Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-02-17
THE POSTAL THIEF.
BY CHARLES .. LEWIS.

AS a p~ostofice inspector I did not hear
Of the doings at Shelby until two or
three of my fellow inspectors had tried
their hands and made a failure Of it.
Then l took the case and failed most ig-
ANONYMOUSLY Of all because I added blum
der to failure.
The postmaster was an old man named
Harper, and for assistants he had his
two daughters, one being 10 and the
other Is years Of age. Mr.. Harper had
held the Office for ~ years when the
complaints anne in. The p~ostofice was
an L Of his residence, with a front add
ed. The inspectors who preceded me
had looked the ground oyer and left the
case a mystery. Everybody said that
Harper was honesty itself, and the idea
that the girls would tamper with the
mails var not to be entertained.
The mail carrier was the first man to
see to. / arrived on the ground without
my identity being revealed and watched
him for two weeks. There was oppor-
tunity during his eight mile drive to
open the bags with a duplicate key, but
I watched without result, except to be
satisfied of his honesty. Then l made
myself known to the postmaster and re-
ceived q warm welcome. He was very
much distressed about the thefts, and to
the best of his knowledge and belief all
had taken place in his Office. There
were only about 20 persons who rented
boxes, and all other mail was put into
the general delivery. AS the father and
his two daughters were the only ones
handling the mail or having access to
the interior Of the Office it seemed that
n Of the three must be the thief, and
yet I could not bring myself to believe
that. I vas given the fullest opportu-
nifty to investigate, and l also did some
work outside unbeknown to the post.
master.
/ caused to be mailed to the patent
medicine people a large number Of let
tiers, with a private number on each en-
velope. The first batch of ten came
through all right, but out of the second
two were missing.~The whole ten had
left Denton in the mail bag, as l we'll
knew, and the two had either been tax
en- en route by the carrier or by some
one after their arrival at Shelby. As
the carrier had brought over two pas
sengers in his cart that trip he might be
considered out Of it. The mail had ar
rived at Shelby at 3 O'Clock and been
called for I'LL hour later. Next day a
batch Of six letters anne through all
right, and 50 on the next, and on the
third ten were received. I helped to dis
tribute the mail and counted three let.
ters and recorded the number Father
and daughter all knew this, and yet at
5 o'clock three Of these letters. together
with two for a certain merchant, which
I had particularly noticed, were missing
and could not be found.
That evening, after the office closed,
we turned it upside down, as it were,
but nothing came Of it. The old post
master was in the deepest despair,
while his two daughters wept and Sob
bed over what they believed would be
the ruin Of all. As an inspector, and
with such evidence before my eyes, it
was my business to believe one Of the
three guilty, and yet / had to reason
that they wouldn't be idiotic enough
to purloin letters under my very nose. /
didn't know what to think, and
next morning was knocked off my feet
to receive a complaint from Washing
ton that three important letters posted
1t Shelby ten days before for a city only
100 miles away had been lost en- route.
I telegraphed for enlarged instructions,
and upon receiving them l told Mr..
Harper ! must let 90 Of the case tempo
for another. ] shifted my quar-.
ters over to Denton, through which all
mail to and from Shelby must pass, and
made such arrangements with the post
master that every letter was counted
and its address taken. I mailed about 80
decoy letters in this time, and at the
end Of IA days had the satisfaction Of
knowing that II different letters had
onu" W ve.o1 o0on .n"uo away WAN
at Shelby. This was adding evidence to
u ! old nos return 70 Sneipy
20 lay the matter Deiore the olo post
!.
! went pacK tnere IN the disguise OF a
farmers hired nan looking ior work.
md luckily for me nc farmer wanted a
man. ! therefore loafed about the VII
ana was IN and out OF the postofiice
2 g dozen times per day-always
wnen the mail departed or came
=. ~ LOOKING through the glass door