Board game:Game of the Telegraph Boy or Merit Rewarded

Several game manufacturers produced board games, in the late nineteenth century, patterned after the "rags to riches" juvenile literature written by Horatio Alger during this same period. These games all bear similar titles and game play involves beginning as a baseline laborer and persevering until one player becomes the president or boss of the whole business. The games doubtless appealed to game-buying parents who hoped their children might learn from them, similar to encouraging children to read Alger's fiction. McLoughlin Brothers of New York produced several versions of this game, under different titles. "The Telegraph Boy's" secondary title, "Merit Rewarded," demonstrates Alger's themes and the underlying message in all of these games.