Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-01-02
DON'T ROB THE NAIL.
Post-Of9co Inspectors Relate In
teresting Anecdotes

AS rule, the secret service of the
Post-Ofice Department contains some of
the hardest-worked employees of the
Government. Very few persons outside
of the mail service know of tho duties
of a post-ofice inspector, but suffice 1t
to say that days duty of an inspector
contains half a dozen thrilling romances
When one becomes statistical and
chances at the vast amount of mail mat
ter which annually passes through the
post-ofiice of the country, he can not
for the life of him even imagine how q
mere handful of inspectors can trace at
all the many petty robberies Of the
mail and secure evidence enough to
convict the perpetrators.
There is wonderful system about an
inspectors daily work, but even with
this system he is worked like Trojan
in the battlements from early morning
until late at night. He has no regular
hours. he may be found on duty any
time from one midnight to the next
No one except his superior and himself
knows his business. and it will readily
be seen that one of the greatest requis-
ties to make good inspector is love
of silence.
Around the walls of the Government
building, if one will look closely, he
will observe what appears as registers,
high up near the ceiling. They are in
nocent looking enough to distract the
suspicious Of the most willy thief But
every day, behind ono Of these iron
gratings, there may be found post
Office inspector, intently watching the
actions Of the clerks, either in the main
distributing room or in the register or
money order departments.
Should there happen to be any COM
plants of missing mail there is a sour
rying in the inspection department., and
every man on tho staff is put on to test
his mettle with the case which con-
fronts the department.. And the won
der is that nine times out of ten the
case is worked to a successful conclu-
sion and the guilty person convicted Of
the heinous crime of tampering with
Uncle Sam mail.
I'VE got some pretty tough cases."
said an old inspector recently, "but it
has been my fortune to run down every
case on which I was set to work"
What was tho most difficult case you
ever handled?" asked reporter
ut happened while 1 was stationed
at Utica, n. Y, about seven years ago."
replied the Inspector. Many letters
containing valuables had been missed,
and by dint of hard work we managed
to trace the job down to one clerk, q
shaved-faced young fellow of about
twenty-five years. He was clerk who
distributed the letters into the boxes Of
the carriers.
LAS / said. we managed to get this
far on the case and then I set my trap.
had n decoy letter containing a TWEEN
ty-dollar gold piece mailed from q
country town in Connecticut to q prom
inent stove dealer in Utica. The let
ter failed to reach the carrier promptly,
and felt we had our man solid at last
81 waited for him until the dinner
hour, and as he was leaving the office
accosted him. He came with me, and
look as closely as 1 might failed to
detect any signs of uncasiness in his
features; they were perfectly immobile.
He walked with mo into the Office of
the postmaster and submitted to a thor
ough search. but no trace of the letter
or twenty-dollar gold piece was found
on his person.
''Tosay was dumfounded is draw
ing it mildly. He appeared to be very
indignant. But whether was right or
wrong at the time, the petty robberies
came to sudden stop. No more COM
plants were heard for month. Then
they began again. This time 1 was
bound would not fail, so set a close
watch on my man.
"one day when was about to give up
the case in despair, noticed the fellow
tearing up an envelope and dropping it
to the floor. When he had gone picked
up the scraps of paper, and after hard
Job managed to piece it. was dis
heartened when saw that the envelope
had been addressed to himself. I was
, about to walk away when a sudden idea
struck me.
II came down the next morning be-
fore the young clerk came to work, and
stationed myself behind q letter