The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1895-08-08

OF oourse. there IS no delay in de-
livering this mail. unless withheld
for reasons stated above. for them ap-
ip-iations rendered necessary FOX this
mass of letters is rapidly attended
20 by those expert hands Now and
then Il happens. however, that mis-
takes are mads. as when a Russian re-
siding IN Berlin. NJ. Leskutof. received
an envelope Gully addressed TO him.
but ~inclosing a letter evidently in
tended for a French diplomat in Rome.
Errors Of this kind occur rarely, and
wherever Il Is possible 70 ferret out the
unskillfrl agent guilty Of IL he is sub
sequcnily pdrished for it.
The black Chamber methods of open
ing letters are ss;onishingiy simple and
effective. during the time Of Napo-
leon l., wben Foucher's agents also
closely supervised all correspondence
reaching or leaving France. steam was
used in locsening ore flap Of the en-
velope. The Russian agents proceed
more rapidly. They cut open one side
OF the envelope with peculiar-shsped
knives. and the opening, after putting
the letter once more where IL belongs.
Is then pasted over with n tiny slice Of
paper, q camel's hair brush and some
gum arabic being the only utensils
used. So Geftly. however. do these nen
operate that only a practiced eve can
detect the fact hat the letter has been
inteTfered with. In a few instances IL
becomes necessary 10 open a letter
where the lack of the envelope meets
IL its center, that being the seal care
fully affixed By the sender. But that
also presents no difficulty I the Rus
sian agents. They first use n hollow
cylinder whose interior contains in
Vulnerable steel needles, and the soft
pressure 81 one finger on the spring at
the side of this cylinder sufices for a
cushion TO drop and TO group these
steel needles exactly in the same shape
as the seal or the wax. The wax il
now carefully scratched of, and the
paper is subjected 10 steam. After ehe
contents have been examined the steel
cushion does its work nee more on
sealing wax of the right hue dropped
in the saECe spot where the old impress
sion was The reproduction is perfect,
and it proves that there is absolutely no
WY 70 0NDlQ INC scTuAlLN Ol the nus
sian postal spies
This system of letter censorship cx-
tends, naturally enough, To the diplo-
matte correspondence going to and
from Russia, and the foreign missions
at 81. Petersburg have often enough
complained to their respective gov
ernmcn;s about the rigorous espionage
kept up there. To enable them to send
TO their own governments diplomatic
news and to receive instructions of i'm
por;ance without first having satisfied
Russian curiosiS, the various embassies
and consulates have been forcedto adopt
private postal facilities of their own.
Both the German AID the Austrian, IS
well a. the Frcncl and Italian. cmbas-
sizes thus receive ard send their mail
matter FROM St. Petersburg by trGS;ed
express messengers from the German
border on TO the capital.
The facts which | have cited above
seem almost incredible at this late day,
yet coming from so u~nimpcachable a
source, they must, nevertheless, be &C.
cepted as truth. 4 member of the Rus
sian embassy in Berlin told me a little
occurrence neatly illustrating the exact
methods OF the black chamber men.
While stationed at Sofia, Bulgaria, dur
ing the last Russian war with Turkey