Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1869-02-19
Mail Robbery.
ARREST OF THE RoBBER.

and also ON the Cheshire railroad. O
Friday, the 9th inst, at about noon,
number of letters were found opene
under the railroad bridge, on the ice, a
Brattleboro, which had that mornin,
been mailed at this and other places. TIL
finder took the letters to Col. S. NJ. Waite
and asked his advise. Col. Waite pru
IDENTIFY recommended silence, and i'm
mediately telegraphed to Mr.. Mcclellan
Secoud Assistant p NJ. General, request
ing him to send a special agent of tn,
Department to look up the matter, who
at once sent special Agent III. NJ. Hobbs
OF Washington, d. c., who arrived al
Brattleboro on Saturday, and assisted
by Col. Waite, commenced an investiga
ton. On Monday Mr.. Hobbs telegraph
ed to New York for special agent J.Gay
Ter, who arrived that night, and their eff:
forts in working up" the case, were
crowned with complete success on
Thursday afternoon of last week, by the
discovery and arrest of the thief on the
down train between Claremont and this
place.
The thief proves to be Jared M. Da-
Wis of Claremont, n. H., one armed
soldier who has been allowed the run of
the cars on the trains of the railroads in
this vicinity for the purpose of peddling
books. 1t appears that he has been sus-
pected for some time, and on the down
train mentioned above, trap was laid
for him, and he was caught in the very
act of stealing letters. Search was made
after his arrest and twenty-one letters
found on his person which had that day
been mailed. at Derby Line, VT He
made full confession of his guilt, and
admitted that he stole and opened the
letters found at Brattleboro, and also
that he had habitually purloined letters
from the mail cars for more than year.
The act in which he was detected was
committed at North Charlestown, n. III.
He was taken that night to Concord, N.
H. and brought before a u. S. Commits
sioner and held to bail in the sum of
$4,000, and for want of which was COM
mitted to Jail for trial in the U. S. Cir
cult Court for the district of New Hamp-
shire, to be held in May next.
In conversation with him at the Is
land House in this place, Davis said he
first stole package of letters on the
cars between Claremont and this place,
on the day of q fair at Keene, N. H.,
which would make it September or Oc-
tober in 1867. He said further that he
meant to have left off stealing last spring!
but that the temptation was too much
for him. He very naturally felt bad at
being caught. He has a wife and moth
er living at Claremont who are respecta-
bly, connected. He spoke with feeling
Of his wife on whom this crushing blow
of his guilt would fall with heavy hand,
and for her apparently cared most about
his guilt. He was told that if he knew
of any trouble he had created by his
thefts, he ought now to reveal the facts.
He said when he first began stealing he
read some of the letters he took, but lat
terly had not done so. His first theft
was package of three letters, in one of
which he found two or three dollars
going to some newspaper, and thus find
ing money the first time it encouraged
him on.
The opinion is pretty general, howev-
er, that he is a confirmed thief without
mitigation, and that his mail thefts are
only his younges. or latest operations in
that line. 1t appears that he was for
merly a resident of Sunapee, N. H., and
the Concord Patriot says he is an old Of
fender, and even takes from him the
credit of his having lost his arm in pa
triotic service. That paper states that
Davis served in one of the new Hamp-
shire regiments during the war and car
ried the mails for his regiment. He was
accused of pilfering from those mails and
was shot by a soldier, which accounts for
a missing arm. He got into the Chris
tan Commission, and at the battle of
Spottsylvania Court House various val
uables came into his possession from
wounded men, which he kept. He was
Assistant Doorkeeper of the House of
Representatives in 1864, and got into
trouble, being accused of confscating
letters. One of these letters contained
a draft, and such a breeze was raised
about his ears that he resigned. He will
probably be placed soon where he will
not have much opportunity to practice
his profession"