Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-01-02

. position that could see the fellows
every action. I saw him take several
stamped and addressed envelopes from
his pocket and walk over to the stamp
ing table and cancel the stamps. Dur
ing the course of the morning / saw the
fellow slip four letters inside of as
many envelopes and seal the envelopes.
Then 1 knew my suspicious were COR
rect. went to the carrier who carried
the letter to the young mans home and
secured the four letters addressed to the
fellow himself
Have you carried many letters like
this? l asked him.
Yes, sir the carrier said; I carry
four or five q day
II then called the fellow into NV Of
flee and told him we had determined to
have the mail OF all clerks delivered at
the Office to tighten the duties of the
carriers. l then told him that had
four letters for him and handed him the
missives I had received from the post
man. The fellow turned pale and was
on the verge of fainting when I asked
him to open and read the letters in nv
presence.
with trembling hands he did so, and
inside the envelopes, addressed to him.
self. 1 found four valuable letters adj
dressed to big wholesale house. He
broke down and confessed that he had
been stealing for about six months, and
that during that period he had abstract
ed nearly fifteen hundred dollars from
business letters. He had spent the
money in gambling"
1.-The hardest case 1 ever had to work
on, j" broke in another inspector, turned
out to be no case at all. 1t was in a
small town in Ohio few months ago.
From this town had come numerous
complaints of missing mail, valuable
and valueless pieces disappearing regu-
larly. 1 was sent down to work the
matter up. worked as hard as could
and failed to detect any guilty person
amongst the several employed in the
Office.
las dern Ter resort determined to
spend one night in the Office. 1t proved
to be very successful night Shortly
before midnight heard scratching in
the lower letter boxes and carefully be-
gan to investigate. opened a drawer
and out jumped big rat watched
him disappear through hole and then
went home.
Next day the floor was torn up and
in that rats hole we found scraps Of pa
per. checks and currency. all used as a
soft, downy bed for the family of rodents.
1t was blessing for the town, as a new
post-office was secured at once"
Zone time" said another inspector,
81 was fooled by pair of high-topped
boots. Many letters had been missing
from the mail trains running between
Cincinnati and New York. BY means
of decoy letters traced the robberies
down to railway mail clerk, but was
unable to catch him In a theft for a
long time.
AFTER many letters had disappeared
got mad one wet night, and Just as
the clerk stepped from his car placed
him under arrest The truth of the
matter was that really had no grounds
on which to arrest him, so took him to
a hotel and rented one room for both of
US.
"a nice CRATE fire was made in the
room, and took off my shoes to dry my
feet in the grateful warmth. My
prisoner remained quietly in his chair
until I requested him to remove his
big boots and feel more comfortable.
Then he began to fidget uneasily,
and grew suspicious. With q rush
and jerk pulled off one of his boots,
and out dropped three letters to the
floor. The other boot yielded up half q
dozen. Never until that moment had
had the least suspicion Of those clumsy,
big boots, and were it not for that
lucky CRATE fire should probably have
never been able to convict my man."
What is the most wearing task which
you are compelled to perform?" queried
the scribe.
Checking up the accounts of ignor-
ant country postmasters, replied the
inspector. II would sooner get out to
unravel the toughest case with which
the department is compelled to deal
than to square the accounts Of some
postmasters know of."-Cincinnati
Times-Star.