The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1896-01-23
.0ccU[TISTs IRE PUZZLED
Mysterious Opening Of the Let
tiers to ". Q. Judge.
AT NEW YORK PosToPPICE
The Authorities Say They Haven't,
Aryans Say They Haven't, but the
Fact Is That Letters Were Opened,
but Are Not Any MOre-where Are
the Mahat mas?
New York Sun Today

New York Sun Today.
The officers OF the New York branch OF
| the Aryan Philosophical Society cannot
understand it. The Postoffice authorities
are unable to explain 1t now, but think they
may be later. No doctrine or Theosophy,
| In fact, ever seemed more puzzling than
| the question, NV no has been opening the
| letters sent to the society's beadqua rters
| at ia Madison ayenue?'
The letters were undoubtedly opened,
although for several days they have been
received intact. But where they were tam
pered with, who did it, and why, are facts
which nave not been discovered, and ey.-
IDENTIFY are little likely to be.
Two weeks ago Claude Falk Wright,
the secretary OF W iIliam Chuan Judge who
has not been in New York fer some time,
noticed that several letters in the large mail
that comes to him every day bore plain
evidence OF having been tamperSd with.
One or two OF them had been very clunl-
silly opened, apparently with steam, and
then stuck together. The envelopes We're
dirty and smutched, and whoever had
opened them cared so little about conceal
ing his work that slight effort had been
made to hide the traces OF it.
The envelopes had simply been stuck to-
gether again, and on more than one OF
them there was the plain mark of 4
dirty finger. The appearance of these let
tiers led Mr.. Wright to examine Others that
came In the mails which are unusually Ia rye
at this time OF year, numbering on the
average from fifty 10 sixty letters a day.
MONEY IN THE LETTERS.
The members of the society throughout
the country are renewing their subscrip-
tioDs TO its publications and sending in
their dues for the ensuing year. so Il great
IA ~ # hn la,s
Some or the subscribers enclosed bills
When Mr.. Wrights attention had been
called to the fact that several of the letters
had been opened, he observed all of them
carefully His conclusion was that few OF
them had been LEFT unopened. In a number
of cases the work had been very skilfulIy
done.
Mr.. Wright told the Sun reporter that a
shiny spot OF dry muciIlage. indicating that
the letter had been sealed with mucillagc
did notattract his notice when he obscrvedi it
first on a letter; but wnen he found dozen
or even twenty letters, every one of them
marked with the same spots. which seemed
to have been made by dry mucilIage that
had dropped on them, he concluded that such
a coincidence cuuld not be the result of acct
dent.
Among these were letters that had been
opened by steam, the paper being warped
uuh III -,Oiilt tdsss tpEu Tue udfIIlncSS.
For more than week the mail arrived sew
eral times day with the ma jority OF the
letters bearing more or less striking evil
dence or having been tempered with. A
number of the letters selected at random
from mail were shown TO a Sun reporter.
They certainly appeared to have beenopened,
some OF them showing unmist a ka bic marks
OF it. The small, shiny spots of mucllage
were seen on number of them, and others
were blotted and torn.
The mail W hich comes TO the society from
all parts OF the country is addressed to the
society. to Mr.. Wright, to Mr.. Judge. and
to the editors OF the publications. There
had been no Partially exercised. All had
been opened without prejudice. The mail
Is received nj station and dropped into
an iron box In the society's house. Mr.
Wright has one OF the two keys to this box.
and the other is in the possession OF another
officer OF the society. But the supposition
that the letters had been tarnpered with in
the house. Mr.. Wright said, was not tenable
as there was not time enough 10 open SO
many. even If anybody with the inclina-
ton to open them had had access To the
letter box. No money was taken from the
opened letters. nor were any of the money
orders missing. Few of the New York
letters. Mr.. Wright said. bore any sign Of
having been opened. although some of
them, in his opinion, had been.
SOCIETY HAS ENEMIES.
my opinion is Mr.. Wright said, when
the reporter asked him what he regarded as
the motive in opening the letters, that
somebody iuimical 10 the society has COM
planned 10 the postoffice authoriti les that
the matter sent To the society might be su b.
ject Ia its rules. The society has enemies,
who make all sorts of charges against il,
and l have no doubt that we have been
charged with sending matter through
the mails which we have no right to send
believe that our iail has been opened by
the postoffice people, with the object of
discovering the nature of it. They are per-
fectly welcome to see, but the society is
not willing that the letters should be tam
percd with in this way.
There seems Ia be no other explanation.
No money has been taken. But for more
than week the great ma joriiy Of the let
tiers that came Ia US were opened by some
one before they rea ched our hands. Out OF
fifty that came in a day there would not
be more than two or three which did not
plainly show that they had been opened and
Postmaster Dayton told the Sun reporter
that none of the soc.ety's mail had been
opened, and that it could not be, according to
law. The out-of-town letters. he said, passed
through the general postoffice. made up in
packages LOT ulStrlDutlDu ITOtD tnc stIIlOUS-
The letters which were submitted to him by
Mr.. Wright had, in his opinion, been opened,
although there were one or two of these
which he and his assistants decided liza d not
been opened. One OF these appeared to
have been opened by steaming, and the ink
from the letter had blotted the envelope.
The letter was blotted on the sheet which
faced the opening. Mr.. Wright wrote to the
person who sent it, asking il he had opened
the letter after 1t had been sealed and blot
ted it in resealing it. The answer was that
the letter had not been opened, nor was it
blotted when it left the writer's home in the
Southwest.
Postmaster Dayton sent detective
to watch themail that went to No. l. "A Madi-
son avenue one week ago Tuesday. Mr..
Wright told the Sun reporter yesterday that
a day and half afterward the letters be-
gan to arrive with no marks of having been
opened. Since that time none of them ap-
pears to have been tempered with.
The post-Office authorities will continue
the watch for another week, and say that
they have no ideas yet on the subject.
Mr.. Wrights mail, they say, could not have
been opened in the post-office. Mr.. Wright
sa Us it could not have beenopeneda at No LA
Madison avenue. Is the problem too trans
cendental for the Mahatmas?
Run Over by Il Wagon.
Garfield Kush, living at No. 1908 Sew
enth street northwest, was run over at
Seventh and NJ streets northwest, by a