Ten Years Among the Mail Bags Part 2

Having received a commission from the Post Master General as before stated, with orders to investigate this case, I proceeded at once to the place in question, having first been a.s.sured of the entire reliability of the post master in charge there; and if looks could ever be taken as the index of the man, I needed no other a.s.surance of his honesty. I found an old gentleman who had numbered his three-score years and ten, a veteran in the service, having held the post which he then filled, "from time immemorial." He looked the worthy representative of that cla.s.s of men, whose moral principles are applied to the discharge of public duties, as strictly as to those of a private character,--men like that high-minded worthy, who, when his son attempted to help himself to a sheet of paper from a desk containing public property, rebuked him thus: "Take some paper from _my_ desk, if you want it. _That_ paper belongs to the United States."

It is generally necessary in investigating cases of depredations, to inquire into the honesty of the clerks in the offices to which we direct our attention; but in the present instance, such a precaution was uncalled for, since the only a.s.sistant of the old post master was his wife, a venerable, motherly matron, of about his age, who had aided him in his official duties, and had been his help-meet in the household for many, many years.

The correspondence of a generation had pa.s.sed through their hands, and they were enabled to note the changes in the number and appearance of the letters which were placed in their charge during the long period of their inc.u.mbency,--changes produced by the increase of population, the freer intercourse between distant places, and the facilities for epistolary communication, which had been progressing ever since they had a.s.sumed the responsibilities of their office. At first few letters were transmitted but those of a st.u.r.dy, business-like appearance, written on coa.r.s.e paper, and sealed with wafers of about the dimensions of a modern lady's watch,--wafers that evidently had in charge matter of weighty import, and were mighty embodiments of the adhesive principle. Then, as Time and Improvement advanced, and the _cacoethes scribendi_ became more generally developed, doc.u.ments appeared of a milder grade, and of a more imaginative aspect, not only representing the cares of business life, but indicating, by the fineness of their texture, the laboriously neat and often feminine character of their superscriptions, and the delicacy of their expressive waxen seals, that Love and Friends.h.i.+p, and the interests of domestic circles, were also beginning thus to find utterance.

Our worthy pair, having been connected with the postal department during such a large portion of its existence, had naturally come to feel much interest in whatever concerned it, and of course were especially anxious that no blot should come upon the reputation of the office in their charge, and that the delinquent in the present case should be brought to light and to justice.

The old man was slow to believe that a fraud had been committed by those connected with any office in his neighborhood, as he thought he could vouch for the character of every one of his brother post masters with whom he was acquainted, and the information which he gave me respecting them seemed to exonerate them, so far as his opinion could do it.

My first proceeding at that point, was to examine the books of the office, by which it appeared that Boston packages were received only once or twice a week, while they had been sent daily, according to the records of the Boston post-office.

After pa.s.sing over the entire route several times _incog._, and taking as minute a view of the several offices as it was in my power to do without incurring the danger of being recognised, I concluded that my duty required me to seek an interview with the United States District Attorney, whose functions were then discharged by no less a personage than Hon. Franklin Pierce, now President of the United States. On laying the whole matter before him, he expressed much regret at the seeming implication of the "Granite State" in such acts of dishonesty and systematic fraud; at the same time confidently expressing the belief that the inc.u.mbents of two or three post-offices, to which I felt satisfied the difficulty was confined, could not be the guilty parties, as they were personally known to him.

Although I greatly respected his judgment, yet I ventured to suggest the possibility that his desire to think well of his acquaintances might have led him to view the characters of some of them in a too favorable light. So, in order to establish more firmly their trust-worthiness in my estimation, he kindly went over to the State-house, where the Legislature was in session, and confidentially consulted the representatives from each of the towns in question.

One of the members thus consulted, and who readily endorsed the favorable opinion of the Attorney, happened to be _a brother of the post master who had done all the mischief_, as it was afterwards ascertained. I have reason to believe, however, that this gentleman was not aware of his brother's delinquencies, and that he was incapable of doing anything to countenance or forward such dishonorable practices.

One of the lost letters contained several twenty dollar notes on one of the Boston banks. On the occasion of a public Exhibition, held at the close of the term, in the Academy before referred to, a large number of visitors from abroad were collected together, and as money at such a time would be circulating in the town more freely than usual, it seemed not unlikely that one or more of those bank notes might find their way into the current of business, and furnish, by their identification, some clue to the perpetrator of the robberies.

