The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-08-18
NO 50
A SINGLE HAIR.

s'The least thing | ever heard of that
put a man in prison was the clew that
took me over the road between here
and New York about a dozen times in
1878, when ] was an inspector in the
postal service" said an old sleuth the
other day to another who had just
told good story.
at was an old case. 1t had been
on the books long while. FouE<or
fire good men had taken try at it,
but the fellow was too sly, and he kept
taking letters, and we could never
take him. The complaints pointed
pretty closely to the spot where the
trouble was, but when we got there
we were completely batfied.
IL had myself worked on the job
little and had gone at something else.
In all these detective cases it is in
nine times out of ten mere chance
that leads to success. One day hap
pened to take out of pigeonhole in
my desk bunch of dccoy letters that
had been sent out over the line to
catch this sharp rascal, who was rob-
bling Washington people of their re-
mittances to New York. Somehow l
slid my knife through the sealed joints
of an envelope, and there, caught in
corner, was a short black hair. The
flap of the envelope looked as If it had
not 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
~ took the hair up as carefully as if
| it had been a diamond | had found. l
knew that just across Seventh street
was a friend of mine, now dead, who
had a powerful microscope. | rushed
up to his office and asked him to let
me use his instrument moment. I'M
der the glass the hair seemed to be
one from mans mustache. | looked
at it long while, and so did my friend.
We agreed that it was whisker, sure
enough, and I was confident it was a
piece of the thief we wanted to catch.
If we had stopped there and gone af-
ter him we should have failed again as
completely as ever before. To make
assurance doubly sure | went to an
optician, and he put the hair under the
me st powerful microscope he had. Al
most without hesitation he said: This
is not black hair, but red one dyed
black. 1t is red at the end
II looked for my self, and sure
enough it was so. | 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 were satisfied the
thief worked between Philadelphia and
New York, so took it easy until |
got down in business. | saw ever.
man that handled through pouches
from there on to New York, and |
took mental photograp of every mus
tache in the service Between Philadel-
phia and Few York. | looked for
black mustachcs and for red ones, and
| was especially interested in any that
had the least sign of being dyed, At
Trenton l 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 a week
PLAYED toss and catch with him, send
ing through his hands perhaps so de-
coy letters, some with stamps in them,
some with 81 bills and some with mon
ey 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.
cit all began with my finding that
one little stub5y hair in the corner of
that envelope. Washington Star.