The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-05-21
Dishonest Postal Clerks.


self tri fle smarter than another tha
makes his thoughts run into dishones
channel S. said an old postofhce in
spector. II can account for the fre
quent arrest in al! parts Of the coun
try of employees of the postal service
especially clerks in the postolfices ant
letter carriers, only upon this hypoth
esis, and that there is an inheren
streak in his composition Of dishon
esty, because he knows better thar
the public that once we get after pos
tai thieves we never stop until We
land them in Jail. And still they &C
on all over the land pilfering from let
ters, believing themselves safe. 1t
must jar some of them when they tum-
bic into the trap we set.
1t is a matter of corresponding in
terest to remember that, as these dis
honest clerks we'll knew, the trap
which places the manacles around
their wrists is the same old trap, like
the same old bear trap, reliable and
certain 10 hold fast once it is sprung,
only it catches their pilfering hand
instead of their feet. 1t is the decoy
letter which the postal thief quickly
and slyly picks up and secrctes about
his person or elsewhere, and once it
is in his hand the trap is sprung,
the hand of the inspector on the c.se
closes about his wrist, and lie, walks to
the station house to ruminate how
easily he was caught once the inspec-
tor decided upon the man Of the force
who was guilty among the honest.
"Now, since every postal cmploye
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 appre-
hension practically inevitable? Be-
cause human nature is the same in all
callings, and the postal employee is
cast in no different mould than the
rest Of us; it is cnly his environment.
Yes, they know instantly, instinct
lively, whether letter contains mon
ey, as bank teller can tell by the
feeling OF bill before he looks at it
that it is a counterfeit. We know
this, too, and that is the reason why
we fish for them with the decoy letter,
and land them, thus safeguarding the
the public and the department from
loss.
1.-The decoy letter looks no different
from any other letter, and it feels just
the same tc the dishonest hand of the
postal thief as any letter containing
money. We usually p.Ice three to
five marked 81 bills in the envelope.
The instant the fingers of the dishon-
est man strips along the envelope he
knows that it.oontairs money, and he
will steal it if he can. His eagerness
and disinclination to let any letter with
money go by him enable us to catch
him when we learn to certainty the
route upon which money letters are
stolen.
"Some employees are very foxy, and
go on long time before they are de-
tected. They often try to place the
guilt upon an innocent carrier n this
way. In making up their routes, and
getting their mail from the distribut-
ing tables, they handle the mail be-
longing to the oahsr carriers. It is an
easy thing to detect money letters 10
the other fellows lot, and include
them in their own, to be purloinned at
leisure and suitable opportunity.
suspicion naturally falls upon the
innocent carrier and he is placed under
secret surveillance. Dccoy letters
are mailed. and by other means it is
endeavored to fix the guilt upon him.
If our usual methods fail, we too, be-
come suspicious that an innocent man
is being worked We drop him and
try to locate the actual thief, and it
is not long Defore We have him in jail.
Sometimes two dishonest employees
will work together, but as rule pos
tai thieves are like the lone highway
man and prefer to go it alone.
"lou see, the dishonest cmployc
foolishly believes that he can beat the
game, and an arrest in large Office
only has temporary deterrent effect