Daily Arizona silver belt., 1908-06-24
TRAISMEN FIND IT NEAR TRACKS
OF ROCK ISLAND RAILWAY
AT KANSAS CITY
MOST OF JEWELLERY WAS STILL IN
BAG, BUT ALL THE MONEY,
$4,000, WAS GONE
In Meanwhile, Federal Detectives Arc
Securing Country for Negro Who Was
Permitted to slip Through Hands Of
Police Court In Kansas City, Kan.

KANSAS CITY, June 23.-A regis
tered mail pouch, which contained $50,
900 in money and 100000 worth of dia
monds, iewelry and other valuables, sto.
len from mail car of the union sta.
ton here the night of June 8, was this
evening found by switching crew in
the yard Of the Rock Island railroad
at Kansas City, Kan.
The pouch still contained number of
valuable articles in jewelry, but the
empty envelopes which had contained
the $4,000 in currency shoewd that the
thief had made good the smaller part
of his haul
The theft of the mail pouch was high.
ly mysterious. The pouch was consigned
from Los Angeles to New York city,
and contained, in addition to valuable
diamonds and jewelry, $4,000 being
sent to New York bank. Receipts
were shown for it all the way from Los
Angeles to Kansas City, where the
pouch was lost sight of. Government
agents from Washington hurried here
and one Of the most extensive searches
ever made by the department has been
conducted.
The ease was made still more notable
by the fact that the thief had slipped
through the hands of the Kansas City
police force. Early on the morning of
June detectives arrested negro for
lettering in Union avenue, near the
union depot. He was taken to the DO.
lice station and booked for investiga.
tion. The desk sergeant when searching
the negro took $4,000 worth of jewelry
and FIVE or six hundred dollars in cur.
rency from his person. Shortly after
being locked up the negro sent for an
influential attorney from Kansas City
and told him he would give him 5000
if he was freed in police court in the
morning.
The attorney had the charge changed
from Investigation to "vagrancy"
the next day, and there being no other
charge against him, the negro was or.
dered to leave town.
Two days later the authorities issued
photograph of negro known as
Charles Stephenson and under various
aliases. The picture proved to be the
exact likeness of the negro released by
the court. The federal authorities i'm
mediately struck the negro s trail and
traced him to Denver, where the search
was apparently dropped. A reward of
$4,000 has been offered by the govern
ment for his arrest. The postofIice Off
Gals refuse to divulge the value of the
iewelry recovered in the pouch, but be-
lieve that all of the original shipment
was found.
The pouch was found in patch of
weeds where from ten to twenty switch
engines pass each day. Railroad men
say tonight that for several days the
crews have spoken of the white patch
of something, but 1t became rather a
joke Today while train was passing
William L. Louth, switchman, jumped
off to investigate. The envelopes had
been cut, apparently by a paper knife,
in very neat way, and lay in a stack
by themselves. The pouch lay some
feet distant, and when Louth began to
rummage, he extracted a number of
packages unopened. 1t is apparent that
the negro was unaware of the stuff he
overlooked. The unopened packages
were Immediately handed over TO the
federal authorities.