The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1906-07-06
Columbia Has Lost Many Pack
ages in Recent Past
HAVE BEEN STOLEN
Between Mail Room at Uaion Depot
and Postoffice. Inspectors Have
Worked But, 1t Is Said, Have
Secured Little Evidence
Of Guilty Ones.

Ihefe seems to have been consider.
able stealing of letters and packaossa
gong on among the postal offlcials
located In Columbia. A dispatoh
from that city to the Charleston p,st
says what Postmaster Easor calls IN
regular saturnslia Of stealing, has
neen going on among the railway
train porters and perhaps others, who
have heen handling the mails betw,an
one mall room at the union station
ana 6he trains. He has failed tn
| ,oca1e over seventy-flye packages that
nave Deen reported to him as having
oeen lost, the date of the first naoE.
age mailed being December laat
and that of the last April IA last
HOW many more have been stolen Dr
Ensore has no idea.
Ahere may be many cases that
were never reported and still othey
cases that will be reported later. Az
q resulted Of letter Dr.. Eosor wrota
10 the Washington division Tnsnector
williams, located at Chattanooga 10.
u@,ieu .oa INSPECTORS Palsfer, Banner
man ana Webers on the case. After
several days work they were unable
20 trace any evidence against either
OF the three transfer clerks who are
Ia charge of the mail room az thaf
union station, In relays. So far onIv
one arfesG has been made, that az
sam Williams who was caught hv
oecoy letter containing silver which
was handed to him to be taken In tha
6raln. He has been landed in iail hv
commissioner Werner in defanlt ~
bail. N"olo VI
Transfer olerk Mobley, a negro.
was arrested but was afterward va
leased. Nothing has go FAR beens dis.t
covered against the other eolayad
tfansfer clerk, /, & O, 7. !. Murray, and
both he and Mobley are gtill IN f,ntSs5
Chief Transfer Clerk 81 3a sis I ! ;,5
tte only s4h ta ma /, 4, 81 x
mall room He is q M an OF higfl M
segrlIy, ia WHOM everybody has per.
feet confidence
sam williams has been al tba
union station only four months. Eaeh
OF the transfer clerks HAS a key which
nts all the locked pouches, and which
ne IL required by the regulations to
carry on chain attached to his body.
But whether anything has heen stolSn
from the first class mail, which IA re.
CURED to be looked, can not he sai6
LIZ appears from the list or lost pieoes
which tracing has failed TO locate.
that the stealing was confined slmosi,
altog ether to packages. These psck-
ages are handled almost entirely in
large sacks, unlocked, which ara
nandled between the mail room and
the postofice by porters. There ara
number of porters working in the
employ Of the postofilco.
But Sam Williams Is In no way con-
nected With the Office. He and other
railway porters and the postofiioe Dor.
GERS all have aoess to the mall room
ana as tho transfer clerks have fra.
quently to DO away from the room
there Is good opportunity for steal
ing.
Enough the inspectors have given
up the fight for the time being thev
nave by no means given I'D hopsa.
and other arrests are expected In tho
Immediate future.
on one occasion eight packages
sent up on the Charleston train were
stolen before they reached the Oolum.
bia office.
DR.. Pike, o Columbia dentist, lost
nine packages, which should have
ceme to him In two weeks.
The thing has become notorious. -
SAID DR.. Ensor to The Eveninp Post
representative. IAN awful stench
had arisen to the nostrils of the pat.
rons OF the ofilce, who were taking
their packages TO the express ONCE
The Investigation has declosed that
the mail room down there has turned
OUT TO be regular den OF thieves.
Of course hope you will say nothing
that might be construed as @ reHec-
tion ON Mr.. Davis In whom we all
have the greatest confidence.
| whether any OF the stealing has
been going on among the postal olerks
on the trains | can not say, but SUP.
pose not. The students here In the
male and female colleges have hardly
been able to get thing sent to them
IN the past several months. The
thieves made q clean sweep. am
satisfied that not an article has beon
stolen by any Of the employees OF this
office, not only because have conf
dence In them but the system would
require all to be In collusion IL one
STOLE"
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