Jack-of-All Trades, The Telegraph Boy

Once telegraph messengers spent all their time delivering telegrams—but that was in the days when drug stores specialized in drugs, and cigar stores in tobacco. Today, you can call upon a messenger boy to perform any legitimate service, at a flat hourly fee.

A telegraph messenger will take your children to the movies, walk your dog, rescue your pet cat from a high limb, mow your lawn, and hang your curtains. He will make a fourth at bridge, read to elderly or lonely people, or chat entertainingly about current events. If you have locked yourself out of your house, a messenger boy will climb through a window and let you in. He will shower a bridal couple with rice for you, when you are unable to attend a wedding.

In one Pennsylvania city, a messenger responded to an urgent summons, to find the secretary to the mayor standing on top of her desk, frightened by a mouse. She would not descend until he had killed the animal and exhibited the remains.