The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-02-15

had been directed under other names,
but the two girls had opened them.
They had stolen these letters and forgot
to destroy them. went out and made
inquiries, and then / discovered what
blunderer was. Both girls were carry
ing on clandestine correspondence, us
ing fictitious names, and these were the
letters had seen them pocket. When
asked them to confirm this theory they
did SO, but it was evident that in their
eyes clandestine letter writing was about
as bad crime as robbing the mails.
The news had gone forth that they had
been detected in purloining letters, and
how could combat it? l spent the next
two days in trying to explain matters
to the public, but found not one man or
woman who would believe me. Post
Office inspectors didn't bring charges
and retract them, they reasoned, and
strong petition was drawn up and sent
to Washington asking that the culprits
be duly punished. Letters were also
written stating that must have been
bribed to act as / did and declaring that
/ was not proper man for the service
You may well reason that ! was sum-
moned to report in Washington without
delay and that my reception there was
anything but flattering to me. / had
lost my official head before saying 20
words 1t was my first and only blunder
for ten years, but that didn't count. If
/ got grain of comfort out of the stu
alton, it was when l heard that several
more complaints about lost letters at
Shelby had just come in that day.
I left Washington with no particular
aim, but on reaching Denton l made up
my mind to go over to Shelby and have
one more look around. I went back in
my old role as hired man and entered
that postofice about half an hour after
the mail had been distributed. Looking
through the glass door of box, saw
one of the girls sewing and the other
reading Behind them was an open back
window, and within three feet of this
window was the general delivery box.
In front of the window and only two
feet away was the table on which the
mail packages were done up, and score
of letters were lying there to be wrap
ped. I had just made out these things
when good sized bird, black in color,
alighted on the window sill, hoped
along to the delivery box and picked off
the top letter and darted away. In Is
seconds the bird was back, and in the
course of ten minutes I watched her
take away five letters That bird was
magpie and the real thief, but had
ruined the reputation of family before
solving the mystery. at once made
myself known to the father, and we wis.,
tied the back yard to search for the let
tiers. There in an old dog kennel which
had been tenantless for years we found
them-every single one which had been
missed. The magpie belonged to a
neighbor, and singularly enough she had
never been caught at the trick. AS it
was summer the back window was open
all day, and there were times when only
one person would be waiting on the
public With the usual cunning of her
species the bird watched her chance,
taking letters from both the table and
the general delivery box, and dozen
other inspectors might have been put on
the case without solving the mystery.
had that satisfaction, though was not
reinstated, and also take great pleas
ure in saying that after awhile the peo-
pie of Shelby came to believe the Har-
pers entirely innocent and made ample
amends for what had been said and
done.