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 Uulon Depot
and postofflce. Inspectors Have
Worked But, 1t Is Said, Have
Secured Little Evidence
OF Guilty Ones.

Ihere seems to have been consider.
able stealing of letters and paokaoes
going on among the postal onoials
located In Columbia. A dispatch
from that CITY to the Charleston p,,ss
says what Postmaster Easor calls "a,
regular saturnalia of stealingn has
been going on among the rsilw av
train porters and perhaps others. WIN
have been handling the mails between
ohe mall room at the union station
ana the trains. He has failed to
locate over seventy-tlve packages that
nave been reported to him as having
been lost, the date Of the first pack.
age mailed being December 8 lsst.
and that of the last April IA LAST.
how many more have been stolen DR..
Ensore has no idea.
There may be many oases that
were never reported and still other
cases that will be reported later. Aa
q resulted of q letter Dr.. Eosor wrote
TO d Washington division Inspector
Williams, located at Chattanooga, de-
1alled inspectors Pals fer, Banner.
man a Webers on the case. Altar
several days work they were unable
20 any evidence against either
or the three transfer clerks who Are
In charge Of the mail room AT thief
union station, In relays. So far only
enc Sfles6 a been made, that OF
oam Wiillams who was caught by a
aecoy letter containing silver which
vas handed to him to be taken TO the
brain. He has been landed In Jail bv
commissions Werner in default OF
bail. -
Transfer CLERK Mobley, a negro.
was arrested but wa afterward "a,
leased. Nothing has 80 far baen ala.
covered against the other colored
transfer clerk, O. p. Murray, and
both he and Mobley are still on duty.
Chief Transfer Clerk N, J, Davis is
|the only white man tpt9earda 1T kha
mail room. He ts a man Of hiVh inss
tegrity, In whom everybody has per.
feet confidence.
Sam Williams has been at the
union station only four months. Eash
OF the transfer clerks has a key which
hts all the locked pouches, and which
no 1s required by the regulations TO
carry On o chain attached to hfs body.
But whether anything has heen stolen
from the first class mail, which Ia re-.
CURED to be looked, can not be said.
1t appears from the list OF lost pieces
which tracing has failed to locate.
that the stealing was confined almost
altogether to packages. These pack
ages are handled almost entirely in
large sacks, unlocked, which are
handled between the mail room and
the postofioe by porters. There are
a number OF porters working in the
employ Of the postofice.
But Sam Williams is In no way COR.
nscted with the office. He and other
railway porters and the p~ostotloe por-
ters all have aoegs to the mail room
and as the transfer clerks have fire..
quentiy to DO away from the room
There Is a good opportunity for steal
ing.
Though the inspectors have given
up the fight for the time being they
have by no means given up hopes,
and other arrests are expected In the
immediate future.
On a occasion eight packages
sent up on the Charleston train were
"soAoh ooAoAo Rloy IcdCueu Ul6 C0lums
bia office.
Dr.. Pike, a Columbia dentist, lost
nine packages, which should have
ceme to him In Two weeks.
The thing has become notorious
said DR.. Ensor to Tho E veninp. Post
representative. IAN awful stencil
had arisen to the nostrils of the pat.
rons OF the office, who were taking
their packages TO the express office.
The -vestigatlon has declosed that
the mail room down there has turned
out to be q regular den Of thieves.
or course | hope you viii say nothing
that might be construed as a relec-
tion on Mr.. Davis in whom we all
have the greatest confidence.
Whether any Of the stealing has
been going on among the postal clerks
on the trains | can not say, but 1 SUP.
pose not. The students here In the
male and female colleges have hardly
been able to get q thing sent to the n
In the past several months. The
thieves made o clean sweep. / am
satisfied that not an article has been
stolen by any of the employees OF this
office, not only because / ha We conf
dence In them but the system would
) require all to be In collusion IL one
STOLE"
Burned 70 Death.