"MISSOURI" IN CHICAGO
"Missouri" Perkins is sixteen and hails from Kansas City. This morning he walked into the office of the Postal Telegraph Company on Dearborn Street and asked for a job. The manager happened to want a messenger boy just at that moment and gave him a message to deliver in a hurry.
"Here's your chance, my boy," said the manager. "These people have been kicking about undelivered messages. Now don't come back until you deliver it."
A while afterward the telephone rang. On the other end of the wire was a building watchman, somewhat terrified.
"Have you got a boy they call 'Missouri?'" inquired the watchman.
"We did have ten minutes ago," replied the manager.
The watchman continued: "That 'Missouri' feller came over here and said he had to go to one of the offices. We don't allow no one up at that office at this hour and I told him he couldn't go."
"Yes, yes," said the manager.
"Well," said the watchman, "he said he would go, and I had to pull my gun on him."
"But you didn't shoot my messenger," exclaimed the manager.