Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-09-15

south of the Ohio river was under sus-
picion The suspicion arose from q slngu-
lar circumstance. He was single man,
thirty years old, and had only his salary to
live on. Among the list of donors for a
fund to erect a church edifice was his, and
he had given ST25 When l found this out
droppesa all other clews and concentrated
ON him. While / was watching he turned
in S215 more, thus bringing his subscrip-
ton up to 81 600 One day after l had all
nv plans laid entered his car and held
him up He had thirty letters in his pock-
cts, all of them containing money and ad-
dressed to the lottery. He attempted no
defense and urged only one excuse. He
thought the money had better go into a
church building than into the Golfers Of
the lottery. He had not converted a penny
to his own use and he frankly acknowl-
edged that it was his intention to steal
&. 500 and then quit. / can mention an
other singular thing which occurred at
about the same time. A man in Pennsyl-
vania ordered two one dollar tickets by
mail. As the tickets were on their way to
him they were stolen by a railway mail
clerk. When the drawing for the month
came off it was discovered that one OF the
tickets had drawn 5000 The clerk had
not preserved the address OF the rightful
owner He slipped down to New Orleans
to get the money The lottery company's
books showed TO whom the tickets were
sent, and rs the clerk gave a different
name and address suspicious were aroused
and he was run down. He had burned up
the two tickets before being arrested, and
the lottery company was therefore 5000
ahead.
OF all postal employees the letter carrier
has the greatest temptation thrown in his
way. There is no one to watch him. He
goes out over his route with hundreds of
letters and is sorting and resorting until
he can give pretty good guess at the con-
tents of each one. II he fails to deliver an
ordinary letter. who can charge him with
embezzling it, There is, however, but one
course for him to pursue He must make
up his mind TO be strictly honest If he
cannot withstand temptation he Is doomed
He may escape detection for a few weeks
or even months, but there is nothing surer
than that he will be caught in the end
One Of the most powerful weapons OF the
postoffice inspector is the decoy letter.
know that judges, lawyers and the press
have inveighed against it, but 1t Is never
theless the safeguard of the honest and the
terror of the dishonest employee. It trips
up more rascals in the service than all
other schem~s combined. l had n rather
curious case in western New York last
year A man in a certain town was ad
vertisng a cureall, and letters came to
him from all over the country. There
were complaints of losses, and traced the
matter up until sure that the fault lay in
the home office. 1t finally narrowed down
to one clerk. l sent in six decoy letters,
and four of them were gobbled. He was q
young man and spent considerable money
around town, but none of my marked bills
turned up. He was followed to saloons,
billiard parlors, livery stables and other
places where he paid bills, but it was no
ticed that he invariably paid in silver.
While trying to solve the mystery /
dropped into n place within step of the
postoffice where an old woman sold root
beer lemonade sandwiches and the like.
After drinking q glass of the beer | found
l had no change and rendered her five
dollar bill. She gave me four ones with
the change and two of them had my mark
on.
what drink does Charles - seem TO
prefer?'' queried, giving her the full
name of the clerk | was after.
"Oh, root beer always!' she replied.
HE comes in often?"
"Three or four times day. sir"
Have you got plenty of silver for
changer"
Why, sir, always keep few dollars
in silver by me. II it's in silver it can't
burn up"
On the very next day I was in the place
when the clerk came in, drank a glass of
root beer and handed out marked bill he
had taken from my last decoy letter had
no sympathy for him, as he had no excuse
for his dishonesty. | have seen it stated in
newspapers that where an employee who
has lots of influence behind him goes
wrong he is allowed to resign and the mat
ter is hushed up. If any such cases have
occurred ! am ignorant of them. l do not
believe they have occurred. Among the
thousands of carriers, clerks and railway
mail handlers there will always be found
some crooked people. The supervision
must be constant and critical and the pun
ishment must be prompt and severe for
reasons / have already named. 1t is rarely
that Uncle Sam condones an offensc
against the law. / have often thought the
punishment too severe for the crime.
However, of all men who may be inclined
to dishonesty, the postal employee dis
plays the most fbolshness. The common
thief may steal and get away. The burglar
and the highway robber run even chances,
they figure. We read every day of book
keepers, clerks and cashiers who have
been stealing for years. The postal en-
ployee who goes wrong is dead certain OF
quick discovery and a heavy sentence. 1t
is as sure to come the sun is to rise. lie
therefore lacks sense when he permits him
self to be tempted.
One more caSe-almost my laSt-and L
am done. For over year 1 was "onto"
clerk in n certain southern postoffice, but
he was too sharp for me. He was mar
ried man. had no vices and his outside and
inside standing was good. After awhile
another inspector was sent on to help me.
was sure he had pocketed my decoy let
tiers with others, but none of the money
could be traced. We watched his pay
ments to butcher, grocer, coal man, hired
I,.1,. ov,1 hf1f
money He was on duty at the Office
part of the afternoon and a portion of the
night He was watched at his work for
weeks and weeks, but not a suspicious ac-
ton was seen Letters were still going
astray, however, and l had lost fifty dol