Arizona republican., 1900-12-21

in point of service of the Phoenix post office, was arrested shortly after noon yesterday\by Deputy United States Marshal Porterie on general charge of embezzemeh&, the nature of which was variously intsrprcted by rumors- The postoffice authorities and Post office Inspector H. E. .\Hall. who hap pened to be in town atte0ding the trial of James Collins for the\Mesa post office robbery, were all reticent-
 Walden was detained al the 9Sheriff s office all afternoon. but was not locked up. He was attended by his wife dexr- ing the greater part of the afternoOS until 5 o'clock, the time set for his examination before Commissioner Crenshaw
 Even Walden's fellow employees were not aware of the trouble into which he had fallen until late in the day. not withstanding the foundation for it had been carefully laid more than twenty- four hours before. They knew he had been mysteriousIy laid off on Wednes- day, but that was all.
 The following facts were brought out at the examination before the commis- sioner last night, part by evidence. but mostly by inference. upon which the government may later enlarge.
 For several weeks complaints have reached the postoffice of the missing of letters. In such cases suspicion is theoretically directed against every body who might be guilty, but as a matter of fact, against those who are most likely to be guilty. The likeli- hood is determinodAby circumstances and in this case it "A T become known FP the auth .iS= F.. Walden was living beyond his Nncome of $50 a month; so much So, in fact, that at was understood that his unpaid bills amounted to $l ,6OO.
 There was, therefore. put into his bag on Wednesday morning a letter containing silver. It had the postmarl< of Omaha" though it had never been out Of Phoenix and was directed to an imaginary Sing Wo'' at the imac- mary address of '1O12 West Washing ton street" Down one end of the en- velope Were two rows of Chinese char acters made by man who knew no more about Chinese than he knew about Sanscrit.
 Walden returned from his route. registered himself out" washed him
 
 when Inspector Hall met him and asked him for the letter for "Sing Wo." Walden flushed, and drew it from his pocket, explaining at tha same time that he had put it there for safe keeping. The arrest was not made until twenty-four hours later.
 The foregoing is the burden of evil dence on the part of the government. a r1+ Purdy Bullard, only interposed that the defendant had not yet put on his hat preparatory to leaving when he was in- tercepted by the Inspector.
 Commissioner Crenshaw held Wal den to the United States grand jury in the sum of S20O. The bond was not furnished, but the commissioner per mitted the defendant to go to his home. to appear before him at 10 o'clock this morning.
 There is no disposition on the part of the authorities to prosecute Walden. They would not, in fact, prosecute him if they could avoid it and they say they hope that he may in some way clear himself
 Among the losses sustained in the posltoffice lately. that is. within the last two months, is S2OO. taken from the order department in the temporary absence of a few minutes of the clerks regularly employed there. Walden is not charged with that peculation. neither is any other employe. The money simply disappeared, that was the end of it, and investigation was fruitlcss Technically. Walden Is not charged with stealing, for SO far as the evidence brought out at theeXamination went he got away with nothing. He is charged with a violation of paragraph 5467 of the R. s. U. S.; that is. with secreting and embedding a letter or package containing valuables. U may be further stated that the post office regulations require carriers be- fore registering out" to surrender all undc clivered mail matter which they had talien out on their routes.
 Everybody who knows Walden felt sorry for him, for he is a generous. whole-souled fellow and prominent member of perhaps the most popular secret order fin the city.