Draft:Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company

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The author Henry Miller created the fictional corporation Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company to offer a satire of his experiences working in New York City at Western Union Telegraph Company in the 1920s. He describes the inception when he is being reprimanded in his book Tropic of Capricorn as follows:

"the vice-president let drop a phrase which stuck in my crop. He had said that he would like to see some one write a sort of Horatio Alger book about the messengers; he hinted that perhaps I might be the one to do such a job. I was furious to think what a ninny he was and delighted at the same time because secretly I was itching to get the thing off my chest. I thought to myself — you poor old futzer, you, just wait until I get it off my chest … I’ll give you an Horatio Alger book … just you wait!”