The copper era and Morenci leader., 1912-03-15

The robbery of mail sack contain ing sum of money reported at S2O,- 900 has been the allengrosSing myS- tery of Clifton and Morenci since Tues day morning. Owing to the flood which put the Morenci Southern out of commission on Sunday, the carry ing of mail and passengers was con tracted to Cansler's hack line and on Monday night the belated A. & N. M train which did not reach Clifton un- til after o'clock brought passengers and a large mail for Morenci.
 The regular Clifton run was large and the newspaper mail was very heavy, containing the Los Angeles Sunday papers, so the confusion at the depot for several minutes after the train arrived was unusual.
 Tuesday morning the opening of the mail at Morenci disclosed the fact that the letter mail sack was missing and that it had contained a locked money pouch carrying funds for the regular monthly payroll. Word was immediately phoned to Clifton and search instituted in the mail car and at the postoffice on the supposition that the sack might have been mis- laid. When no trace of it was found the matter was reported to Deputy U. s. Marshal Franz, Sheriff Patty and Marshal Coffee. A number of theor- ies were evolved and rumors flew thick and fast.
 Marshal Coffee found the mail sack lodged on shoal in the river below the railroad bridge and brought it to the post office. It had been slit with knife for length of about IS inches the money pouch was missing but most of the package letter mail was intact. It now transpires that this was the only locked sack in the Mo- renci mail.
 Subsequently two packages of let ters, one tied and the other loose, though the string was about it were found at points above and below the railroad bridge, and a package of Los Angeles papers was recoverd by Sher- if Patty above the wagon bridge
 The mail clerk on the train says he receipted for the money pouch at Lordsburg, made up the letter mail and put the pouch into it and locked 1t and on arrival here gave the II sacks to the stage driver after putting off the Clifton mail and part or all of the papers.
 The stage driver placed his passen- gers, a lady and three children in the hack before going for the mail. There were eleven sacks in all and he had to make two trips with the hand cart on which mail is handled on the plat form. He says that he took six sacks the first trip and the mail clerks says -ehe thinks" that the locked sack was the first one handed out, and would naturally be under the others in the cart.
 He further says that he did not throw the other five sacks on the plat form, but waited until the driver came back for them. If the sack was ab- stracted in Clifton the opportunity was when the driver left the first batch in the hack and returned for the balance-several minutes. The night was very dark and the number of peo- ple about the depot unusually large.
 There seems to be no question that the fact that there was only one lock ed pouch was known to whoever took it; he or they knew what to look for If the other five sacks had been piled up on top of the. first batch before the one was taken, it would have been i'm possible to dig it out of the eleven un- observed.
 The local officers are actively en- gagged in tracing every stage of the transit from Lordsburg to Morenc1 through Clifton.
 It is said here that the fact was well known in Morenci that the money would be in that mail for the payroll as employees were told the cash would be ready for them Tuesday morning it's arrival being delayed by the wash out and the necessity of bringing il through Clifton.
 All those, who handled or in any