The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-05
CLEANED OUT THE OFFICE.
PosTOFFICE ROBBERS DESTROYED
BLANKS AND BOOKS.


Office i'm Worth County Has Been the
subject of Much Discussion and
Some DisSension and Its Robbery
Is the eliminating Feature.
Thieves Took n Small Amount of
Money and stamps and Destroyed
Everything EIse-POsted n Sarcas-
tic Reference to the Custom of the
PosfmistreSs to Garry Her TrOu-
bles to II Political Friend-Secret
Service Men Investigating the
Crime.
a Savannahian who has just returned
from Worth county tells an interesting
story of the robbery Of the postofce at
Oakfield, a lttle town near the line be-
tween Worth ana Lee. incidentally it
throws some light on political methods in
that neck OF the woods.
1t appears that the postmstress at Oak
field is Mrs Mary Lippitt. the widow of
the sometime Ordinary of the county. Plior
TO her appointment, though, the office had
been promised by The political powers that
be to another, and the other was much
disappointed that he did not get it.
Oakheld is a village of possibly 200 or
800 people and its civilization is not of the
fin de steele variety. on the contrary its
principal business is numbering and the
general run of its citizery are of the
class with whom might makes right and
to whom a hard fist is a better title to ana
more likely TO secure the peaceable and
undisputed possession of any office or
property than anything that can emanate
from lawyers brain. If you want 10
give the story local COLOR" said the gem
tleman who was telling it, make it
bright red. That's about the right shade"
1t appears that Mrs. Lippitt secured her
appointment through the efforts and in
fiuence of B. F. Brimberry, the Republi-
can postmaster at Albany, and it further
appears that he is not overburdened with
the enthusiastic approval of the negro vo-
tiers in that section. According to them,
he has exerted his influence for the wrong
persons, and those who. in the words of
Mr.. Dolly, have fought and bid livery
wan they could reach" in every recent
election, have been left TO the uncertain
charity of a cold, cold world, instead OF
being placed in positions where the plums
could be reached without the use of
pole.
Some few days before the robbery of
the postoffice, Glenn Smith, negro poll
tician, appeared at Oakfeld and exhibiting
what purported TO be a letter from Wal
ter johnson, announced that Mrs.
Lppitt was to be removed from Office and
that he held the appointment in the hol-
low of his hand. There were
caucuses and pow-wows of one sort
and another, and Smith finally said he
had made up his mind and that James E.
Campbell, young white man who clerked
In a store in the town, was to be made
postmaster as soon as Mrs Lippitt was
removed. This, said Smith was not a
thing of the distant future, but was TO be
accomplished at once
Alarmed by this news of her removal
Mrs Lippitt HE'D herself to Albany where
she consulted Mr.. Brimberry, her po-
Iucal friend, who is said to have secured
her appointment. Mr.. Brimberry told her
rot to be alarmed. that as a matter of
fact Smith did not have enough influence
TO secure his own appointment as assist
ant janitor in a fourth class pos office and
that his threats amounted to nothing. She
returned TO Oakfie,d, relieved in spirit and
told her friends what had happened.
Metaphorically. she snapped her fingers
at Smith end mis- allies
That night the postoffice was entered and
robbed. The business of the office is
small, so that the actual sum taken did
not amount 10 a great deal but it was
c-ean sweep. All the blanks for money
orders, the money order advices and the
stationery used in transacting the bust
ness Of the Office were either destroyed
or taken away. Some small amount of
cash and the stamps We're stolen. The
books. too, were destroyed or carried
away, so that it has been impossible TO
tell iuss what the actual loss IS
Pasted on the wall was a sheet of pa
per two or three feet long, on which in
large and sprawling characters, was IN
scribed:
Now Trot to Brimberry, You Have Got
Something to Tell.
'Womack's Store Keeps Us From Burn
ing the Damn Office" Womack's store
adjoins the postofiice.
The citizens of the town as
cribe the occurrence to all sorts of
causes. some of them probable. some Of
them hopelessly improbable. The Savau-
nah man who has been in Worth county
says that when he Jeff the wcols were
full of secret service agents of the gov
eminent, who all seemed to be striving 10
solve the mystery. so far as is known,
though. the solution is as far away as it
has ever been.