The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Telegraph Boy, by Horatio Alger, Jr.

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Title: The Telegraph Boy

Author: Horatio Alger, Jr.

Release Date: December 24, 2007 [EBook #24013]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE TELEGRAPH BOY.

BY HORATIO ALGER, JR.,

AUTHOR OF "RAGGED DICK SERIES," "LUCK AND PLUCK SERIES," "BRAVE AND BOLD
SERIES," ETC., ETC.

HORATIO ALGER'S BOOKS
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.

THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.
PHILADELPHIA
CHICAGO TORONTO

To
THREE YOUNG FRIENDS,
LORIN AND BEATRICE BERNHEIMER,
AND
FLORINE ARNOLD,
This Story
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

The "Telegraph Boy" completes the series of sketches of street-life in
New York inaugurated eleven years since by the publication of "Ragged
Dick." The author has reason to feel gratified by the warm reception
accorded by the public to these pictures of humble life in the great
metropolis. He is even more gratified by the assurance that his labors
have awakened a philanthropic interest in the children whose struggles
and privations he has endeavored faithfully to describe. He feels it his
duty to state that there is no way in which these waifs can more
effectually be assisted than by contributing to the funds of "The
Children's Aid Society," whose wise and comprehensive plans for the
benefit of their young wards have already been crowned with abundant
success.

The class of boys described in the present volume was called into
existence only a few years since, but they are already so numerous that
one can scarcely ride down town by any conveyance without having one for
a fellow-passenger. Most of them reside with their parents and have
comfortable homes, but a few, like the hero of this story, are wholly