The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-08-15
HOMER GAINES HELD
I'M DEFAULT OF $500 BOND

Yesterday afternoon in Tampa,
Homer Gaines, the cOlored porter at
tho station. who has charge OF con- i
royinp the mails to and from the
nostoffiee was found guilty OF steal
ing a ham and other articles from
moiI nouch. and was bound over 10
the Federal court.
Gaines had been an employe Oh Tue
postoffice for many years, ana al
though many articles had been miss
ing from pouches at the Lakeland Oh
flee. Gaines was not suspected uh-
til recently, when a pouch was
thrown off with some meat IN IT,
When the pouch was inspected the
meat was gone. The trap was SET
Sunday morning, an eleIen-pounu
ham being used, and of the results
the Tampa Tribune of this morning
says:
zone ham, eleven pounds, valued
at 1920, proved the undoing OF
Homer Gaines, negro porter at the
Lakeland railroad station, where ne
has been employed to transfer the
mail from the train to the postofhce.
Arraigned before United States COM
missioner Crane yesterday afternoon
charged with stealing the ham ana
divers other articles from the Unlted
States mail, he pleaded guilty and
was remanded to jail in default OF
bond in the sum of $500. Gaines
was brought to Tampa yesterday
morning by Deputy United States
Marshal l.. A. Rennolds, accom-
panied by Postoffiee Inspector H. G.
Roose, who worked up the case.
Various articles have been missing
from the mails at Lakeland for sew
eral months. In fact, it had become
a bug-bear haunting the inspectors.
Recently a mail clerk on No. 50
failed to dump a sack at a station
between here and Lakeland, and
dumped it at Lakeland, expecting to
pick it up on the return. There was
meat in the sack when dumped, but
when the clerk picked it up the next
morning the beef was missing.
Cigars Fail to Tempt Where Ham
Succeeded
Inspector Reese was put on the
case and when the culprit failed to
fall for cigars, the inspector at
Jacksonville shipped ham, the 'leb-
en- poun' article in a sack Satur-
day night. In the meantime Gaines,
who had been dismissed for some
trivial offense, was reinstated at the
solicitation of the inspectors, who
were certain of their man.
Inspectors were on hand when the
ham struck the platform along with
other mail Sunday morning saw
Gaines pick up the mail and saw it
checked into the postoffice, minus
one ham. They followed Gaines
home, saw him hang it on the wall
and entered A search revealed that
Gaines had a miniature department
store in his house, consisting prin-
cipally of feminine finery, silk stock
ings and the like-and one dozen
pairs of B. V. DIS. Some cigar
etts, fishing rod and reel, and a
trombone, catalogues, the anti-femi-
nine stuff.
And Silk Pajamas, Too -,
Oh, yes! and several pair of silk
pajamas, but it is not believed that
the madam of the house would have
allowed Homer to utilize this finery
30 it was listed on Reese's inventory
among the things feminine.
Homer had a liking for things
silken and among the loot were silk
shirtwaists, silk petticoats, silk
handkerchiefs and ribbons and laces
all in addition to the silken hose and
pajamas. To go further than the
see-more bathing suit one must en-
ter the realm of linen and cotton and
wool of which there was too much
tn ha listed