Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-24
THAT ACCUSING FINGER

to say, through the ordeal of the third de-
gree. said a veteran post office inspector
| Only about one man in q hundred, new in
| the path of dishonesty. is able TO stand up
under the close questioning of men whom he
knows to be tracking him. The other
ninety nine go to pieces when any piece of
apparent evidence against them, manufac-
| tured or otherwise, is suddenly flashed upon
them. and fall all over themselves in con-
| tossing Some of them, in their state of
| collapse under such conditions. even go the
length Of owning up to former dishonesty
| Of which they were never suspected.
| have handled many postal cases of that
| sort. and have heard the confessions of
| scores of dishonest chaps who probably
| never could have been punished for their
crimes had they possessed the nerve to
| stand pat and stick to their determination
not to own up
| Il worked on two cases involving such
concessions last year, and in one of these
cases the guilty man, although we were
absolutely positive Of his guilt, could never
by any possibility have been convicted in
| a court Of law had he possessed as much
| Spine as he did ingenuity.
| HE was q railway postal clerk with
| long run on the other side of the Missis-
sippi river. One day he saw a chance to
| make big haul, and being poker player.
| and. consequently, in constant need of
money, he promptly accepted the chance.
! AT a city station along his run he was
given two well-stuffed pouches Of reg stored
| mall He hastily Scrawled a receipt. but
| the receipt didn't read for two pouches Of
| registered mail, but for only one The rail-
| way postal clerk had observed how care
| lessly the receivers of these receipts accept
| Them generally without any scrutiny or a
| merely cursory scrutiny at best, and so he
! merely receipted for one pouch and to use
| the current phrase. he got away with 1t.
The man who took the receipt didn't look
at 1t, but tucked it away with his other
papers, and therefore the railway postal
clerk found himself in possession Of nice,
fat, tightly packed pouch of registered mail
for which he had given no receipt whatever,
and which he could do just as he liked
with.
He had a lot of time before the next
STOP and the whole car to himself, and so
| he went through the bag that looked the
most promising, and rifled it's contents at
his leisure 1t was almost exclusively
cash pouch. There was some jewelry, but
| this he tossed away as being too liable to
get him into trouble. The cleanup that,
he made was something handsome-only
few hundred dollars short of $4,000
| He burned all Of the envelopes and other
| papers in the little stove at one end Of the
car, and he tossed the pouch and the plum
| der that he didn't elect to hang on to into
| a river which the train crossed on tres
| tie. taking care to attach a weight to the
pouch so that it would be sure to sink. He
attended to the delivery of the other pouch
all right-the only pouch for which he
| was responsible-and at the wind-up of
his out trip he found himself in possession
Of the tidy sum of nearly $4,000 in cur
| rency.
II went out on the case. The man who
had accepted the receipt for the one pouch
remembered perfectly well that he had
! really delivered two pouches to the car.
and his statement put it up to the railway
| clerk, although the latter had a fine edge
| on the situation owing to the fact that he
| had only receipted for the one pouch
| knew that it would be perfectly useless to
| ncly h p, hofh ha ha6
| two pouches, and did not present myself
to him at first at all Instead, I plowed
around and located the girl with whom he
was on confidential terms. L had only Deen
| on the case three days when learned that
the girl-she lived in Cheyenne-had given
a 500 bill to Cheyenne tradeSman IN pay
| ment of small bill. When l found TINS
out got United States officer to accom-
| pany me- and then found the railway clerk
| in his room at hotel in the town at the
| end of his run. When ne had admitted US
| l went at him at once.
i i've got you dead to rights, told him.
and the best thing you can do to save
| yourself a long sentence is to own up IN
| stantly. Here + went on, suddenly maui
ing out my wallet and producing 800
| bill, is 500 note that your girl spent IN
| Cheyenne day before yesterday afternoon
| The number of the note has been 1dentlhed
| by the sender of it, and 49,
".It's all off, he interrupted me, with
a wan and gray face We got me az
right. I'll tell you where the money Is:
u.
| all but about $780, was found stufred De
| hind the taxpayer lining of chicken coop
| back of a deserted house on the OUTSKIRTS
| of CHEYENNE. The Cave-1n OF that railway
| nostal clerk was wholly unnecessary Inc
| 500 bill that 1 flashed on him wasn't the
one that had been expended In cheyenne
by the girl 1t was bill that borro% T,e'i
| from a bank just for the purpose. But
| the bluff went through easily and caught a
man who could never have been convicted
| of his crime in a court of law, since there
tir,cr avid
he had ever come into possession OF the
registered mail pouch which he had rifed-
| '"The other quick acknowledgment or
theft under pressure, was that OF the post
| ma ster of good-siZed far-weStern town.
| This man had possessed a reputation for
sterling integrity, and the case had TO be
handled with kid gloves His method was
ngeniously simple he maoe up 1870 pauh-
ton. The package contained $1,000 in bills
| of various denominations The postmaster
did up the package, carefully sealing II.
in the presence of two or three employees OF
| his most office. Then he placed 1t In the
| pouch and fastened the pouch, leaving the
| nouch in his Office ready to be taken 10
the eastbotfnd train he prepared 'he usu ~
letter of transmittal, to be sent by separate
mail the letter giving a list of the numbers
| of the bills forwarded in the currency PACK,
| age. But the postmaster altered tne emu
| figures of some of these bill numbers His
idea in doing this was ShreWd one, IN
one sense, but there are, as you Will see,
| all sorts of ways of spiking the schemes OF
these too-shrewd people. He knew that
the numbers of the bills as given in his
letter of transmittal would be used to trace
the hills and, as he intended to spend
those bills himself. he purposely changed
| the numbers so that there would be, as he
thought, no possibility of tracing the bills
to him. -, ~
THAT same night, while there was
nartv going on at the postmasters home.
he siipped down to his office. cut hole IN
the bottom of the fastened pouch to give
an air of verisimilitude to the thing, as 1t
were distracted the package of currency.
mt the money in his pocket and then re-
turned to the party, as cool as a cucumber
The pouch started on its way to Washing
tom without the hole in the bottom being
noticed for some time
.When the money failed to reach Wash
ington along with the letter Of transmittal
was the one chosen to go out and investi-
| gate the case. After the very first glance
at the letter of transmittal knew that the
postmaster himself was the thief. l peered
around his office for a day or so, just to
throw him off his guard. and then cor
rallied hin in his Office. l had couple OF
solid men with me.
"sMr. j., said to the postmaster. pro-
| ducing the letter of transmttal, which was