Last Thursday, the day First Data Corp. announced its reorganization, Western Union announced it was out of the telegram business.

We understand the logic. Who sends telegrams in a world of emails and instant messaging? And though the company doesn’t say so, it’s hardly likely that the telegram business, on which the company was founded in 1851--as the Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company--was a profit center. Dropping the business just made sense for a global payments company that makes $4 billion a year.

Still, it’s a melancholy milestone, in observation of which we share with you our favorite Western Union story:

Life Magazine was doing a story about Cary Grant in the 1950s and, not knowing his age, sent him a telegram reading “How old Cary Grant?” Grant replied “Old Cary Grant fine. How you?” (Contact: Western Union, 303-967-6416)