Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1893-03-24
NIGHT OF ANXIETY.

nicipality ought to tell tales out of schots,
but ! cannot refrain from reciting a little
adventure of mine that happened some
years ago. 1t was December, in 1888, and |
shall not soon forget the suspense of that
night when | was 1000 miles from any man
l could hope to call a friend. Being one of
the successful applicants for a position in
the government service, | had been assigned
to duty in the p~ostoflice department, with
headquarters in Chicago and a boundless
territory for operations.
There was no telling where | would be
sent to look into a postoffice robbery or a
depreciation on a mail car, and | had one or
two experiences which were entirely too
thrilling for the salary paid men in this
line of work. The position is very trying,
and one has to keep his wits about him, so
| think the stipend should be better. But
enough of this. | did not start out to
preach on the poorly rated economy of the
government, rather to tell some of the
things one has to go through for a little
more h a II respectable living.
For years gangs of swindlers had been
reaping rich harvests in various parts of
the country through the mails. 1t would
have been impossible for them to Lecome
SO farreaching but for the postal service,
and their advertisement brought dollars
in almost countless numbers from every
land in which our language is spoken.
Whether or not it was the same gang we
could never determine, and their manner of
operation was such as to battle the appoint
ees of each successive administration who
started out to land the culprits in Jail.
The ordinary green goods man is but a nov
ice to those who engineered some schemes
which came before us, and postmasters
were flooded with inquiries as to the re-
liability of the parties. These complaints
of course came to us, and if, in the opinion
of our chief, they merited investigation
they were turned over to one or two of us,
with instructions to get at the bottom Of
the matter.
The winter before advertisements had
been inserted in many papers and maya
zines, telling what rich gifts a firm would
make to those who subscribed for its pub
LEGATION. Loans of money without security
and mt n nominal rate of interest which
would bankrupt even an English million
aire, watches, diamonds and almost every
thing attractive were promised for almost
nothing. The concern opened up for busi-
ness in n thriving inland city some time
about the first of the year, and the mail be-
gan to come in such quantities that the
largest manufacturing establishments in
the place paled beneath the enterprise as far
as correspondence was concerned.
Never had the registry department in
that city turned over such Il number of let
tiers in so short Il time to any concern, and
the local postoflice authorities were at Il
loss to understand how the new periodical
had gained such a foothold.
The reason began to dawn very soon,
however, and this rush of letters had not
been going on for more Than a month when
complaints began to come to the postmas-
ter. Persons in distant states wrote to in
quire what sort of a firm it was, and said
that they had forwarded a certain amount
with the understanding that they were to
receive "A premium, but had never even re-
ceived an acknowledgment of the money
sent.
Naturally these letters came to us, and
| was one of the two men detailed to find
out the true inwardness of the scheme. The
place was not at a great distance, and it
did not tax us long to repair to it. When
we arrived there we stopped at a modest
hotel and began our work. The amount of
mail which came daily showed no apparent
diminution, and the innocents of this coun-
try who want something for nothing were
not the only sufferers. Canada, England,
and even Germany and France, paid IA tax
for the inherent trait in som of their peo-
pie to get the best of any man, and not take
much of ii chance in so doing.
We were in the city several weeks look
ing into the business, for it was IA tough
case to get where we wanted it, and in
spite of u repeated calls at the Office and
talks with the manage we could not make
the step which we knew would he right.
Finally the projectors of this great gift en-
terprise, who knew what we were after,
concluded that other climes would be more
congenial, and one morning the Office was
found closed.
Their operations had extended over a pc
riod of only a few months, but one would be
very safe in asserting that the money taken
in would run well up into the tens of thou
sands. They had left no track, and the pub
LEGATIONS in the papers of the suspicious cir
cumstances surrounding the departure of
the crowd caused the postmaster to receive
thousands of complaints. They came from
every point of the compass, and we went
back to headquarters empty handed.
While we were morally sure as to the
guilt of the parties when in the city where
they were doing the work, we could not ar
rest them at the time. A week later and
they would all nave been in Jail awaiting a
WINS VI NAiNl9 NhlNh NbiiA htNC ltslc
them slaves to the government for the bal
nnce of their lives, but they were not anx-
lous to do any mental work, SO they quietly
folded up their tents and disappeared wit
all the completeness that night does before
day.
The weeks of work on the case were not
entirely thrown away. | had had tact
enough to ascertain a correspondent of one
OF the supposed projectors, and this was the
only possible clew to the whereabouts Of
any of them. | watched his mail for
months, and letters in practically the same
handwriting anne from several cities. |
don't know where he mailed his replies, but
finally the writer of the letters TO him be-
gan to drift westward. From New York
he had encircled the southern states, stop
ping at Atlanta, New Orleans, Galveston,
st. Louis, and finally reaching Denver in
the fall.
l knew there would be little use chasing