The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-27
(Chicago Tribune.)

week of failure, found him lin his
rooms. mo? Well, was just think
ing about them. If you go to a peni
Tertiary and talk with the prisoner:
about tWo-thirds of them will assure
you that they are innocent and much
wronged men,"
YES" l laughed. 1--WE heard tina,
story. Prisons are crowded full of in
nocent men,
Il wonder unused John Ford, chow
many of them tell the truth. 1 almost
believe that when q crime is COM
mitted the chances of an innocent man
suffering are as great as that the guilty
man will suffer"
Ford was unusually serious. 1t was
strange for him to talk in that strain,
and 1 knew there was a story coming,
| although the point was not plain
THE United States government
doesn't send innocent men up" he
added. slowly. If the federal officials
worked as rapidly and with the short,
snap judgment of the city police or
detectives, there would be another in
nocent man in prison pretty soon. The
government insists on getting positive
evidence before acting-and that fact
! served an innocent man."
What wah the case?" l asked
| Nothing has been printed about it
yet" said Ford, shortly. Il just com
pleted the investigation. 1t was a case
OF tampering with the mails
About ten days ago Judson e Co.,
| a big publishing firm, with a mail or
der department which occupies the
| seventh floor of the Tyrone building,
sent for me. Important letters, con-
| tanning drafts, money orders. i'm many
cases stamps, and in few money, had
| disappeared. All the letters that had
disappeared were in the outgoing mail,
which made the case an unusual one.
| Thefts of incoming mail containing
money occur frequently. Mail boxes
are robbed-sOmetimes letter carriers
and clerks tamper with mail-but the
sure punishment by the federal gov
ernments makes the postal service the
most honest in our ma ton. You know,
crooks dread the federal government
while laughing at state and city Of
ficials and laws.
''JudsOn & Co do rather a peculiar
business, a sort of cheap graft, aimed
especially at the small town and coun-
try. The nature of their business
makes it necessary for them to send
cash and stamps in many instances in
stead of checks or drafts. The
amounts are not large, the majority
ranging below 81. The firm, which is
| careless to the extreme, frequently in
, closed 81 bills or even S. bills in let
tiers. 1t had a sort of prize scheme
which had the farmers going. The
grand prize each week was 500, the
second prize $50; there were three
prizes of $40, ten of s. and fifty of 81
each. These prizes We're awarded each
Thursday, and the money was sent out
on the following Wednesday. All prizes
howe
and the 81 prizes were paid in crisp
new bills.
About ten weeks ago every prize
| disappeared between the office and the
winner. OF the $3.50 only two of the 81
prizes reached the winner. The firm
began to receive complaints immedi-
ately and started an investigation. Mr..
Garden, the secretary treasurer of the
company and Miss Springer, a ste
nographer, awarded the prizes, wrote
the letters and inClosed the money in
boxes and envelopes. Miss Springer
herself carried the little boxes in which
the gold was inclosed TO the mail chute
on the seventh floor and dropped them
in. George Howard, ar office boy. car
ried the letters out to the chute, and
he and Miss Springer stood at the
chute and talked while he dropped the
letters in. Both were positive thew
mailed every prize.
1T was plain that the letters had
disappeared after leaving the office. So
the postal officials were notified and
began an investigation. Meantime an
other batch of prize winning letters
were sent out and the grand prize and
nearly half the others disapepared If
was four or five days before this fact
became known, the the winners he
gan to complain and the firm was in Il
quandary. To refuse to pay again
meant the destruction of the entire
scheme, and yet, having once paid
Judson was sore. He called on the
postoftlce inspector and kicked long
and loud.
Ihe inspector meantime had inyes-
tlgated. He had traced the. Judson let
ters back from the houses of the win
ners- Not one had been received. II
was certain they had not been handled
IN the Chicago office. The mail car
rier who collected the mail from the
big box in the Tyrone building was
placed under surveillance-and the
case rested
NOW Tor five weeks the greater mart
or the prize money sent out by Judson
& Co. disappeared. Some of them. let
lers and boxes, We're received at the
postoffice and handed regularly. The
rest simply disappeared. Every move
or the collector was watched. He was
entirely unconscious of this fact. and
no trace of any crooked move could be
detected. He was watched wherr he
took the letters from the mail box. and
from the time he lifted his bag into his
wagon through four more buildings to
the office. 1t appeared certain he had
not tempered with. or dropped, or even
examined, any of the mail closely.
Furthermore, no letters from any other
building disappeared along his route.
"Judson called ON the postoffice in
spector after five patches of prizes had
disappeared, wholly or in part. He
simply raised Cain and told the in
spector the whole department was a
bunch of thieves. In return the inspec-
tor informed Judson that he believed
the firm of JuGson & Co. was crooked
and that, as the letters never had been
delivered into the hands of the United
States government. he thought the en-
tire scheme was one of Judson & Co.'S
efforts to escape paying the prizes. He
even threatened to investigate the firm
for alleged misuse of the mails.
Then Judson sent for me- | didn't
ike his business, becausest whole OBJ
ject was to fleece people, legally. of
course. but not morally straight.
examined everybody in his office. Gar
den, the secretary treasurer, was the
first man to come under suspicion. In