Year: 1873

How The Light-Fingered Letter-O1en-


ers are ShRdOWed and convicted


Boston Times.l


"Charles Gillis, postmaster at Hills
boro' Bridge, was arrested Saturday for
embezzling the mails. Such was the
simple announcement in the daily pa
pers recently, notifying the public that
one more had been added to the thou
sands who have been detected in prey
ing upon the mails, and the subject is
one that affords food for earnest thought.
That this species of crime is yearly on
the increase is self-evident, and it safe
to say that not a day passes but the no
tice of the post-office officials Is called
to one or more such cases. The expe-
dients resorted to by the depredators
en- Uncle Sans plethoric mail-bags,
especially where they contain, or are
supposed to contain, money or valua-
bles, are as varied as the hues of the
rainbow, and the means used for the de-
tention of criminals of course have to
be varied according to the circumstan-
ees of the case under consideration. In
the matter of detection, however, the
preliminaries are usually the same, IN
order to arrive at a proper understand
ing of all the points surrounding the
affair. For instance, a gentleman, gen
orally in a somewhat huttered cOndl-
ton, enters the post-office and desires
to see the postmaster on business. His
request is complied with, and, in cases
of this kind, after briefly stating the
nature of his errand, he is referred to
the special agent with whom he is more
directly to deal To that official the
visitor accordingly states that he is the
representative of q downtown firm,
who have been for some time past


LOSING LETTERS,


in a majority of cases the missives con-
tanning remittances from some of their
correspondents. The agent listens at
tentively to the story, taking in every
particular as given by his informant,
and mentally cogitating on the same,
Then, when the tale is told, the first
question asked is, "Do you receive
your letters by carrier, or have you a
box?" If by box, then is propounded
the query, Glow many keys are there
| to your box, and who has access to
them?" That information being also
given, is duly digested and the case
then begins to look like business, the
party or parties most likely to prove
dishonest are placed under surveillance
at once and carefully followed up till
some clue is obtained, then trap is
laid that scarcely ever fails III securing
the prey, and the victim of his own dis
honesty and cuPidity suddenly finds
himself in the meshes of a net from
which there is seldom any escape, and
as a general thing the result of the ar
rest is


FULL confession


bv the culprit. If in case of box rob
berries the thieves are boys, the post
Office officials have a method for entrap-
ping the young rogues which never
fails, but the particulars of which, for
obvious reasons, it would be imPoIitic
to publish. If, on the other hand, the
firm reporting one or more losses have
been in the habbit of receiving their
Correspondence by a carrier, then the
first work of the agent is to ascertain
what carrier is on the route in question.
This matter determined, the carrier is
in turn watched d, and if guilty 1t re-
quires but a very short time to estab-
lish this fact 1t may turn out, howev-
er, that the peregrinating distributor
of letters is perfectly innocent, in which
case the only conclusion to arrive at Is