sub private_message {
    my( $self, %params ) = @_;
    my $parameters = '';
    foreach( ( 'max_recs', 'since_id', 'prior_to', 'archived' ) ) {
        $parameters .= exists( $params{$_} )
                         ? ";$_=$params{$_}"
                         : '';
    }
    $self->{agent}->get( 
          $self->{site}
        . "?node_id=15848;xmlstyle=clean"
        . $parameters
        . $self->_login_URI()
    );
    $self->{agent}->success()
        or die "Unable to fetch Private Message ticker.\n";

    # Return values modified by bobf 6-20-05.
    # Was just the {message} block, now is ( {message}, {info} ).
    # This allows the caller to obtain params from the INFO section,
    # including the max_recs and min_poll_seconds params set by PM.
    # This change is not necessary if the while() loop to get all
    # msgs is included in this method rather than in the caller.

    my $data = XMLin( $self->{agent}->content(), ForceArray => 1 );

    return( $data->{message}, $data->{INFO} );
}