The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1899-08-11
BETRAYED BY A HAIR
SLIGHT cLEW LEADS TO A GRIM
MAILS DETECTION.
After Fooling the Detectives for a
Long Time Mail Thief Is Finally
caught-Insignifican Circumstance
Causes His Arrest.

Causes His Arrest.
The least thing ever heard of that
put man in prison was q clue that
took me over the road between here
and New York about a dozen times in
1873, when l was an inspector in the
postal service" said an old sleuth to a
Washington correspondent.
1t was an old case. 1t had been on
the books a long while. Four or five
good men had taken a try at 1T, 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
baftled.
Il had myself worked on the job a
little and gone at something else. In
all these detective cases it is in nine
tunes out of ten mere chance that
leads to success. One day l happened
to take out of pigeon-hole in my desk
a 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 1 slid my knife
through the sealed joints of an envel-
ope, and there, caught in a corner, was
short black hair. The flap of the en-
velope looked as if 1t 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.
Il took that hair up as carefully as
if it had been a diamond 1 had found.
knew that just across Seventh street
was friend of mine, now dead, who
had powerful microscope. rushed
up to his office and asked him to let me
use his microscope a moment Under
the glass the hair seemed to be one
from a mans mustache. l looked at it
a long while and so did my friend We
agreed that it was Whisker, sure
enough, and I was confident that it
was piece of the thief we wanted to
catch. To make assurance doubly sure
went to an optician, and he put the
hair under the most powerful micro
scope he had. Almost without hesita-
tion he said: This is not black hair,
but red one dyed black. 1t is red at
the end
Il looked for myself, and sure enough
it was so. I 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 I got to the Della
ware River. Then 1 got down to bust
ness. saw every man that handled
through pouches from there 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 interested in
any that had the least sign of being
dyed. At Trenton found red mus
tache, 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,
sending through his hands perhaps
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.
ut all began with my finding that
one little stubby hair in the corner Of
that envelope