Evening star., 1921-04-10

tered mall pouch from d tluck "!iiie
it was standing on the station plat
form in broad daylight awaiting the
| arrival of the fast mail. The excite
ment fairly siZZled when 1t was learn
ed that the lone pouch contained al
most 5000. 200 worth of securities. some
squandered, and the rest or 1t was
| hidden in seven different places.
| ranging from a woodshed to an in
ner tube. Prompt action and ou-
dicious third -degreeing by inspectors
! resulted in the recovery OF S16o,ooo.
Two men with mail sacks over
' their heads, hands and feet tied and
gags in their mouths, was the sight
| that greeted a country doctor IN
Georgia one morning just at break OF
| dawn, as he was slowly d1,vins noare
from an all-night case. Ohcers Dor
rowed bloodhounds from a NEARBY
convict camp and trailed the bandit
to the river. where the scent was
lost The inspector on the case prov
ed more efficient than the dogs. Six
weeks later he rounded up his man
in New York city. He had boarded
the mail wagon while en- route to the
depot, explaining that he was pam
clothes officer. He generously onereo
the driver and his assistant clear-
cites. While they were~ lighting
them. he pulled a gun and told the
driver to head for the country.
A JERsEYMAN received a severe
n iolting as a result Of his over
confidence in the possibilities of a
sailboat. He got the idea in his head
that he could stage an elaborate mail
robbery at soma place near the coast
and completely foil all of the detec-
tives by quietly placing his stolen
wealth aboard a sailboat and steering
straight for one of the small islands
of the West Indies. 1t would have
been a great scheme if it had worked.
But it didn't work out as he figured.
Before he had gone more than seven
teen miles from the Jersey coast
souall came up and snapped his main
mast as though it was the earloop OF
. tortoiseshell glasses. And then. irony
of ironies. a United States revenue
cutter came steaming along and
picked him up before it dawned upon
| him that it would be wise to throw
| the stolen property overheard. Every
single dime of it was returned to the
| owners.
| Texas was recently treated to a re-
minder of the well-nigh forgotten
days of frontier bandbtry. High
waymen walked into branch post
office in one of the largest cities of
| that state and seriously wounded two
clerks and slightly injured a third
one They grabbed all of the reg
| istered mail pouches in sight and
successfully made their getaway with
a good sized fortune. AS usual. how
| ever, the inspectors soon nabbed them.
The leader has already been sentenced
to twenty-five long. weary years at
the kind of labor that brings forth
J much sweat.
"Friend, will you kindly tell US how
| to get to the depot2' seems like an
| ordinary and purposely harmless ques-
| tion but it was the starting point of
$1S9.O0O mail robbery in an Illinois
town. The driver of mail wagon was
| thus accosted by two neat-appearing
strangers. Being Of polite and ac-
comm odating turn of mind. the driver
| whoa'd to his horse. and taking the
| lines in his left hand, started to point
out the station direction with his
| right. That good right hand was
paralyzed in midair when its owner
gaZed into what seemed a covey of
pistol barrels. A hasty detour to the
| complete rifling of the sacks contain
| ing the $4,000. 1t just happened
| that an old-.ime inspector was in that
particular town. and within an hour
| was as busy as a young hound in
autumn time. Three days later two
the money was recovered
Nine men participated in q big mail
robbery in Iowa Two Of them gained
entrance to a mail car at a station
| down the line. and by holding guns
against the hearts of the clerks
containing valua Ten of these
| sacks were thrown of at a country
! crossing where it was necessary for
the train to make brief stop. Seven
iconfederates were in waiting with
| machine and whisked the booty into
an adjoining state.
This crew of crooks were veritable
! geniuses in thinking up original
, schemes for hiding the more than
800, 900 they secured. Something like
$4,000 was suspended by wire on
! the inside Of an unused chimney A
nice home-cured ham was cut in half
followed out and $20. 900 placed there
In. The hair stuffing was taken from
an old horse collar and greenbacks
inserted. A step from the kitchen
stairway was raised and a bale Of
picion the nail holes were puttied and
the entire stairway repainted. The
| remainder of the mony was buried in
seven different places covering an
area Of ten miles. One member Of the
gang was captured months later in
Oklahoma. Information secured
through him made it possible to get
the others. Thirteen years was the
least sentence.
| EOUR bandits with handkerchiefs
over the lower part of their faces
entered a mail car on a train that
! was pulling out Of the Union station
! at st. Louis. Covering the two clerks
I with guns. the other highwaymen
carefully selected the sacks that con-
tained fair-sized fortune. Upon
approaching the first suburban station
the bell cord was pulled and the mail
dumped of. The go-ahead signal was
given, and az the train started the bell
cord was cut and the daredevils hop
ped OF. With the ball cord cut It was
impossible for the clerks to given an
alarm until the next station was
reached, half an hour later
BY stretching a stout wire across
street, tying each end to a tree,
trio Of Colorado crooks were en-
abled to hold up a mail wagon en-
route between the post ONCE and the
depot at a late hour in the night
The poor old horse was thrown heay-
| lily to the street and the driver
! landed on his head ALONGSIDE the
| k onirDal Tbic roado -