With this hope, I inquired privately of several merchants in the place, whether they had recently taken any such bills, and learned from one of them that, about two weeks before, at the time of the Exhibition, several of those or similar bills had been offered for exchange by a stranger, which fact would perhaps have attracted no particular attention, were it not for the absence of any apparent object in this exchange. The imperfect description of the stranger which I obtained, agreed tolerably well, as far as it went, with that of Mr. F., post master in the town of C., where was one of the offices through which the many missing packages should have pa.s.sed.

The most decided mark of ident.i.ty which was furnished me, was a brown over-coat, cut something after the Quaker style, which my informant remembered to have been worn by the stranger for whose accommodation he had exchanged notes similar to those described. Deeming it unsafe to inquire of any neighbor of the suspected post master whether he possessed such a coat, I adopted the expedient of attending, on the following Sabbath, the church of whose congregation he was a member, for the purpose, of course, of listening to a good sermon, not forgetting, however, under the scriptural license furnished in Luke xiv. 5, to look about now and then for the Quaker coat and its owner,--a wolf in sheep's clothing. I observed the frequent characteristics of a country congregation,--a noisy choir, a gorgeous display of ribbons and other "running rigging" by the fairer portion of the audience, and a peculiarly ill-fitting a.s.sortment of coats, but never a Quakerish garment. By the time the preacher had drawn his last inference, I had drawn mine, namely, that it is easier to identify a man by his face than by his coat, inasmuch as he cannot lay aside the one, while he may the other. The day, indeed, was remarkably mild, and few over-coats made their appearance. Mr. F. was present, however, at both services, as I afterwards learned, and occupied a seat in the choir,--a _base_ singer, probably.

I have now to mention one of those singular coincidences which are so frequently brought about, as if with the design of aiding in the exposure of crime, and of pointing out its perpetrators with unerring accuracy. The numerous instances which are every day occurring, ill.u.s.trative of this principle, leave us no room to doubt its truth.

"Murder will out," and so will all other crimes. Let the guilty one envelope himself in a seemingly impenetrable cloud of secrecy; let him construct, ever so cunningly, the line of his defences, sparing no pains to fortify every exposed point, and to guard against every surprise; yet some ray of light, darting, like the electric flash, he knows not whence, will pierce the darkness which surrounded him; some hidden spark will kindle an explosion, which will bury him and his works in ruin. "Trifles light as air" harden into "confirmation strong as words of Holy Writ."

a.s.suming that the aforesaid coat, if it had any connection with the author of the robberies, was probably manufactured at the only tailoring establishment in the place, I happened in there on Monday morning, and inquired of the presiding genius his price for a respectable over-coat, intending in some roundabout way to find out whether he had made one like that which I was in pursuit of.

"That depends," replied he, "on the material and style of making."

While continuing a desultory conversation with him on the subject of coats, their various shapes and styles, &c., my eye fell upon a small slip of paper pinned to the sleeve of a garment hanging near the door, and on approaching it, I found the name W. F. written upon the paper.

"That coat belongs to Mr. F., our post master," remarked the knight of the goose. "It was a trifle too small, and I have been altering it."

Its color, unusual length, and peculiar make, were circ.u.mstances almost conclusive to my mind of the ident.i.ty of its owner with the individual who had been exchanging the twenty dollar notes.

I bid the tailor good morning, feeling pretty well satisfied that I had laid the foundation of a more important _suit_ than any which his art could furnish.

The distance from this place to the town where the academy was situated, was about twenty miles, and the next thing to be done was to ascertain whether F. had been there within a week or two. A little reflection suggested a tolerably safe and direct mode of ascertaining this fact, which was, to see the merchant before referred to, as being cognisant of the pa.s.sing of the twenty dollar notes, who had already been partially informed of the object of my former inquiries concerning them; and to request him to address a line to Mr. F., inquiring whether he recollected seeing a person, apparently insane, in the stage-coach, while on his way home after the Exhibition. This certainly could do no harm in case he was not present on that occasion, while if he had been, he would very naturally confirm the fact in answering the question proposed. The next mail brought a reply to the effect that he did not return home by the stage, but in his own private conveyance, and therefore saw no such person as the one inquired about.

