This is kind of a newbie question:
I'm trying to pull some text from a file, replace certain flags with variables from my script, and print the whole string of text with the replaced variables to an external process. I have the variable replacement down, but when I print the string, I see all of the special characters (\n specificially) in one big long string. I'd like the text to function just as it would when doing something like: 
print SMBCLIENT "Hi there/n";

[download]
I'd appreciate any pointers/suggestions!
I'm including only a snippet of my much longer script. 
open (MESSAGE, "/print_quota/windows/quota_message");
while (<MESSAGE>){
    s/USER-LOGIN/$login/;
    s/PAGES-PRINTED/$pages/;
    if($pagestate eq "duplex"){
        s/PAGESTATE/double sided/;
    }
    elsif ($pagestate eq "simplex"){
        s/PAGESTATE/single sided/;
    }
    s/PRINTER/$printer/;
    s/QUOTA-USED/$quota/;
    s/POST-QUOTA/$report[2]/;
    s/ORIGINAL-QUOTA/$report[1]/;
    s/PRINTER/$printer/;
    s/MULTIPLIER/$multiplier/;
    open (SMBCLIENT, "|/usr/bin/smbclient -U Print_Quota -M $report[0]
+ -I $hostip[0]"); 
    print SMBCLIENT "$_";
    close SMBCLIENT;

}
close MESSAGE;

[download]
The file I'm reading from looks like this: 
This is a test. Print quotas have yet to be fully implemented!\n\nYou,
+ USER-LOGIN, have printed PAGES-PRINTED page(s) PAGESTATE on the prin
+ter \"PRINTER\".\n\nYou used QUOTA-USED credits on this print job, an
+d you currently have POST-QUOTA quota credits left of your original O
+RIGINAL-QUOTA.\nThe printer \"PRINTER\" is worth MULTIPLIER quota cre
+dit(s).

[download]
As you may have guessed, this is a print accounting script.

In reply to A string from a file by Grand_Phallus

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