The sun., 1898-12-04
MAILS AlSE EASY TO ROB.
BUT FEW POSTAL THIEVES EYER IA.
CAPE FYAtdI DETECTION.

| sometimes It TaR,Ns Months TO Captura
Them and Som witness Hears-A Thief
Caught by Means 4 Y NmueiiaEe-Two Meth
ods Used TO Detece Post Onice Thieves.
WASHINGTON. Dec. 3. Post ONCE thieves
may work undetected Tor months, perhapS
years. but they are sure to be entrapped aud
punished in the end" saiG' an old detective Of
the Post Onlce Department And may add.S
he continued. that no thief IS harder to oatOh
| than the one who robs Un9'le Sans nail.
| Their methods ars ipRenious. the plumber IA
easily hidden or destroyed ana their rascaty
| IA we'll masked by the honesty and integrity
OF associates"
Post Ofllce thieves are not arrea ed every day,
| although valuable letters and ol her articles
are stolen almost daily and an arm OF shrewd
inspectors are on the alert. Posltk 70 proof ot
Rrilt must be in the possession OF an inspectoT
before an arrest ia made. In almost every in.
stance arrest means conviction. APo It Office
employee never knows when he Is beinR
shadowed Even when not under suA picion
OF theft he may be watched outside Of buA mess
hours to see II he is spending more nv 'neT
than his salary will permit and II he is gan on.
ing with n fast gang. 1t sometimes hatp. rs
that an inspector NAV not be able to prove m :
man thief and the accused is turned loo.a,
with O verdict OF mot guilty" as his certincats
of honesty but that man is not wanted by thsl
From one point Of view 1t is wonderful that,
there are 70 few thieves among the many
thousand clerks who handle the mail first aud
last, for great temptations constantly rise as
they handle the millions Of valuable parcels,
Il is known that these clerks learn to
tell by the very touch of letter whether 10
contains money. II so inclined, it would bs
an easy matter for the dishonest clerk to slip
letters into his pocket and open them in the
ri. rhaH tla nF
honesty are comparatively few is high tribute
to the moral. qualities Of Post Office clerks.
Years ago." resumed the inspector, as he
renlled a beautiful pipe presented to him by
ex-Inspectors Booth and Whtesides. "on ora
Of the old star routes out In New MeNicN
hundreds OF letters containing money. drarts'
checks and other valuables were stolen. At
first letters and all disappeared but the thievesI
changed their mode Of operation and simply
stole the contents. reseallng the letters and.
sending them on. As letters pass through,
the hands Of many clerks it Is always difficult
to locate the thief Months Of faithful work
resulted in nothing being discovered ms to the
identity OF the thieves. and the riding OF let.
ers continued.
"Flnally there was happy solution OF tho
trouble. One OF the inspectors procured
quantity Of different kinds Of drugs and sent
other inspectors over the entire route with iu-
structions to make tour of book investga-
tions, and while thus engaged to place some
OF one kind of the drugs in the mucilage bot.
tie at each Office taking care to make mem"-'
randum which would show at what office the,
drug had been placed. 1t was not long before,
a registered letter came through with tho
money gone. The inspector put his lips to the'
seal of the envelope. tasted the niucilase. re-
ferred 70 his book, and at once named the
Office at which the particular drug had been
placed in the muciage. Then lot OF decoy
registered letters went TO that office, and tho
dishonest Postmaster secured the contents
and the inspectors secured him. This,
think. was one of the ceverest pieces OF work
ever done by the department. ghe inSpectiIrs Speins
who put it into execution was hne enc mis0
and knew exactly what kind Of ,ruGs to get.
a Post Office thief,constant wat hing ana ana
deeoy letters. With these and pnA 'enee n,e;r tne
rs most annoying and dificuit lines Of az ective
most mos earnest @ tar application. S Not sinslS cir
esumsta9nee s9 or Or detail & must be oyeriI9%SA z.
ties ! remember % once in IA city it not not Very f
from washington things were In fearful STATE,
an she as Mond 1 se eas
fellow who was making away with valuable
Letters one me- day there came up terrific RI S rain
spector. he carried bucket of water into tho
9 aaa hsy tbs H 8a ahe
into tie Gonnfldene Of the inspeetor:, was sent
dentally on purpose his foot went through the,
wet clustering; leaving hole. le.,..
necessary to do the work from the distribution
room room land and i,b as ths was % not done t the cerS'
r sd at evers
from the supposed accidentally made hoe,
Finally he was rewarded by seeing one Of tho
iuto his pocket. The inspector collared tbs
fellow and found the letters in, his pocket
confessed everything. In court he attempted,
no defence, P save to say that he had been dea
npgs, ihg IN tut9res t9 & had had his wings severely
toa Gsr%3a S named , NamH!h M gave the ipsPsc.
sands, of letters were missed. ana goodness
only knows how much much money money stolen. 1t f waG
after Seeks Of the SSes Closest f WAS
fscd n he Pds ht ce th r09fs Se wk onts5e 9e dn.
while stealing letters from one of the street
boxes; sS He did not have key. but used wrs
tions, and he admitted that he had stolen not
The amount Of money he got could never be
ssGertaIRsd b4t he must have secured sna
Did you eyer think about the fact thai, few
There's powerful lara array 1V Of empioyees e here.
but they seldom go wrong. and yet inspeGt9r'
ire no more numerous here than in other cities,
This is often spoken OF by the Inspectors"
J.. NOW II we had some one to look after The
lnspectors the department might be better
of" laughingy said another Inspector. They,
too; sometimes go wrong. A few years ago we,
Ing good man. but he fell from grace and did,
time in the Columbus Penitentiary.
1t happened in this way His daughter
was made Postmistress at a town in georgia,
and Il was not long before he quit the service
run of the offioe and by and by the cash came
up several hundred dollars short The father
was arrested. proved guilty and sent up. II
always struck me that # that man would steal
from his daughters office he, must have been
guilty OF crooked work while he was inspector.
because he had plenty OF chances to accent
found short"
WORLD CAPITAL, THIS,