The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-04-03

der the argus eye Of the agent or some
of his deputies. The final result in
some cases Is rapid in others slow fbnt
none the less sure. and the culprit is
eventually brought up with a round
turn, and regrets when too late, that he
has ever allowed his greed for ill-got-
ten gains to destroy his chances In life.
As q general thing letters are only sto-
len in large offices, partly because there
are more honest men in the country
than can be found. in large cities, but
mainly because the opportunities for
theft are more frequent in the principal
Offices. --,.--.
Then, again, valuable letters dropped
IN at any principal Office are rarely
stolen in that office, but stand good
chance of being conhscated 1T some 9TH
er larger Office at a distant point and
just here comes naturally the mental
query by our readers, " How do the
men know that letters contain money %
Well, it is just as easy for some of the
post-ofice employees, especially those of
long experience, to tell when letter
containing an inclosure passes through
their hands as it is for the party who
put the inclosure in its place.
KEEN SENSE OF TOUCH.
In fact, so keen is the sense of touch
on the part of some of these men, that,
in distributing mail with the utmost
rapidity they can tell = as each letter
passes through their hands, when there
is inside even folded sheet of tissue
paper A noticeable instance Z of this
was made manifest less than year ago,
when a man was watched in the BOs-
ton Office, seen to put package of let
ters into his pocket, arrested immedi-
ately afterward, and the number he had
stolen found tobe eleven, all Of which
being opened were found to contain in
closures, ten with money and one with
a check. '''
REGISTERED LETTERS
are very seldom lost. They are bad
stock for post-ofice thieves to invest in,
mainly because it is so easy to trace
them from their starting point and as
certain who the parties were that had
the handling of them when last heard
from. Such cases viii occur, however,
the latest being that of Gillis, who was
stupid enough to steal registered let
ter mailed at Hillsbero' for a party in
Methuen. His depredations had exist
ed for some little time, but his work
was performed 50 cIumsiIy that detec-
ton in his case was comparatively easy.
Another blundering thief was Horace s.
Russell of Charlestown, and as showing
how. easily man viii dupe himself, a
brief recapitulation of his case may
prove interesting. 1t appears that Rus
sell was employed as a substitute car
rier in the Charlestown Office, and as is
supposed, from the time he first enter
ed the Office
BEGAN HIS THRvING OPERATIONS.
The amount he obtained in full was
not very large, but the job that led to
his detection was the opening of a let
ter mailed by lady in Charlestown to
friend in the country, and containing
the sum of s.. This amount Russell
extracted, then put the letter inanother
envelope, directed himself and mailed
it. When it reached its destination, the
recipient was of course surprised at not
finding the money said to be inclosed,
and Immediately wrote to the sender,
who in turn requested the letter to be
sent back to Charlestown. This was
done, when the change of envelope was
detected, the case reported to the spe-
cial agent, and in a very short time the
handwriting on. the envelope was -iden-
tilted as that of Russell. He was at once
arrested, eventually confessed and is
now serving out a two years in North
ampton jail.
HOW LAWS OPERATED.
One of the smartest depredators, per-
haps, and one who gave the officials
considerable trouble, was Marshall
Laws, who.was arrested about a year
ago. and when taken into custody had
GU his person over forty letters. His
mode of operating was very shrewd,
taking no letters destined for Boston
neither would he appropriate single
ones, but always made it a practice to
abstract through packages or bundles of
letters destined for some point beyond
Boston. He, however, shared the same
fate of many of his predecessors, and is
now paying The penalty Of his misdoing
by serving out ten years sentence in
northampton.
Another sharp operator was Peabody,
who was employed in the department
devoted to the distribution of letters
for newspaper men. For a long time
complaints of missing letters had been
made, and finally the special agent hit
upon a plan to defeat Peabody, upon
whom suspicion had fallen. The ruse
was simply to build near his location
in the Office partition. ostensibly for
the purpose of keeping of a draft OF
air. but IN reality to shield a man ap-
! pointed to watch Peabody,Q and who
kept an eye SO constantly directed
| through an aperture in the partition
that he finally detected the rogue in the
act of secreting letters. Peabody's ar
rest, trial, and conviction followed, as a
naatter of course, and he is now serving
Uncle Sam in Dedham Jail. Then como
the cases of Williams and Cram.
THE CARRIER AND THE ARMY COAT.
Criminals in the post-Ofiees are some
time detected by the simplest circum.
stance, and in ILLUSTRATION thereof We
can give no better instance than enc al
Iaded to under the caption aboye. II
the old post-ofiice on State street there
had hung for many moons mar out-of
the-way- place. well-worn army cap,
coat, thst had in yesrs past covered the
form Of one or more Of the. brave boy
I in blue who "fit into the war" The an
eient garment, which had. undoubtedI,
sAen service on many q hard-fough
feid, was apparently Of no use aud nev
er noticed by the employees except ol
- 49,, 81 sss-.r rrr-a - 4.