Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-05-18
DAILY SHORT STORY
Trapping a Thief.
1903. by C. B. Lewis.1

with hundreds of letters and is sorting
and resOrting until he can give pretty
good guess at the contents of each one.
There is, however, but one course for
him to pursue. He must make up his
mind to be strictly honest. If he can
not withstand temptation he is DOOM
ed. He may escape detection for few
weeks or even months, but there is
nothing surer than that he will be
caught in the end. And one of the
most powerful weapons Of the post of
flee inspector is the decoy letter. 1t
trips up more rascals in the service
than all other schemes combined.
Before the day of postal notes, mon
ey orders and the registry system peo-
pie used to inclose bills in their letters
There has been no falling off in the
custom. 1t is calculated that one out OF
every ten letters mailed has at least
dollar bill in it. The sum total for
the year runs up into the millions.
The percentage of dishonest postal en-
ployees is very small, and yet on their
account all the honest ones must be
watched.
''He who steals knowing that the
chances are ninety mine to one that he
will be discovered must be either very
desperate or very silly, or so you will
argue. And yet when you take the case
of a post office employee you generally
find that he is an intelligent person and
had no pressing need to turn thief. III
you will take up the case of each 1ndt-
ViduaI letter carrier convicted during
the last five years you will discover
that the temptation has been less than
$50 on the average and that none of
them had pressing need of the money.
There are, no doubt, plenty of employ-i
ees who have stolen a letter or two
and gone no further, but it is also true
that, after the ice is once broken,
person seldom holds up until exposure
comes. Letters containing money are
easily spotted" by the handlers. no
matter how much pains you go to to
conceal the contents.
81 had a case in a western city five
or six years ago which astOnished me,
even though 1 was old in the business
and seldom surprised at anything.
"a boy had come into the post Office
and so conducted himself for long
term of years that he was at last made
assistant chief clerk. He had the alb
solute confidence of postmaster and all
employees. During his time there were
three different inspectors on that route,
and all ''banked'' on him. as the saying
is. He aided us to detect three or four
thieves in the Office, and such was his
reputation for integrity that no change
of administration could remove him.
lone day L was sent out there on an
investigation; something crooked in
the office. l consulted with the post
master, and he turned the whole case
over to Honest Abe as the boys called
the man 1 refer to. He was anxious to
help me straighten things out. and he
seemed to make every effort in that
way. 1 was about the place for week
and failed to get the slightest clew.
Then, unknown to any one, but more
by accident than design, employed
method which l cannot allow you TO
make public. The result was that ar
rested the assistant as he was leaving
the building and found no less than
twelve money letters in his pockets.
Even with that evidence of his crimt-
was on his way to my hotel to see me
and propose a trap by which the guilty
party could be caught.
HE had a wife and three children.
His salary allowed him to live more
than comfortably. What did he want
of the money? To buy lottery tickets.
He was buying them at the rate of
5000 per month. hoping to make big
strike When his house was searched
we found 16j one dollar tickets for the
current drawing, but he intended to
make the number an even 200. In six
months he had purchased over 700
tickets, and yet all his prizes did not
foot up 500. 1t isn't six months since
he left prison where he served his SEN
tence.
81 believe, and it is the belief Of all
officials of the postal department, that
that lottery did more to dishonor postal
employees than all the other tempta-
tions combined Thousands of letters
containing one and two dollar bills
were constantly passing through the
mails. A percentage of the employees
who handled them argued that the lot
terry was dishonest and under the ban
of the department and that the money
would be lost to the sender even if
they didn't steal it. In two years
alone detected fourteen dishonest en-
pIoyees and brought them to justice. 1
will relate one case which had some
special features.
"a railway mail clerk on a certain
run south of the Ohio river was under
SuSnicion The suSniPion arose from q
singular circumstance. He was sim
gle man, thirty years old, and had only
his salary to live on. His name was
among a list of donors for a fund to
erect a church, and he had given $725.
When 1 found this out 1 dropped all
ether clews and concentrated on him.
While 1 was watching he turned in
1915 more, thus bringing his subscrip-
ton up to 1000. One day after had
all my plans laid entered his car and
held him up. He had thirty letters in
ais pockets, all of them containing