Year: 1873




THE CARRIER AND THE ARMY COAT.


Criminals in the post-of1ices are some
time detected by the simplest circum-
stance, and in illustration thereof we
can give no better instance than one al
luded to under the caption above. In
the old post-office on State street there
had hung for many moons, in an out-Of
the-way place, a well-worn army cape
coat, that had in years past covered the
form of one or more of the brave boys
in blue who " fit into the war +" The an
cient garment, which had undoubtedly
seen service on many a hard-fOught
field, was apparently of no use and nev-
er noticed by the employees except on
rainy days, when it was sure to be
brought into use by some of the carriers,
the one arriving first always taking pos
session and retaining it till the storm
ceased or he was off duty. Sometimes
one would have it and sometimes anoth-
er, but, at any rate, it was in much de-
mand during stormy weather.


Well, thus went on this simple mat
ter, till not very long ago, one of the
carriers had worn the coat over his
route, returned and reported that in
one of the pockets he had found let
ter. This looked little suspicious, to
be sure, but still it might have been an
omission on the part of the man who
had worn the garment on the previous
i g. ], !,
thing to be done, however, was to find
out who had worn the coat on the day
before, and among SO many men that
was no easy task, but finally the requir-
ed information was obtained, although
the party didn't have the slightest sus-
picion of the investigation being made
The next step of the agent was to visit
a firm on Milk street, with the members
of whom he was perfectly intimate, and
to whom he said a letter would be
brought by certain carrier, said letter
being addressed to


A MYTHICAL PARSONAGE.


Sure enough, the following morning
such a letter, which, by the way, con-
tanned a money inclosure, was offered
at the cOunting-room, when one of the
firm remarked that it had better be
taken back to the Office, as the man to
whom it was addressed had gone to San
Francisco some time before, and the
letter was evidently a valuable one.
The carrier departed, taking with him
the letter, but on his return at noon
failed to deliver it at the office. He was
permitted to go out on his afternoon bu-
siness without being questioned, the
officials thinking that possibly he might
have forgotten the matter, but at night
he failed to make a return. He was
then taken in hand, and after some
questioning admitted that he had the
letter and therefore delivered it to the
agent, but as no evidence of any former
thefts could be found against him, he
was discharged from the office, not,
however, till his friends had made resti-
tuition for all the losses reported on that
route since he had been on it.


THE ALTERED CHECK.


There occurred last month case in
which the New York and Boston offices
were in some measure jointly interest
ed, and which has not any publicity. It
seems that about the 4th of the month
Messrs. Prescott, Wood & Dyer, of
this city, sent to Messrs. Cowden & Co.,
of New York, a check for 1886 Is. On
the 10th the check was received by the
Mount Vernon National Bank, accom-
panied by a request to forward the
amount in large bills to Cowdrick & Co.
It was apparent at once that the sigma
ture had been altered, and the bank Of
fcials accordingly notified the post-of-
fee authorities of the case. The matter
was at once investigated by the special
agent, who ascertained that there were
in New York two firms bearing the
above similar titles and the conclusion
at once arrived at was that some person
connected with Cowdrick & Co. had
obtained possession of Cowden & Co. IS
letter, and was fishing for the prize.


A decoy letter was accordingly made
up and forwarded to New York, address
ed to Cowdrick & Co., and in a short
time after its arrival was taken from
the box by young man employed by
the firm, who was detected by the New
York agent in opening the document,
upon which he was at once arrested.


THE ROGUE AND HIS RING.


In addition to robbing the mails there
are people who occasionally attempt to
defraud Uncle Sam in other ways, or if
not defraud him, endeavor to shoulder
on him their own sins, and with a cou-
pie such cases we will close. A very few
weeks ago a gushing youth, who resides
in the western part of this State, sent
his lady-love letter; in which he said
she would find inclosed a ring he had
paid fourteen dollars for. When the
letter was received at Chelsea it was
noticed that a portion of the upper
right-hand corner had been torn off and
close by were two circular imprints ap-
parently made by a ring that had been
inside, but which was missing. The
young lady of course was somewhat
surprised at not finding the ring, and
reported the fact at the office, bringing
with her the letter, which was examin-
ed and at once showed the transparent
nature of the dodge the verdant youth
had tried to play. On the face of the
letter were, as said before, two circular
imprints, but on the back was only one.
On the inclosure were also two imprints
on each half of the sheet, but neither
corresponding in position with those on
the envelope, and the distance between