Rock Island Argus., 1902-05-16
POSTAL CLERKS
ARE INVARIABLY CAUGHT

ARE INVARIABLY CAUGHT
1T is because one man thinks him
self a trifie smarter than another
that makes his thoughts run into
dishonest channels" said an old post
office Inspector. II can account for
the frequent arrest in all parts of
the country of employees of the pos
tai service. especially clerks i'm post
offices and letter carriers, only upon
this hypothesis, and that there is an
inherent streak in his composition of
dishonesty. because he knows better
than the public that once we get
after postal thieves we never stop
until we land them in Jail. And still
they go on all over the land pilfering
from letters believing themselves
safe. 1t must jar some of them when
they tumble into the trap we set.
1T is matter of corresponding in
terest to remember that. as these dis
honest clerks well know, the trap
which places the manacles around
their wrists is the same old trap, like
the same old bear trap, reliable and
certain to hold fast once il is sprung.
only it catches their pilfering hand
instead of their feet. 1t is the decoy
letter which the postal thief quickly
and sIyly picks up and secretes about
his person or elsewhere. and once il
is i'm hand the trap is sprung, the
hand of the inspector on the case
closes about his wrist. and he walks
To the station house TO ruminate how
easily he was caught once the in
spector decided upon the man of the
force who was the guilty among the
honest.
Now, since every postal employe in
the United States knows that once
the officials are suspicious of theft
along his route or postal car run.
that the inspectors lay all sorts of
traps for him behind the bars. why
will they steal money letters with
apprehension practically inevitable?
Because human nature is the same in
all callings, and the postal employe
is east i'm no different mould than
the rest of us: il is only his environ
ment. Yes. they know instantly, in
stinctively whether letter contains
money, as a bank teller can tell by
the feeling of Il bill before he looks
at il that il is counterfeit. We know
this, too, and that is the reason why
we fish for this with the decoy letter,
and land them. thus safeguarding the
public and the department from loss.
The decoy letter looks no different
from any other letter, and it feels
just the same to the dishonest hand
of the postal thief as any letter con-
tanning money. We usually place
three to five marked 81 bills in the
envelope. The instant the fingers of
the dishonest man strips along the
envelope he knows that il contains
money. and he will steal il if he can.
His eagerness and diSinclination to let
any letter with money go by him
enables us to catch him when we
learn to a certainty the route upon
which money letters are stolen.
Some employees are very foxy, and
go on n long time before they are
detected. They often try to place
the guilt upon an innocent fellow
carrier i'm this way. In making up
their routes. and getting their mail
from the distributing tables. they
handle the mail belonging to other
carriers. 1t is an easy thing to de
tect money letters in the other fell
lows lot. and include them in their
own, to be purloined at leisure and
suitable opportunity.
suspicion naturally falls upon the
innocent carrier. and he is placed
under secret surveillance. Decoy
letters are mailed, and by other
means it is endeavored to fix the
guilt upon him. If our usual meth
ode fn inin
that an innocent man is being
worked We drop him and try to
locate the actual thief. and il is not
long before we have him in Jail.
Sometimes two dishonest employees
will work together, but as n rule
postal thieves are like the lone high
wayman and prefer to go it alone.
You see, the dishonest employe
foolishly believes that he can beat the
game. and an arrest i'm a large office
has only a temporary deterrent effect
upon the other secret thieves therein.
They are more cautious and may per-
haps lie low for brief time, but not
for long. 1t is Il singular but true
official fact that once man begins
to steal money letters he seldom
voluntarily stops, and we have had
men confess that they had been at
this nefarious business for years and
would have remained at il as long as
they were in the service but for their
arrest. Ii is an easy way to make
money for the time being to the
clerk or carrier whose salary does
not meet his expenses. He becomes
emboldened by the confidence in his
cleverness to secret the money let
ters, forgetful that with each report
of theft the efforts of the inspectors
are redoubled TO entrap him, and the
closer are drawn the meshes of the
net slowly but surely being entwin-
ed around him. Very often the
guilty man is positively known to the
s..n,,ontnr. fn,. r,,nn+h. hnfnrn thRN