Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-04-28
STAR SWINDLING.
Ten or TsUelve Years-A Most Gigantic
= System of Fraud. -

washington Cor. Cincinnati Enquirer.]
On the very beginning of Grants ad-
and probably entailed to it
from Johnson's administration, the Post
office department contained most of the
vices which have just been found out,
with the addition since that, having been
so long unrooted and unattached, a man
came on the field determined to strike
deep and sweep things. The postal Com
mittee of both Houses of Congress were |
IN control of satellites or friends of the |
contractors and their employees in the
Bill King, who afterward
made fortune and lost it IN passing the
Pacific Mail Bill, with its attendant
scandals, was Postmaster of the House OF
Represents when thepostal routes
were put up and the appropriation pass
ed. General FarnswOrth, Of Illinois, was
long Chairman of the Postal Committee,
and had clerk named Painter, who was
continually being involved in scandals,
and had to be saved ON one occasion by
Conkling The celebrated Pomeroy, Ut
Kansas, generally called "Old Beans"
was gh on the Postal Committee of the
Senate, with Ramsay, of Minnesota, and
Flanagan, Of Texas.
MIR. Terrell, the entering wedge from
Indiana-againSt whom no Charge has
been made, and who is unsupported OF
anything as far as know-was transfer
rcd 10 aGolher Office IN that State, and
Mr.. Tyner came On the hoards--a gentle
man Of lofty style, with a white mustache,
who looked like Fernando Wood that
had been converted in religious revival.
He was probably no man of business, but
a good posturer. Being raised for short
time to the dignity Of postmaster general,
his place rs assistant was taken by an I'M
known man named Brady, a country
newspaper editor from Indiana, and,
believe soldier IN the war, whom Gov
Morton had rewarded for State campaign
services with the important consulate OF
St. Thomas, in the West In1ies. Tyner
had lived plainly, as became a Hoosier;
! but Brady was hardly on the scene before
ii was understood he was. q rare, bust
ness man, and had made large
amount of money in the Bell tele-
phone He bought or rented the large
house of Halet Kilbourne in the row
built by Boss Shepherd. "a residence that
probably cost $4,000. Mr. Kilbourne
bought it with the profits of the. rise of
real estate in Washington, which after
wards had a relapse, and he had to sacri-
flee the property. He became the pub
Usher at recent date of MIR. Brady's
daily newspaper, the Republican. !
In very little while, by the force OF
either audacity OF character, Brady be-
ca ne the principal cl aracter in the post
ice department. Morton was on his
last legs, aad had suffered his last defeat
in 1876 MIR. Hayes amateur policy Of put
ing Southern man in his cabinet had
led to the selection of Judge Key, OF Ten
nessee, an honorable chap, without the
least idea of his place in his depai'in' nj.
Tyner was posturlng, Key was behaving
like patriot, and there was be- auitui
chance for bold business man to run
right in and seize the de-
partment Nothing in Mr.. Brady's
previous history should have
qualified him for this work, except being
the head of the Republican State commit
tee of Indiana in one campaign. He was
a man about forty to forty-five years old,
with broad shoulders, sandy hair, large
head, slow of speech and of the listening
quality He wore sRectacles and could be
rough as poison when he wanted to. I'm
uuestionably he did make some money in
the telephone, and this gave him more
independence than is usual with assistants
in the postoffiee department. He found
that his money brought him adherents
and parasites, and there are an enormous
number of people in Washington for sale
at all times, ready to rush upon pur-
chaser.
The financial prostration of 1878 had
brought hard times to the Washington
lobby. Men who knew what it was to
have 100000 to their credit in bank or
in bonds could hardly get liv-
ing. The carpet-baggers were all swept
out of Lou siana at the close of Grants
administration, and came bundling up to
Washington to find something to do.
Among these men were laid some of the
first plans to capture Congress and the
President at the same time, and spend a
large amount of money without authority
of law, even though statute had been
recently passed by Congress making it a
criminal offense to exceed an apprOprta-
ton. The mail contractors of the gov
eminent are an old class, most of them
formerly stage drivers from the New
England States and New York. Their
business has been going farther and far
the mail service more and more.
In the closing part of Grants admins
tratiOn he called to his cabinet Jewell, Of
Connecticut, successful business man,
but not corrupt He soon saw that there
was great amount of thieving and col
fusion in his department, and he
began to confer with Bristow, of
the treasury department, and the two
resolved to conduct mutual work OF
purgation Grant became incensed
against Jewell for putting on airs, and in
refusing to consider the claims of person
al friends, and soon put him out. But in
that brief period that Jewell was post
master general, be it said to his credit,
he carried CONSERVATION among the ras-
Gals of the postatadepartment;>and had
he been continued there to conclude that
work many q man trembling to-day for
fear of an indictment would be saved
from apprehensions and in character.
have heard it said that Mr.. Key, as
postmaster general, was generally treated
like dog by Brady, and finally never
opened his mouth hardly to ask ques.
ton. Mr.. French, aforesaid, continued
to be chief clerk under Brady. The big
contractors were continually in Washing
ton. Eighteen months ago, when every
man stood to his guns to de-
fend what the second assistant
nostnoasfo GENERAL had done fhev