Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1899-07-06

Nae n Prison.
1.-THE least thing ever heard Of that
put man In prison was the clue that
took me over the road between here
and New York about dozen times In
1873, when was an inspector In the
postal service" said an old sleuth the
other day to another who had just told
good story.
1T was an old case. 1t had been on
the books long while. Four or i've
good men had taken a try at II, but the
fellow was too sly, and he kept taking
letters and we could never take him.
The complaints pointed very closely to
the spot where the trouble was, but
when we got there we were complete
ly baffied.
~ had myself worked on the job a
little and gone at something else. In
all these detective cases 1t is In nine
times out of ten a mere chance that
leads to success. One day happened
to take out of a pigeonhole In my desk
q bunch of decoy letters that had been
sent over the line to catch this sharp
rascal, who was rObbing Washington
people of their remittances to New
York. Somehow l slid my knife
through the sealed joints of an en-
velope, and there, caught in corner,
was a short black hair. lie flap OF
the envelope looked as IL 1t had nor
been meddled with. Yet it had been
opened and dollar bill duly marked
had been taken out and the envelope
sealed up and put back in the mail.
II took that hair up as carefully as
IL 1t had been diamond had found.
/ knew that just across Seventh street
was friend of mine, now dead, who
had powerful microscope. l rushed
up to his Office and asked him to let me
use his instrument n moment. Under
the glass the hair seemed to be one
from mans mustache. l looked at 1t
a long while and so did my friend.
We agreed that 1t was whisker, sure
enough, and was confident 1T was
piece of the thief we wanted to catch.
II We had stopped there and gone after
hiia we should have failed again as
completely as ever before. To make
assurance doubly sure l went to an
optician and he put the hair under the
most powerful microscope he had. Al
most without hesitation he said: This
ia not black hair, but red one
dyed black. 1t is red ut the end
II looked for myself, and sure
enough 1t was SO. l went back to the
Office, put my desk in order, got all the
data in this case, and that night started
over the line to New York once more.
We We're satisfied the thief worked be-
tween Philadelphia and New York, so
/ took it easy until l got to the Della
ware river. Then / got down to busi-
ness. l saw every man that handled
through pouches from there on to New
York, and took mental photograph
of every mustache in the service be-
tween Philadelphia and New York.
looked for black mustaches and for
red ones, and / was especially inter-
ested in any that had the least sign Of
being dyed. At Trenton found a red
mustache, but went on to the end OF
the route still looking for another Of
that shade. found none. That chap
was my man. l came back home, and
for week played toss and catch with
him, sending through his hands per-
haps fifty decoy letters, some with
stamps in them, some with dollar bills
and some with money orders. In less
than two weeks we had him, and he
went over the road for two years and
eight months, and the trouble stopped.
'Tt all began with my fiEding that
one little stubby hair in the corner Of
that envelope. "-Washington Star.