St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-10-25

tective agency, nor a bureau Of infor-
nation. The carriers are employed
for one purpose and no other. The de-
partment is run for one purpose and
not for any other. Every day men
come in here and want information
about their wives or wives come in
here and want to find out about the
mails that their husbands are receiv-
ing. We cannot give them any such in
forma ton. People write here for all
kinds of information. If it is some
thing that appears in the city direc-
tory, and the people are out of the city
1 will sent it, Otherwise, no informa-
ton is supposed to be given out and
none is given out. I cannot see why
Capt. Hardacre should so forget the
rules as to have done what he did; 1t
has taught us all lesson here"
Capt. Hardacre was also visited.
"Sit down. said the captain, "and
I'll tell you all about it. The other
day an officer of the street railway
company came in here and began to
tell me about the numerous damage
suits which the company had on hand.
He said that everybody who could find
any excuse for doing so was bringing
actions against the company for dam
ages He even said that in some
casG5 people would fall off the cars
and take chances of getting hurt just
for the purpose of having an excuse
for bringing suit against the street
railway company. He said that people
driving along the streets would some
times turn their teams right square in
frcnt of a street car for the same pur-
pose. He talked to me in that way for
some time, and said that the trouble
which the street car company had most
to contend with was that of securing
good juries to try the cases. He want
ed to get fair, impartial men for that
purpo,-e, and thought one of the best
ways of doing this was to have the
letter carriers make inquiries about
certain men to find out how they stood
in the community in which they lived.
He particularly impressed upon me
the fact that he only wanted to get
good fair men, and that he did not
want the information for disadvan-
tageous use against anybody who had
suits against the company. 1t didn't
occur to me for minute that there
was anything wrong about it, so
told him would do so. He gave me a
list of names of the people he wished
to find out and 1 posted it on the bull
letin board with a request that this
information be obtained. also called
the attention of the carriers to the
bulletin, and there was nothing secret
or underhanded about it whatever.
Until 1 was called into Postmaster
Cactle's room it did not occur to me
that there was anything wrong about
the transaction at all.
AS soon, though, as my attention
was called to the matter 1 saw what a.
mistake 1 had made. 1 can now see
what an advantage it would be to one
side in the case where the other side
did not have the came information 1t
was, as 1 say, done thoughtlessly on
my part, and 1 am very sorry indeed
that it occurred. There is one thing,
however, none of the informa ton re-
ceived was turned over to the street
railway company, so that no actual
harm came of the mistake.
No, do not care to give the name
of the officer of the street railway
company who came to see me. but I
will say that it was nobody connected
with the legal department of the
road"
to whose attention the matter was
called, was not in the city yesterday.
consequently the G | O b was unable
to get statement from him. Edwin
A. Jaggard, however, another of the
attorneys who visited Capt. Castle.
was seen and talked freely about the
matter.
1T is the first time In the history of
"A
a branch of the United States service
has been called upon to assist pri-
Vate corporation. The street railway
company have a. reputation for having
recourse to doubtful methods in mat
ters of damage suits, but they have
never before tried to press the United
States letter carriers into secret SER
vice. Just imagine what it means to
nave $50 detectives working for them.
The other day we heard that the letter
carriers were obtaining secret informa-
ton for the street railway company.
We heard than an officer of the com
pany had gone to Capt. Hardacre and
had gotten him to issue instructions to
different letter carriers to find out how
certain men stood with reference to
the street railway company. Capt
carriers we receive favors from the
street railway company and here is q.
chance for us to reciprocate L want
you people to find out how these diff
ferent men stand. Go about it quietly.
Where you find man who, is unfriend-
ly to the street railway company re-
port him N. G., where he is favorable
to the company mark that some other
way and SO on.' The captain admitted
part of what we had heard and part of
it he denied. But the fact remains
that he enlisted the letter carriers in
the employ of the street railway COM
pany, and if we had not gotten on TO
it in time another one of the COM
pany's schemes would have gone
through.
There is one thing I wish to saw"
said Mr.. Jaggard in conclusion, land
that is that this action of the rail-
way company in no. way reflects on Mr..
Mum. He was not directly or Indirect
ly mixed up in the matter, in fact
knew nothing whatever about it as far
as we learned or believe. Nobody
thinks that Mr.. Mum would counte-
nance an act of this kind"
Last evening representative of the
G o b e had a talk with the official of
the street railway company who asked
Capt. Hardacre to look up the records
of certain jurymen. He said: For
some time the street railway company
has fancied that some of the men on
juries in which it was a party in inter-
est were, perhaps, not very reputable
citizens. So one day 1 took a list of
jurymen to Capt. Hardacre and asked
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