Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1898-02-26

correct, but who was the thief? Did |
suspect him? Could suspect either of
his daughters: Then I broke it to him
as gently as could-told him what l
had seen i'll the afternoon and what was
fact.
For some time he argued that l must
be mistaken, but finally told me to go
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 go to the house and confront them
and extort confession. Hard hearted
as l thought myself l hadn't the nerve
to do that, but put it 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 | had
with him, hoping to break them down,
but they bad only anxiety on their faces
as they listened. Then | boldly stated
what had seen on the previous day,
and the shot told. Both blushed and
stammcrCd and began weeping, and I
took it as a confession and told the fa-
ther so. l-c couldn't speak to them for
his emotion, and when | told him they
must consider themselves under arrest
and a search made of their rooms he
simply bowed his head in acquiescence.
| wanted to keep the girls below while
| 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 foon as
he was at liberty he went out to spread
the news. In an hour it was known all
over town that the two girls had been
caught robbing the postoffice, and some
of the excited people even went so far
as to say that the father had probably
winked at it.
My search revealed two letters from
two different men i'll 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 dis, lered what a
blunderer was. Both girls We're carry
ing ON il 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 clandCstine letter writing was about
as bad crime as rohbing the mails.
The news bad gone forth that they had
been detected in purloining letters, and
how could | combat it? 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 l did and declaring that
| was not a 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 tiattering to me. l 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 a 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.
left Washington with no particular
aim, but on reaching Denton made up
my mind to go over to Shelby and have
one more look around. l went back in
my old role as hired man and entered
that postot1ice 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 We're lying there to be wrap
ped. | had just made out these things
when good sized bird, black in color,
aliShtcd 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 | watched her
ldhe away llNe letters. lnaC DlrQ was Il
magpie and the real thief, but | had
ruined the reputation of a 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
ters. There i'll an old dog kennel which
had been tenantless for years we found
them-eyery single one which had been
missed The magpie belonged to
neighbor, and singularly enough she had
never been caught at the trick. AS it
was SUNNI ar the back window was open
all day, and there We're 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
rcinStated, and l also take great pleas
ure i'll saying that after awhile the peo
pie of Shelby came to believe the Har-
pers entirely innocer <and made ample
amends for what has been said and
done.