The sun., 1901-06-23
town who ar. milking their living out Of

once ana there Uen as many cne'iP INV
yers who will help the blackmailer out.
furnish bogus summons. &c, for con-
sitleration: but the business Is bound TO
flourish lust "a long ~ human nature
Il what il Is and 90 per cent. ofmen are moral
towards. OF course, there are different
methods OF blnckmail. but the one that does
lnnd Office business is worked by clever
women who make the acquaintance OF men
from ont OF town who have left their morals
al home with their families.
A man thinks hc is foxy because he gives
a false name, but. bless your heart. the
woman expects that hns him shadowed
to his hotel and after she gets his name
and address looks up his standing. IL
he seems to be a good thing, she either
threatens him directly, or, what Is con-
sidered a shade smoother. writes him that
her husband has found out her relations
with him and intends bringing his name
into divorce proceedings. She has tried TO
influence the lawyer not 10 drag him in
and. for q certain sum. the lawyer viii
leave him out Of the matter
Now, of course, that ~ nonsense on the
face of it, hut the fellow who gets The letter
thinks there may possibly b" something
in II. lie knows that il's mess OF some
kind. and he weakens when he thinks OF
his family and social standing, lie pays
up rather than take n chance. II he'd
only write that he had received the letter
and turned IL over TO 5O-and-so, his law
yers. or TO Capt. Titus. who would con-
duct any further correspondence. the
dreds and thousands Of dollars find their
way into private letter boxes m response
TO the demands Of such swindlers.
we stopped one very pretty private
letter box deal not long ago. Maybe
you remember IT, Some swindlers opened
a business under the name OF famous
racing man. who Is known TO he one OF the
hp. in
word is his bond. and he knows his h'isi-
ness ANY man who follows the horses
II all would place confidence in him.
We'll, this bogus firm. under his name.
sent out circulars, Offering to ofurnish tips
on the Brooklyn Handicap for certain
all over the country who knew the book
maker reputation Bit at the hook. Luck
ily. we got hold of one Of the circulars about
as soon as they were out, and we corralled
that private letter box so quickly that don't
believe the crooks could have received
more than half dozen of the remittances
DO many women Use the private letter
boxes1" asked the reporter.
Hundreds Of them numbers Of young
girls too, which Ia worse. There's no
calculating the harm that the private box
does by making Clandestlne correspondence
possible You'd be surprised TO see what
nice woman are fools enough TO use box.
but the girls do their share, Some time
ago a private box establishment up town
was doing a big business, delivering over
100 letters daily, and a large number OF
the letters were going TO young women
who were pupils in the Normal School.
That was exposed and stopped IN short
| order but we cant interfere with cor
reSpon,ence just because 1t Is clandestine.
"We are powerless except In cases where
| we have evidence that fraud Is being per-
| petrated through the mails, Our respon-
! sibility ends the moment the mail Is de-
| livered to a personin whose care II IL sent.
| So in the case Of a newspaper private box
| system We cant interfere. We can only
| deliver the mail 10 the paper The same
| is true at any Of the private letter box es-
| tablishments II we can prove fraud, OF
course that is a different matter.
| There's one very clever confidence wo-
man who has done lot of smooth work
| through correspondence. We got her AZ
last, on swinde here in New York, She
| had sent ont letters Offering n good bicycle
! for sale for $40. That was in the day OF
| the biCyCle craze. She represented her
self as a clergyman who was in desperate
financial straits and willing TO dispose OF
his parishioners. However, he wanted
| 10 sell 10 stranger so that the thing could
! not get out and cause hard feelings The
| wheel need not be paid for until received.
| but (and here's the point, you see) the
Grating and shipping would cost certain
| amount and that money would have 10 be
sent on as he was absolutely strapped
y on wouldn't think there were suckers
TO bite at that, now would you? There We're;
! but we got there first,
"She WASH sent up. though. She was n
| tremendously handsome woman. We tool,
her 10 a southern town to try her on old
| charges and she smiled on that Jury and
Judge until I'm blamed if they didn't re-
| fuse TO convict her, IN the face of direct evil
| denCe shes married "A man o. national
| reputation now, a murderer and all around
| professional Oi the first water. and ! sup
pose she l. morriy working more private
letter box swndles, while h" goes IN for
heavier graft.
This private lettor box business ought
10 keep your whole force busy. ! should
| think"
Not by long sight. Il gives us lots Of
work So does the green goods business
but the post Office thefts and hurglarics
are our big propo-itons lhere rs more c'
that sort of thing than any one would m8c-
inc. and there are any number Of gangs or
individual crooks who don't so in for any
| thing save post Office robbery There are
the letter box thefts, and the thefts by en-.
plovees, and the daytime sneak thieves
There's a fire old crook who works that
davtime racket and has made a mint Of
"One of our old employees made n fine
haul by going to small towns and represent.
ing that he was sent to inspect tho books
&c. Then he would announce that h'
had decided the amount of business didn
Justify running n money order depart
ment there He would get hold Of IN,
! money order blanks, stamps, &c, in thn
way-make out the orders payable al dif
ferent towns. then 20 around and collec
the money
The ordinary post Office burglary
however. ia night timo afair The ganl
cracks the safes and gets the Stamps. Ever
| an ordinary Office will have several thOuS
md dollars WORTH of stamps and som'
offices carry $4,000 or $4,000 worth
One of the toughest gangs Of post oilc'
burglars in the country was nailed onl!
a little while ago. dowp south
speaking Of post-otflce burglars, re
minds me Of the way one crook sold us
He gave IL to US for fair and we haven
got over II yet II was after the post
Office burglary nj Nvack. out in Iowa.
fellow went to the Marshal and admittc
that hc and his pal did the Nyack Job. III
told all the details and said he was willin
tb split on his pal
The Marsha telegraphed and We toll
: him to bring the burglar on. II mad
us feel good all over 10 think that burglar
} was placed The Marshal brought ia
man to New York on Pullman ear, thro
square meals a day on the diner and all thn
sort Of thing When the crook WI
before MS he gave MS tho merry ha-h;
He didn't know u thing about that Nyac
affair except what he read IN the paper
He was serving sentence out in Nobrask
I when the lob was done; but when he 70
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