Messenger Boy

Infobox Game
title = Messenger Boy
subtitle =
image_link =
image_caption = "Messenger Boy" box cover.
designer =
illustrator =
publisher = McLoughlin Brothers
players = 2
ages = 5 and up
setup_time = 1 minute
playing_time = 20 minutes/random
complexity = Low
strategy = Low
random_chance = High (luck)
skills = Reading/Counting
footnotes =
bggid =
bggxrefs =

"Messenger Boy" is a racing track board game for two players copyrighted 1886 by McLoughlin Brothers of New York. The first player to reach the President's Office is the winner. "Messenger Boy" also appeared in a deluxe McLoughlin edition (1886) for four players.

Object of the game

The object of the game is to be the first player to reach the President's Office. Strategy is minimal since movement on the track depends solely upon the dial.

Equipment

* 1 game board affixed to the interior of the box
* 2 wooden counters (one of red, one of yellow)
* 1 dial numbered 1 through 4, illustrated with telegraph poles

Rules of Play

The games rules are printed on the box cover. "Play in turn, use one piece, and move the number of spaces spun with the arrow. Do as bid on the spaces at which you stop, except when sent back to them. The first to arrive at the President's Office wins the game. This space must be reached by the exact move for the spin."

Play

Once the order of play is determined, the first player spins and advances his counter along the track the number of spaces indicated on the dial. Should the player land upon a space that directs him to further movement, he obeys the instruction. When the first player's turn is completed, play passes to the second player. Play continues until one of the players reaches the President's Office by an exact spin on the dial.

McLoughlin Brothers

From the 1840s to the 1920s, the United States experienced a shift from predominately agrarian to urban living. Leisure times as well as incomes were rising, and middle class families encouraged their children to play games that would develop skills and provide moral instruction.

McLoughlin Bros., Inc. was a New York publishing firm that pioneered the systematic use of color printing technologies in children's books, particularly between 1858 and 1920. The artistic and commercial roots of the McLoughlin firm were first developed by John McLoughlin, Jr. (1827-1905) who made his younger brother Edmund McLoughlin (1833 or 4-1889) a partner in 1855. By 1886, the firm published a wide range of items including cheap chapbooks, large folio picture books, linen books, puzzles, games and paper dolls. Many of the earliest and most valuable board games in America were produced by McLoughlin Brothers of New York.

Economic games of the 1880s

Financially inspired games did not become commonplace in America until the 1880s, the decade of financial giants such as John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937), and Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). One of the first games that allowed children to emulate the success of these new capitalists was McLoughlin Brothers' "Game of the District Messenger Boy or Merit Rewarded", published in 1886. Based on the Horatio Alger concept that anyone, even the lowliest messenger boy, could one day hope to make it to the top of the corporate ladder, the game was a race to become president of the telegraph company by moving according to the spin of an arrow around a grid of spaces, where the player advanced his way upward in the telegraph firm. An explosion of similar games followed, including "The Errand Boy, Game of the Telegraph Boy", and "Cash". All these games reflected the idea that success was equated with increased social status through the accumulation of wealth. They all insinuated that behavior shaped a worker's future, but paradoxically, the players could not control their behavior in the game, for the spinner determined their fates.

ee also

* Telegraph

References

* [http://www.mercurians.org/Nov_99/info_networks.html Information Networks and Urban Spaces: The Case of the Telegraph Messenger Boy]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1026/is_6_160/ai_80864307/pg_1 Teaching Success Through Play: American Board and Table Games, 1840-1900]