The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-17
TRAP WAS SET BUT VICTIM WAS SLY Interesting Arrest is Made in
 Atlanta USED MAILS TO 0EFRAUD The Man Arrested Declares His Name Is John Harris and Says That
 He Is From the
 Country.
USED MAILS TO 0EFRAUD

Atlanta, November s.-tspeeial)-John Harris. a white man about 70 years or age, was arrested yesterday afternoon at 6:30 o'clock near the Piedmont hotel, by Postoffice Inspectors Lewis and Clark charged with having used the United States mail in pursuance of a scheme to defraud.
 Harris was taken before the United States commissioner, w. T. Colquitt, last night and committed to the Fulton county fall, the preliminary examination being continued to next Saturday morning at 10 o'clock, as 1t was necessary to subpoena witnesses for the government from Sa- vannah. Ga
 On November the Savannah, Ga, agent of the I. Trager company of Cln- cinnati mailed that corporation a letter which contained draft on the Consoli- dated Bank of New York, drawn by the Citizens Bank of Savannah, in favor of the l. Trager company On November IA this draft was returned to the cashier or the Citizens Bank of Savannah, in that city, inclosed in a letter written on stationery of the Piedmont hotel in Atlan- ta This letter was mailed from Atlanta, and bore special delivery stamp. The writer requested the bank to forward him, by special delivery letter, s5o. .55 in cur rency, the amount of the draft, in care of the Piedmont hotel. This letter was signed like Trager."
 Reported to Postoffice Inspectors.
 The cashier of the bank reported the matter to Postofhce Inspectors Lewis and Clark. who were in attendance on the United States court at Savannah, and at their instance the cashier mailed special delivery letter to like Trager,' in care of the Piedmont hotel. stating in the let ter that the s55. .55 was enclosed.
 Nothing, however, was enclosed in the letter.
 The inspectors came to Atlanta yester- day morning and waited in the lobby of the Piedmont hotel for Ike Trager. Shortly after noon some one telephoned the hotel asking if letter wsG there for MT. Ike Trager" Being told by the clerk that the letter was there, the per son at the phone stated that he would call for it. At o'clock, when the officers be- gan to fear he would not appear, a mes senger boy presented an order to the mail clerk signed like Trager," requesting the letter for him be delivered to the bearer of the order Clerk Passailaigue notified the officers and delivered the letter to the messenger. The officers followed and im- mediately arrested the young man to whom the boy delivered the letter to q short distance from the hotel.
 lncriminates Another Man. | Upon being interrogated by the inspee- | tors he stated that his name was John Harris, and that he lived in the country; | that a man in the Kimball house barber i shop had given him a half dollar to go i to the Piedmont hotel for the letter. and that was his only connection with it: He refused to state where he worked or what he had been doing all of yesterday. The officer took Harris, alias Trager. to | the Kimball house barber shop to allow l him to point out the man who sent him | for the letter but after looking around the hotel Harris said he could not find the man; that he did not know his name, but remembered that he wore brown | derby.
 Writing All Identical | The draft was indorsed like ]. T'rager Co.,, per Ike Trager." The handwriting oi l the ndorsement; the letter to the Citizens bank. and the order on the Piedmont hos ! tel for the letter were identical. The in- | spectors are satisfied that they were writ | ten by the man under arrest.
 How Harris acquired possession of the letter containing the draft is mystery, | but it is supposed that the letter miscar- red: was delivered in Atlanta and ob- | tained by Harris.