I had thus made a beginning in laying a foundation for the superstructure of evidence which I was endeavoring to raise; a foundation, of which a tight coat was the corner-stone. If Mr. F.'s outer garment had not required alteration, I should, up to this time, have failed in establis.h.i.+ng a most important fact, viz., his probable ident.i.ty with the individual who pa.s.sed the bank notes; and as long as this point was involved in much uncertainty, I should hardly have felt prepared to push my researches with much energy or hope.

The following facts were now in my possession: Mr. F. was in the same town where the Exhibition was held, and upon that occasion; his general appearance corresponded to that of the person who had then and there exchanged the notes; and his position as post master gave him sufficient opportunities to have committed the robberies. All this seemed to authorize and require more definite and concentrated measures on my part.

In the mail from Boston, which was to pa.s.s on that route on the following day, sundry tempting-looking packages might have been found, which were not altogether valueless in a pecuniary point of view, and would a.s.suredly have been missed had they been stopped anywhere short of their place of destination. In other words, these packages were what are called _decoy letters_,--a species of device for entrapping the dishonest, which will always be effectual, and whose detective power the shrewdest rogue is unable to withstand. The utmost sagacity will never enable one to distinguish between a decoy-letter and a genuine one, so that the only way of securing safety from these missives is to let all letters alone. The coat of arms of Scotland--a thistle, with the motto "_Noli me tangere_,"--would be an appropriate device for these paper bomb-sh.e.l.ls.

This set of packages, however, pa.s.sed the suspected point in safety on this occasion, and several times afterwards, for the very good reason, as it subsequently appeared, that, in the absence of the post master, an honest person overhauled the mails.

The snare was laid once more, and with better success.

Upon a certain day, as the mail was leaving Boston, a letter containing some fifty dollars, in good and lawful money, duly marked and recorded, that it might afterwards be identified, was placed in the package of letters for the post-office which had suffered so many losses before, and to pa.s.s through the office over which he of the tight coat presided. This package was watched by the Special Agent for the distance of seventy miles or more, until it had arrived unmolested within ten or fifteen miles of the suspected office.

About this time I again fell in with General Pierce, who kindly offered to act in concert with me until the result of that day's experiment should be decided; he taking the stage which was to convey the mail, and I intending to follow after by private conveyance, both to meet again, and to examine the contents of the bag after it had pa.s.sed the office at C. The object of this temporary separation, as my readers will readily see, was to prevent the possibility of any recognition of my person, which might have been incurred had I been seen traveling with a gentleman so well known as the Hon. Mr. Pierce.

Much curiosity would inevitably be manifested to know whom the U. S.

District Attorney had with him, and speculations on the subject might approach too near the truth for the interests of public justice.

The united efforts of the sixteen legs which impelled the "leathern conveniency" containing my friend, the Attorney, were soon too much for the four that hurried along "Caesar and his fortunes;" and the first-mentioned vehicle ere long was "hull-down" in the distance. I had often been over this route before, yet in some incomprehensible way, either by turning off too often, or not turning often enough, I got upon the wrong road, and came near making a bungling job of it.

Pressing on as fast as possible to get a glimpse of the stage once more, I had driven furiously for several miles, until, becoming convinced that I was not likely to overtake it though I should go in that direction till doomsday, I halted at a farm-house which stood near the road, and addressed a man who apparently had been engaged in cutting wood in the yard, for he stood, axe in hand, with an unsplit log lying before him. The sound of my wheels had undoubtedly arrested his attention. Dropping his axe with alacrity, he lounged up to the fence, and leaned his elbows upon it, evidently prepared to refresh himself after his bodily toil, with a little social intercourse.

"Is this the road to G.?" said I.

"What are yer in such a darned hurry for, now," replied my interlocutor. "I've heerd them air wheels of yourn a rattlin, rattlin, this half hour by spells, and I don't bleive I've cut the vally of an armfull of wood all that time. I do'no what She'll say."

Here he glanced uneasily over his shoulder towards the house, as if he feared _Her_ awe-inspiring presence.

"But, my friend," I remonstrated, "this don't tell me anything about the road. I _am_ in a hurry, and no mistake; and I'll be much obliged to you, if you will give me a short answer to a short question."

"Wal, if that's all you want, mebbe I can 'commodate yer. 'Taint no use keeping on this ere road. Ef you should drive ever so fast on't, you couldn't never git to G. Cause it don't go there! Wal, you wanted a short answer, so I'll give it to yer. That are beast o' yourn hes some good pints. Wal, ef you want to git to G.--lemme see,--never bin on this road afore, hev you?"

