St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-12-28
POSTAL SPIES IN FRANCE.
Government Bureau In Which Sus.
pected Letters Are Opened
and Read.

1t has always been denied by the
French police that under any circum-
stances is "the sanctity of private cor
respondence violated" but everybody
who has come, in France, in contact
with political movements" or the GRIM
inal police is well aware of the fact
that the cabinet noir, or the blackjack
met, is as much to-day part of gov
eminent and police machinery as it
was in the days of Louis XIV, who is
generally credited with its invention.
The black cabinet, according to the
London Express, is an Office in the
Paris prefecture of police where let
tiers and pneumatic cards comman-
deered from the G. P. O. are opened,
read, and possibly photographed, and
where kilograms are examined and
translated if in foreign language or in
cipher.
The employees of this office have
complete outfit for dealing with let
tiers, for opening the envelopes or alb
stracting the contents and for remov-
ing seals or reproducing them.
Where the envelope is so closely
pasted as to render the simple method
of steaming it open too dilatory vari-
Gus methods of getting at the in
closures are practiced.
Sometimes one side is opened with
very sharp knife, the separate covers
being afterward skillfully gummed to-
gether when the letter has been read.
Where a black edged envelope has
been used this tapering can be most
effectually concealed by the use of
little ink.
Sometimes an implement resembling
a bradawl is inserted at one corner of
the envelope and twisted round SO dex-
trously that the contents can be drawn
out in the shape of spiral spill.
Or the stamp is removed and slit
cut on the paper beneath, through
which the letter is distracted, and,
after perusal, returned.
When the letter is ready for for
warding the stamp is gummed down
again into its place and hides all trace.
of the operation. Seals are easily dis
posed Of A very thin, sharp blade Of
steel is heated and passed under the
wax, removing it bodily. AS easily is it
afterward put back into it's place.
All these tricks are the same as those
practiced by post Office thieves.
Where in the course of it's manipula-
ton an envelope gets so disfigured that
it would be obvious to the receiver that
it has been tempered with, it is usu-
ally Suppressed" This happens often
in the case of missives whose senders
adopt Col. Picquart's method of baf-
fling the cabinet noir.
"The only way have discovered
said Col. Picquart, at the first lola
trial, "of rendering letter absolutely
inviolable is to use two envelopes. one
smaller than the other. You put the
communica ton into the smaller envel-
ope, smear this all over with gum, and
place it in the second envelope, on
which you write the address. The
black cabinet cannot get at the con-
tents without entirely destroying the
outer envelope"
However, in such case the chances
are a hundred to one that the letter
would never reach it's destination.
Criminals, conspirators and politi-
clans who suspect that their letters
may be tempered with at the cabinet
noir often take advantage of the cir
cumstance to dupe the police to throw
them off the scent.
Major Esterhazy has had more to
c,,ff he hiro% roNir ha nor
haps any man living; and while the
"affaire' was at it's height devised va
rious schemes for protecting the nu-
merous letters he dispatched daily
from London.