Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-03-03
Daring Thieves Steal Two
Pouches and Rifle Letters
at Cedar Rapids
MAIL WAS FOR B., c. R. & NJ.
Spent Sunday and Part of Monday Go.
ing Thru the Letters Then Hauled
the Whole Pile Out Into a Slough
Where They Were Found = No Clue
as Yet.
Special to Times-Republican.


Cedar Rapids. March 3.-Late Mon
day night it became known that one OF
the boldest of petty mail robberies had
been committed in this city, when some
unknown persons stole two pouches
from mail wagon at the union station
Saturday night. The pouches had been
brought in on trains from the east and
south and. were waiting for the depar-
ture of the Rock Island train No. 619,
on the Cedar Rapids & Sioux Falls line.
The mail consisted Of packages of let
tiers for the various towns along the
line from Vinton to Sioux Falls and the
various connections. Business men and
others in those seyenty-five or hun
dred towns who did not get the letters
they were expecting may have good
reason to believe that they letters they
expected to get are now spread out to
dry in the office of Chief Clerk Wilson
OF the railway mail service. tho many
of them are in the ice and water Of the
slough half mile north of town. Every
letter had been opened and all the valu-
0OiC NOiiAGiitS l1hSu OQl UGIOIt Tue
tiers and the remains of the pouches
were dumped there by the robbers.
The two pouches were reported as
missing by the railway mail clerks of
the transfer room at the union station
late Saturday night when, upon the de-
parture of the Rock Island train No.
619, leaving here at 1920, the pouches
could not be found. Search was made
1r,t. ! - AZ
ming that they were discovered. The
discovery was reported by Mr.. Sanford>
Kerr, cashier for the Illinois Central
railway, and what was left of the two
pouches was taken to Mr.. Wilson'S Of
fee by Joe Dietz, an elnploye OF the c.,
r. /. &: p. who lives at 1909 North
Twelfth street, and by e. j. Hansen, of
A22 c avenue.
The remains of the pouches and hun
1reds of the opened letters were found !
1T the edge of the slough, on the Illi-
bois Central tracks, about $50 yards
North OF the Rock Island roundhouse. /
A little clImp of willows runs out into
the slough, and behind these willow
bushes lay the remains of the pouches
and the letters, scattered over the ice
and in the water, covering about TWEEN
~ square feet.
Evidently the pouches had been TAX
N to some house in this city where the
robbers spent Saturday night and Sum
day opening them and removing all the
contents that were of value Merrill
Smith says that when he went home to
dinner on Monday just before noon the
letters were not there. When he re-
turned from dinner just before
o'clock, the letters were lying In the
ice and water where they were after
wards found by others. The theory is
therefore, that the pouches were taken
from one of the hand mail wagons
standing on the platform near the
transfer room Saturday night.
One of the envelopes, addressed to
Mrs. Cartha II. Bryson, at Iowa Falls,
bore q. special delivery stamp, but the
letter had been removed and 1t will
probably be hard to associate It with
The envelope. Among the contents was
! warranty deed at Tama for valuable
zeal estate in Minnesota. There was
large number of business letters and
considerable amount of advertising
natter. !