Year: 1873

taking no letterS uesulneu lOr DoStOn ,
neither would he appropriate single
ones, but always made it practice to
abstract through packages or bundles of
letters destined for some point beyond
Boston. He, however, shared the same
fate of many of his predecessors, and is
now paying the penalty of his misdoing
by serving out ten years sentence in
Northampton.


Another sharp operator was Peabody,
who was employed in the department
devoted to the distribution of letters
for newspaper men. For long time
complaints of missing letters had been
made, and finally the special agent hit
upon a plan to defeat Peabody, upon
whom suspicion had fallen The ruse
was simply to build near his location
in the Office partition, ostensibly for
the purpose of keeping off draft of
air, but in reality to shield n man ap-
pointed to watch Peabody, and who
kept an eye so constantly directed
through an aperture in the partition
that he finally detected the rogue in the
act of secreting letters. Peabody's az
rest, trial, and conviction followed, MS n
matter of course, and he is now serving
Uncle Sam in Dedham Jail. Then come
the cases of Williams and Cram.


THE CARRIER AND THE ARMY COAT.


Criminals in the post-otiices 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-otfice on State street there
had hung for many moons, in an out-of-
the.way place, well-worn army cape
coat, that had in years past covered the
form of one or more of the brave boys
in blue who eft into the war;" The an
cient garment, which had undoubtedly
seen service on many hard-fought
field, was apparently of no use and new
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 IN
omission on the part Of the man who
had worn the garment on the previous
day--for both were stormy. The first
thing to be done, however, WIS 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 lie said letter would be
brought by certain carrier, said letter
being addressed to


MYTHICAL PARSONAGE.


Sure enough, the following morning
such letter, which, by the way, con
tained 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 IA 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 20 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 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 a case in
which the New York and Boston offices
were in some measure jointly interest
ed, and which has not any publicity. 1t
seems that about the 4th of the month
Messrs. Prescott, Wood & Dyer, of
this city, sent to Messrs. Cowden & Co.,
of New York, check for 1886 16. On
the 10th the check was received by the
Mount Vernon National Bank, accom-
panied by request to forward the
amount in large bills to Cowdrick & Co.
1t was apparent at once that the sigma
ture had been altered, and the bank Of
ficials accordingly notified the post-of-
flee authorities of the case. The matter
was at once Investigated by the special
Al