Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-09

| LII Iii mail service. one
| Yf III of these in particu-
| gEl lar had features so
| LAS remarkable that the
| story might be imagined to be the crisis
| chapter of a romance by Old Sleuth, rath-
| er THAI an episode in real life.
| A New York attorney sent an obscene
| letter through the mail to a young lady.
| She showed it to her husband, hardly I'M
| derstanding it's contents. The motive of the
| letter seemed inexplicable. Certain points
| of evidence led the husband to fix the re-
| sponsibiity upon the right man.
| He called on the attorney and accused
him to his face. The interview TOOK place
| in the private Office of the lawyer. The
latter not only acknowledged his guilt, but
! actually tainted the enraged husband with
his impotence to secure redress. His con-
| fession, he well knew, could not be used
against him with any effect, inasmuch as it
would be offset by his own fiat denial in
court.
| The husband found himself in a guam
! dairy. Apparently, there was way to
prove the case against his cowardly enemy.
| 1t occurred to him at last to refer the mat
| ter to the post Office authorities, mas
| much as the sending of an obscene letter
| through the mails is a criminal offense. A
| skilled government detective was put on
| the case, and 1t was ne who suggested an
| entirely novel means by which the requi-
| site evidence might be secured. The i'm
portant feature of his plan was miniature
| telephone, specially constructed for the
| purpose. The transmitter of the tele-
| phone was hidden in the top of a silk hat,
| which was intended to be worn by the
| husband.
| This attorney evincad a willingness and
| even desire to be interviewed by the Of
| Tended husband on the subject of the out
| rage which he had committed. All that he
required was that the interviews should
| be conducted in his private office where
! there could be no witnesses 1t was this
weakness of his that destroyed him.
The Miniature Telephone.
| How could he know that his victim COM
| ing to see him one fire morning, had the
| transmitter of miniature telephone con-
cealed in his high hat and a little battery in
| his waistcoat pocket? Why should he have
| imagined that this apparatus was connected
| with an almost invisible insulated gold
wire which had been noiseiessly unreeled
| when the injured husband entered the pri-
| vate office? How was it to be conceived
/ that post Office detective was at the other
| end of the wire IN the outer office? The
private office was not well lighted and the
| silk-bound wire was not noticed by the
fox, who for the nonce had become the
| hare 1t did not interfere with the shut
| ting and locking of the door. The detec-
| tive outside held at his car the receiver of
the telephone. being thus enabled to hear
| the whole conversation. 1t furnished the
| evidence desired. which was sufficient to
obtain the conviction of the wicked at
torney. When confronted by the inspector
| with statement of what he had over
| heard and an exhibition of the means en-
| ployed, the lawyer at once made a full
| confession.
The business of distributing obscene liter
allure and pictures through the mails has
| been carried on hitherto almost with i'm
| punity. Such matter is sent out chiefly
| from New York and Chicago. The Post
ia m affn
| TO suppress this abominable industry, so
well calculated to corrupt the morals of the
| young of both sexes During the last year
many persons engaged in it have been sue
| cessfully prosecuted, the sentences imposed
| ranging from three to eight years.
Postal RObberles.
The official records Of the Post Office De-
| partment show that the practice of robbing
| mail coaches and railway postal cars is
! steadily increasing. Train robbers have
| grown more bold, and, whereas formerly they
piled their vocation in remote and isolated
! parts of the country, they do not now
| hesitate to operate in the Oldest states and
| near the largest cities. Statistics on this
| subject covering the last ten years are more
| than ordinarily Interesting. In 1885 bur
| glars broke into 459 post offices; in 1895
more than three times that number of
| post offices were robbed-1.561 in all. In
| 1885 eighty-nine post office burglars We're
| 4H3 During 1895 fifty-four mail trains and
| mail coaches have been held up and rob-
! bed, siNty-nine letter boxes have been pill
| LACED and 176 mail pouches have been lost,
| cut or stolen. Such depredations are stead
| lily increasing.
| Ingenious Green Goods Men.
| The detectives OF the Pest Office Depart
ment have been doing some great work re-
Gently in the suppression Of the green
goods business. Heretofore the operators
| of this kind of swindle have been located
| in the east, and chiefly in New York city
Finding the metropolis too hot to hold them
recently, they have established headquar
| tiers in the west. Three gangs. one located
at Oakland. Cal, one at Hillsdale Mich,
| and one at Chicago, have been broken up
| through the efforts of the government
| hawkshaws. One of the most enterprising
| of the gangs had headquarters at Sacra-
mento and Oakland. 1t added some new
| features to the old fraud. Letters and cir
| ed; but, instead of depositing them in the
mails, the swindlers themselves Cancelled
| the stamps with bogus postmarks, after
which the envelopes were cut or torn open:
! This gave the letters the appearance of
having been regularly mailed, received and
| opened by the addresses. The letters
were then dropped about in cities and small
I towns where they would be likely to be
picked up by prospective victims.
A person finding one Of these letters
would naturally infer that it had been re-
CelVed, opened ana lOSt by the addreSSee.
| 1t was intended that the finder should then
avail himself Of the opportunity to obtain
| for small price counterfeit money printed
from stolen government plates and indis-
| tinguishable from the genuine One ad-
vantage of this idea was that it did not
| render the operators amenable for violation
| of the postal laws. However, the subse-
quent correspondence with the victims was
| carried on through the mails.
1t was an ingenious scheme, and to con-
| vict the criminals was no easy matter
| Post office detectives entered into cores
pondence with the swindlers, and the let
| tiers which the latter wrote were photo
graphed, to be held for evidence in court.
| This was necessary, in order that the origi-
nal documents might be returned, as re-
| quested by the green goods men. If they
| had not been returned, suspicion might
| have been aroused. In this manner a deal
| was arranged, and it resulted in the arrest
| of two of the criminals who were after
| ward convicted and sentenced.
| ThnuRhf He HnI Omit