Many game manufacturers produced board games based on the juvenile literature, known as "rags to riches" stories, of author Horatio Alger. In the stories a boy starts out at the bottom of a business and works his way to the top. The games play in a similar way. All the major makers, at the end of the 19th century, produced a version of "District Messenger Boy" or some variation of that name. J.H. Singer's version, in this example, is very small. The board is only made of paper and it is folded in the box. Besides this, three wood playing pieces and a spinner make up the contents.