The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-01-28

VI tntm WHO naQ access 10 the mails,
and one of the three must have SOME
guilty knowledge Of those letters. BY
no possibility could an outsider reach
them. With tears streaming down his
furowed cheeks he acknowledged that
my assertions and declarations were
correct, but who was the thief? Did
suspect him? Could l suspect either Of
bis daughters? Then broke it to him
rs gently as could-told him what
had seen in the afternoon and what was
fact.
For some time he argued that I must
be mistaken, but finally told me to 90
ahead and do my duty and never mind
his feelings. He had been father and
mother to those girls for years, and no
word or act Of theirs had ever before
caused him moments uneasiness. If
they had taken two letters, they had
taken all the others, and he asked me
| to 60 to the house and confront them
and extort confession. Hard hearted
as I thought myself, / hadn't the nerve
to do that, but put 1t off till morning.
He gave me his promise to say nothing
overnight, and was at the house soon
after breakfast. / sat down with the
girls and went over the case, as l had
with him, hoping to break them down,
but they had only anxiety on their faces
as they listened. Then I boldly stated
what had seen on the previous day,
and the shot told. Both blushed and
stammered and began weeping, and I
took it as confession and told the IA
Their SO. He couldn't speak to them for
his emotion, and when ! told him TREY
must consider themselves under arrest
and search made Of their rooms he
simply bowed his head in aoquiescence.
I wanted to keep the girls below while
I searched their room, and unfortunate
ly for me called in the village consta-
BILE to sit with them. He had to be told
more or less Of the case, and as soon as
he was at liberty be went out to spread
the news. In an hour it was known all
over town that the two girls had been
caught robbing the postofi1oe, and some
Of the excited people even went SO far
as to soy that the father had probably
winked at it.
My search revealed two letters from
two different men in New York. They
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 I discovered what a
blunderer was. Both girls were carry
ing on olandestine correspondence, u.s.
ing fictitious names, and these were the
letters had seen them pocket. When I
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 1t? 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 a
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
I was not proper man for the service.
You may we'll reason that was sum-
moned to report in Washington without
delay and that my reception there was
anything but flattering to me. I had
lost my official head before saying 20
words It was my first and only blunder
for ten years, but that didn't count. II
I got grain Of comfort out Of the stu
alton, it was when heard that several
more complaints about lost letters at
Shelby had just come in that day.
! left Washington with no particular
aim, but on reaching Denton I made up
my mind to 60 over to Shelby and have
one more look around. / 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 of
the top letter and darted away. In'i6
seconds the bird was back, and in the
course of ten minutes watched her
take away five letters That bird was a
magpie and the real thief, but had
ruined the reputation Of a family before
solving the mystery. I at once made
myself known to the father, and we Wis
tied the back yard to search for the let
;ers. There In an old dog kennel which
had been tenantless for years we found
;hem-every single one which had been
missed. The magpie belonged to a
,eighbor, and singularly enough she had
lever been caught at the trick. As it
was summer the back window was open
III day, and there were times when only
me person would be waiting on the
public. With the usual cunning Of her
Ipecies the bird watched her chance,
aking letters from both the table and
he general delivery box, and a dozen
thsr inspectors might have been put on
he case without solving the mystery. I
lad that satisfaction, though was not
and ! also take great pleas
re in saying that after awhile the peo-
lie Of Shelby came to believe the Har-
ers entirely innocent and made ample
mends for what had been said and
one
Not Up to Date.
"What is little Dick believing
boutp'