The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-05-23
swINDrIsG JUNGLE SAM
Cancelled Stamps Cleaned and Used
in Large Quantities.

THE most troublesome onenders
against Government laws are the ex-
perts who use Cancelled postage stamps"
said postofiice official the other day.
They have a system of washing out
the cancellation marks that is so sue
cessful as to make detection almost i'm
possible. In the offices OF large cities
like New York and Chicago where 50
many letters are handled daily, and
where rapidity is the most desirable
feature, ii is impossible for the men
who cancel stamps to examine each one
carefully. Then, too, great deal OF
the work Is done BY gas light. and this
is a point which tends to aid the con
Separator against the Government in
come.
Anyone who has seen a postoffice
employee in the New York Office grab
bundle of letters and cancel the stamps
with lightning-like rapidity can readily
see how impossible il is for HIM TO de-
tect bad stamps. unless they are partic-
ularly bad. The men engaged in the
business of using cancelled stamps are
extremely clever. They have an acid
in which they wash the stamps. The
acid acts pom the cancellation marks,
and not upon the cOlOrs of the stamp.
In this way a stamp that has once been
used is relieved almost entirely of its
bad marks. II any black remains after
the washing process, the operator takes
sharp knife. which he has made for
the purpose, and deity scratches the
stamp unit the remaining black marks
are almost. If not entirely, removed.
nSa 10 ~.
marks are upon the bald head or the
face of the historic parsonage whose
yignette adorns the stamp, as this por-
ton is white: and upon a white space
the stamp can be scratched until IL is
nearly through without detection.
Another clever trick that is employ |
ed is the cutting of stamps. Often is the |
hurry of postoffice work the cancella- |
ton mark does not cover the stamp, but |
falls only upon one corner, the rest go
ing upon the envelope. The operator 4
takes stamp that has black mark,
say upon the left hand lower corner.
He carefully cuts square piece out of /
that corner. making 1t large enough to |
cut away all of the cancelled portion. /
He then secures a stamp on which the 1
mark has fallen in some /
other corner. He carefully cuts out 4
the same sized square from the lower |
left hand corner of this stamp. and |
joining il with the first stamp, he has a /
whole stamp upon which there are no |
marks. These stamps are |
used upon packages which are tied with |
a string, and the string is ingeniously |
placed over the cut stamps.
Take any package of a dozen letters |
and you will see how easy it is to find |
stamps for this business" As he spoke |
the official drew from his pocket a |
bundle of half a dozen letters. Upon !
the first letter the cancellation mark |
was only upon the lower right hand |
cancelled completely, and the third was |
marked only upon the upper left hand |
corner. So a combination could have |
been easily made with the stamps upon |
the first and third letters.
MANY OF these operators, !" continued |
the official, grow expert in the work. /
They have clever tools and the right |
kind of mucilage, and some 90 even so |
far as 10 have coloring processes for |
touching up a Garfield black eye or /
Washington soiled cheek. What do /
they do with the worked over stamps? 1
They do not sell them, as many sup
pose. and that fact renders detection
more difficult. When a man becomes /
successful in working over cancelled |
stamps, he endeayors to get into some /
business which viii require the sending /
and receipt of many registered letters |
and packages. The most popular
scheme IS to 60 into a cheap jewelry /
and fancy trick business. The opera |
tor lays in a stock of the cheapest kind /
of iewelry and advertises thoroughly |
through the country, especially in rural /
district. A gold watch with chain and 4
charm for $3.50 is bait that catches
great many green SPECTATORS, and as
they are instructed to send remittances |
by registered letter, the operator re-
stamps. These stamps he operates on,
and when he receives the jewelry, he |
paws the postage in whole or in part in 4
cancelled stamps. He makes 100 TO /
300 per cent. on the jewelry and does a |
thriving business in illegal stamps at /
the same time.
"Ah, yes, there are great many in
the business, and their success is won
derful. All that We can do is TO keep |
on the lookout and catch one Of them |
when we can. We get an idea that q |
Iuan is doing crooked work. and then |
watch him. When we once get an idea |
il does not take US long TO ascertain the /
truth. Whenever the person presents |
a package for registration, We have it
held for inspection, and IL there are
cancelled stamps upon il We are pretty /
sure to find them. Often the bad stamps |
are detected before they reach the can
collation. clerks. When they are being |
taken from the receiving baskets they |
are sometimes detected. There is now |
awaiting the action of the Grand Jury |
a man who Is held for doing q rushing |
business in cancelled stamps from his |
store on Broadway. He followed the
usual plan"