The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1891-02-14
sJ.EUTHs Or TIE NAILS.
FOSTcFFfcE THIEVES ARE
VERY HARD TO CATCH.
Fas Letter Robbsr Nay wsrk rsaeteetsi
Tor Months, bat Ne Il ssrs 70 the End
TO BE Eatrapped b. cuasiss
Inspertors.

than the one who robs Uncle SAINTS
iagil. His methods are so ingenious.
his plumber il SO easily hidden or
destroyed. and his rascality is so well
masked by the honesty and integrity
OF his associates that he not infre-
quently continues his perations for
years before he is finally overwhelmed
with proof OF his guilt disgraced and
sent to prison. Though letters. and
valuable ones. too. are stolen every
dsy. and keen-eyed inspectors are
hunting high and low fer the thieves.
arrests for this class OF crime are COM
paratiyely rare. There Is reason
for this. Postoffice inspectors In run
ming down thief will never take him
IN custody until they are at least
morally certain OF his guilt The only
protection the user OF the mails has
against thieying is tine postoffice
Inspector His influence on the morals
OF men throughout the great depart
ment In responsible positions is simply
amazing. But for him Uncle Sans
letter service would 20 to the bow
vows In very short time. Ii is not
because the Inspector is such for
midable person that he is feared. but
because his ways are mysterio as;
because he seems TO be omuiprasent
His clever ruses 10 overcome the
cunning OF the rascals he Is after. his
nearly invariabie success In rounding
them up in tho gangs that practice the
loclSstep daily. and the unlimited
power he hiss az command TO carry on
his work secretly or publicly. as he
may choose. makes him one OF the
most important factors in the service.
The chief OF inspectors in Chicago is
Captain Stuart
You see" said the captain 10 a
daily Herald reporter. "a letter is
very small thing, and is scarcely more
10 the postofiice business than grain
OF sand is TO stretch OF beach. IL
passes through many hands. and IL is
hard 10 lind out just where It's trip was
brought 10 an end When one letter
disappears OF given route it is al
most certain that others will go In the
same way. Then We begin our work.
We do not overlook n single circum-
stance or detail When we have finally
satisfied ourselves IS TO the point where
the robberies were committed we
either establish watch or use decoy
letters. Either one Is almost certain
10 bring the game down. But / re-
member one case ia which all our or
binary devices failed. IL was away
out in New Mexico on ono of the old
star routes. Hundreds OF letters, all
OF them containing money. drafts or
something else OF value. disappeared
with astonishing rapidity. Finally
the thieves altered their methods and
instead OF taking the letter entire
opened II and took the contents. We
sent inspector after inspector over the
route. Every trip involved long and
tedious rides. sleepless days and nights
and work that was as disagreeable as
anybody would want to do. We
found that the rihed letters
passed through m,ny hands
and that OF twenty men each one was
liable to be guilty. All OF them were
watched and Swallowed. but la vain.
and We were about TO give up In
despair when thought occurred to
me. Calling one OF my men. care
fully outlined TO him the details OF my
plan for detecting the thief and was
not n bit surprised when he expressed
doubt about the result. Briefly. the
plan was this: | went to wholesas
drug house. procured lot OF different
kinds OF drugs. which we're carefully
labeled, and then placing them alto
gether In satchel handed the latter
10 my assistant aud sent him on his
mission. just before he weat he was
instructed 10 Inform every Official he
met that his was merely "a trip OF In
spection. and To carry out tho decep-
ton he was TO make nn examination OF
all Office accounts that came under his
notice. But the instruction on which
laid the most stress. however. was
that which referred TO the itinerant
apothecary's shop he carried. told
him to be sure aud examine the con-
tents OF every bottle Of macilagc no
saw and accidentally mix a bit OF Some
drug with II, taking care. OF course. 10
make memorandum TINT would show
just whore the drug had bsen left.
Well. the inspector made the trip aud
came back.
Three weeks after his return a
Chicago banlxer brought us "A. raoister.