Year: 1873

THE DISTRIBUTING CENTER
for New England, and through mails
from large cities arrive at the Hub u
in bags made up on the cars. When,
for instance, the northern and eastern
mails are made up in New York, they
have to pass through to Boston, where
they are sorted and made up for their
ultimate destination, except in case
where there is matter enough in New
York to fill bag for any special point.
Now, when q loss is reported, as men
toned, among other questions asked is,
"Did you loose by your night or morn
ing mails?" which being satisfactorily
answered, simplifes still more


THE WORK OF DETECTION,


and the employee in the Office who hap
pens to be on at such times is put un-
der the argus eye Of the agent or some
of his deputies. The final result in
some cases is rapid in others slow but
none the less sure, and the culprit is
eventually brought up with a round
turn, and regrets when too late, that he
has ever allowed his greed for ill-got-
ten gains to destroy his chances in life.
As a general thing letters are only sto-
len in large offices, partly because there
are more honest men III the country
than can be found in large cities, but
mainly because the opportunities for
theft are more frequent in the principal
offices.


Then, again, valuable letters dropped
in at any principal Office are rarely
stolen in that Office, but stand a good
chance of being confscated at some 9TH
er larger Office at a distant point and
just here comes naturally the mental
query by our readers, How do the
men know that letters contain money!"
Well, it is just as easy for some of the
post-ofice employees, especially those of
long experience, to tell when letter
containing an inclosure passes through
their hands as it is for the party who
put the inclosure in its place.


KEEN SENSE OF TOUCH.


In fact, so keen is the sense of touch
on the part of some of these men, that,
in distributing mail with the utmost
rapidity they can tell, as each letter
passes through their hands, when there
is inside even folded sheet of tissue
paper. A noticeable instance of this
was made manifest less than year ago,
when a man was watched in the Bos-
ton Office, seen to put a package of let
ters into his pocket, arrested immedi-
ately afterward, and the number he had
stolen found to be eleven, all of which
being opened were found to contain in
closures, ten with money and one with
check.


REGISTERED LETTERS


are very seldom lost They are bad
stock for post-ofice thieves to invest in,
mainly because it is SO easy to trace
them from their starting point and as
certain who the parties were that had
the handling of them when last heard
from. Such cases will occur, however,
the latest being that of Gillis, who was
stupid enough to steal a registered let
ter mailed at Hillsboro' for a party In
Methuen. His depredations had exist
ed for some little time, but his work
was performed Sc clumsily that detec-
ton in his case was comparatively easy.
Another laundering thief was Horace S.
Russell of Charlestown, and as showing
how easily man will dupe himself,
brief recapitulation of his case may
prove interesting. 1t appears that Rus
sell was employed as a substitute car
rier in the Charlestown Office, and as is
supposed, from the time he first enter
ed the Office


BEGAN BIS THTEvING OPERATIONS.


The amount he obtained in full was
not very large, but the job that led to
his detection was the opening of let
ter mailed by lady in Charlestown to
friend in the country, and containing
the sum of 50. This amount Russell
extracted, then put the letter inanother
envelope, directed himself and mailed
it. When it reached its destination, the
recipient was of course surprised at not |
finding the money said to be inclosed,
and Immediately wrote to the sender, |
who in turn requested the letter to be
sent back to Charlestown. This was
done, when the change of envelope was
detected, the case reported to the spe- |
cial agent, and in very short time the |
handwriting on the envelope was iden-
tilted as that of Russell. He was at once |
arrested, eventually confessed and is
now serving out two years in North
ampton Jail.


HOW LAWS OPERATED.


One of the smartest depredators, per-
haps, and one who gave the officials
considerable trouble, was Marshall |
Laws, who was arrested about year
ago, and when taken into custody had
on his person over forty letters. His
mode of operating was very shrewd,
taking no letters destined for Boston
neither would he appropriate single
ones, but always made it a 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
bv 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