra expense of a dime or so to add a sentence which is intended as a joke. People sending for remittances generally look anxious, and not infrequently write with a rush, and spread the ink on thick and black, as though to thus express the exigency which compelled the sending of a > telegraphic request for funds.