The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1890-11-08

n0tily tne w aSnlnpJOn department.
about it and u detective is imme-
diately sent to investigate the case.
OF his manner of procedure, of
course, | can not tell you without
defeating the ends of Justice"
"The system is different in larger
cities, like New York, for instance,
said Mr.. Lanning. When anything
is reported missing at the Office Of
inquiry, a tracer is sent to the orig
mating Office, and Il copy of the
same is forwarded to all offices that
should handle the object before it's
destination is reached. The time
the article was mailed, the address
it is supposed to bear, and its de-
tailed contents are given on the
tracer"
"The Office receiving the tracer
looks through its misdirected let
ters and "held for postage" matters
and also through that "held for bet
ter address," and reports the result
to the Inquiring Office. "a similar
search has been made at the home
Office, before the trace is sent out.
If these steps prove unavailing, the
Dead Letter office is subjected to
formal inquiry. "NeXt, the route
of the missing article through the
home Office is asked. A registry
already made in the descriptive
book at the home Office makes the
missing article known by number.
1t is learned what carriers route
that number should have oyer.
Then the carriers name who was
on that route the day this number
should have been delivered is as
certained.
"1n "black book" kept by the
Office the names of all carriers ap-
pear. Opposite the name of each
carrier is the number of each mis-
sing letter or parcel that belonged
on his route.
"That book many carriers know
nothing about. Bnt the inspectors
Il study of it. From it they get
the carriers average" Too many
numbers behind carriers name
blots his record, and if most of the
number are found to represent
money letters or packages, he is at
once subjected to suspicion.
"Often the man is changed to
some other route, and if the discrep
ancies in his work continue sus-
picion becomes next to a certainty,
and a trap is laid for him by the
willy inspector into which the cul
prit invariably falls.
zone lost letter after another from
various parts of the country was
traced to his route, but that does
not furnish sufficient grounds to |
take legal action against him, or
even to remove him, as the author
tiles are very wary through fear'of
doing an injustice.
"But his numbers piled up on
the blotter until they covered to
two lines is the "black book" while
most of the carriers have but to-
tai of three or four against them.
"Take the case of Il recent car
rier in another city. The suspect
ed man had been cautious in his
being careful not to
victimize one person too often.
Among the letters he failed To de-
liver were many that contained
nothing of value to any one but
he owner, showing that he stole
ndiscriminately anything that he
ne suspected of containing money.
"a lot of bank notes were in
closed to an address on his route
Dy the inspector one day, after the
1umhers upon them had been taken
marked for Identification. Then the
fac-simile of the stamp used at
he postoifice was produced with
4 lead pencil, and care taken that
he letter should fall into the sus-
)ected carriers hands. The letter
lid not reach its destination. The
dishonest carrier had been watched
md followed, and at the proper
ime he was arrested. The marked
1ilis were found in his possession,
ogether with IA number of other
etters cOntaing money and jewels
which he had held back.
"Tle registered mails are some
imas,p said Chief Clerk Bradford,
# the railway mail service, yester-
lay. 'This would indicate," con-
inued Mr.. Bradford "that there are
hieves so foolhardy that the chan
es of being caught are never con-
idered by them. 1t is next to inn
ossible to steal registered letter
Fithout being caught. The only
iffiult thing the post Office author