Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-06-04

| WASHINGTON, June 2-The star route thieves
are much excited. They are as men walking in
dangerous places. with the lightning playing
around them. Their uncomfortable frame of
mind is superindueed by the knowledge that
they know that they deserve to be struck and
an uncertainty as to when they will get it.
The city is full of their attorneys The star
route men themselves have gotten out of town.
| Dorsey was here to-day trying to see the Presi-
! dent, but could not. He does not go around
half so brash as he used to. but treads his way
softly. The attorneys Of those implicated in
the stealings watch the grand jury with ever
anxious eyes. The other day 1t
| got bruited abroad that the grand jury had
| found number of indictments against the
star route men Immediately there was
rush of lawyers to the city hall to give bail for
their clients. These were the lawyers or men
on on hand for balhng purposes whose se. names mes
4 the star frauds.
| It turned out that the grand jury had
returned no indictments-in fact that the
matter was not before them The little
incident. however. shows how the feeling of
uncertainty among the thieves is spread.
! The indictments will be forthcoming in
| short time. The evidence. Attorney General
McVeagh told me to-day, would not be placed
before the grand Jury until he was
| perfectly satisfied that it was
Smpefe road and faa be nH ny
| There is some difficulty in securing the testi.
moDy desired. The detailed evidence In indi-
vidual cases is difficult sometimes to get at. 1T
| VIII be reached, however, and then will come
| the grand outburst The removal OF McGrew.
| Sixth Auditor of the Treasury Department, and
OF his deputy, Lilley, has served to again stir
| up and agitate these frauds. McGrew over
hauled all the accounts of mail contractors and
! passed upon them. His approval was necessa-
ry for Brady and the lot to carry on their
| highway robbery. They got that approval.
He passed the accounts and the money was
shoveled out of the Treasury. The fines aud
forfeitures that were imposed upon con-
| tractors it was McGrew's duty to levy.
his deputy, Llley. had to be with him to
make these little transactions safe and close.
| They both got what the boys call their
''whack'' from the contractors. They have
been at it just as long as the stealing has been
| going on. The two bounced men are OF course
! indignant. McGrew got intoxicated last night
| over the stroke of lightning that had been
! dealt out to him, and went around town howl
! ing that it was put up job" and he would
sue every body for criminal libel who said that
| he was anything but straight He will have
to see them finished before he dies. LiIley
has been very unpopular with the employees
of his office. He has been domineer
ing and self-consequential. The fatter
| he got out of the frauds the more arrogant he
became. Even outsiders visiting his Office
on business were treated with the greatest
contempt. He was insulting at times to the
women employed in his Office. McGrew, on
the other hand. is jolly. jovial, good natured
fellow. He is splendid company, and always
had pleasant word for everybody. Probably
what first attracted suspicion to him in con-
nection with the frauds was his daily cham
payne lunches at a restaurant near his office.
His luncheon companions were Brady and
the star route contractors. The net around
the whole mob is drawing closer every day.
The investigation is the most complete
OF any ever put ON foot in Washing
ton. 1t is conducted wisely and
with a stern impartiality that makes all hopes
of fixing the committee or of whitewashing the
prominent thieves as hopeless as the pursuit
of the golden fleece. The inexorabie verdict
of hunt down and punish has gone forth from
the President and Postmaster General James,
and is steadily being carried out 1t looks as
if the administration was to be a sad one for
thieves
THE COUNSEL
The administration has engaged for the
prosecution of the star route thieves Colonel
w. A. Cook, of this city. This is O very wise
step. 1t is a tradition among those connected
with criminal prosecutions in the District of
Columbia that whichever side employs Colonel
Cook is always successful. He is-and say It
without favor-the best criminal lawyer in the
United States not even excepting General
Butler. The foresight in employing him is to
be commended. II anybody is capable of an
assured successful prosecution he is the man
He not only confines himself to the legal ques-
tions involved. but Is as good detective as
Pinkerton.
THE CoNKLING BUSINESS
The news from Albany which showed con-
clusively that Conkliug and 'metoo'' Platt
cannot be returned to the Senate, cid
not create even decent stir here.
Everybody had taken such to be the
inevitable result of the so-called
conflict at Albany, and, what is more, every
body was thoroughly satisfied that Conkling
and his little henchman should be left entirely
out in the cold. A man cannot win friends by
an assumption of superiority over every body
else and all other things. The men who were
Conkling's friends were only so because OF the
supposition that he welded an immense pat
ronage. When it became evident that he did
not, that support fed from him. He was no
more the Boss. the dictator. His experience
furnishes the most complete parallel to that of
Cardinal Wolsey that history has furnished
1t also serves, in connection with the failure of
the Cameron influence in connection with the
election of successor to Senator Wallace, to
show that the days of Bossism In politics is
over. Potomac.