"Of course I haven't," replied I, somewhat testily.

"Then you wouldn't know nothin about the old Hoxie place; no, sartin you wouldn't. Wal, abeout two mild furder on, you'll come to a brick house with four chimblys, jist where another road comes in. You turn to the right by the brick house, and that'll bring you to G."

"How much further is it to G. this way than it is by the direct road?"

"Wal, 'bout four mild."

Upon this, I was about starting, when he called out, "I say, mister, don't you want to trade hosses? I----"

"What yer beout there, Jerry," exclaimed a shrill voice from the house, which could be no other than that of the redoubtable "She"--"not a stick of wood in the house, and you a loafin there on the fence. I tell you----"

Her further remonstrances were lost to me, but I doubt not that the luckless Jerry received a suitable reprimand for his delinquency.

Here I was then, having four miles further to go than the stage, and my horse beginning to show unequivocal signs of fatigue. As the stage driver knew nothing of our plan, the probability was that he would pa.s.s the next office long before I could arrive and examine the mail bag. In this emergency, I could think of nothing better than to leave horse and carriage at some place on the road, and obtain a saddle-horse, with which I might succeed in "coming to time." And after turning at the "brick house with four chimblys," I was gladdened by the sight of a tavern some half a mile beyond, to which I hastened with all practicable speed, and lost no time in inquiring whether I could obtain a subst.i.tute for my over-driven animal.

The landlord was prompt in answering my demand, and forthwith ordered his hostler to put the saddle upon "Bob." While Bob was being "got up," I found myself the object of many inquisitive looks from the a.s.semblage of tavern loungers, to whom my arrival was a rather unusual windfall; for it was not every day that the intervals between drams were enlivened by such a comet-like approach. The team wagons and other vehicles which frequented the road, and whose motions were as methodical as those of the planets--the tavern being the sun of their system--produced no emotions in the minds of these idlers, like the unexpected appearance of an unknown body like myself, coming no one knew whence, and going no one could tell where. One of two alternatives seemed forced on them by the "hot haste" of my movements.

The stranger was either a pursuer or the pursued. If he was the latter, what had he been doing? And if the former, of what had somebody else been guilty? These perplexing questions were settled in a manner apparently satisfactory to them, by the inquiry which I made of the landlord, whether he had seen a man pa.s.s that way on horseback, leading another horse, which I described minutely. The anxious audience at once jumped at the conclusion, as I had intended they should, that I was in pursuit of a horse-thief, which impression I took care to strengthen by sundry incidental remarks. It seemed necessary by some such device to prevent all suspicion of my real character and object, in order that if I failed in executing my design this day, the case might stand as well as before.

By this time "Bob" had been saddled and bridled, and issued forth from the stable, equipped for action, under the auspices of the hostler. He (to wit, Bob,) was a stout Canadian pony, rejoicing in a peculiarly s.h.a.ggy mane, and a tail which was well calculated to add completeness to my comet-like character. He was strong of limb, and evidently quite as competent as any quadruped that could ordinarily be found, to carry me to my destination within the required time.

As soon as I was fairly in the saddle, some one among the small crowd a.s.sembled to witness my departure, gave a slight whistle and made a sound something like "he up," whereat the treacherous Bob went through a series of gymnastic performances highly gratifying to the select audience in front of the tavern, and occasioning a display on my part, of equestrian accomplishments which I was never before conscious of possessing. The pony elevated himself upon his hind legs so as to a.s.sume an almost perpendicular posture, giving me much the att.i.tude of Napoleon as he is represented in David's well-known picture, "only more so." After standing thus for an instant, he commenced a rotary movement, still upon two legs, and coming down, reared in the opposite direction a few times, before he saw fit permanently to resume the horizontal position, I, during this period of revolution, hanging by his neck (my _main_ stay,) and losing off my hat in the ardor of my embraces.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

While I was thus the sport of circ.u.mstances, the spectators indulged in various jocose observations, which then seemed to me exceedingly ill-timed and impertinent. One suggested that I was a Millerite, and was endeavoring to "go up" on horseback, at the same time expressing a desire to know what I would charge for an extra pa.s.senger; while another inquired what direction I proposed to take in my pursuit of the imaginary horse-thief; intimating a willingness to be in his place, so far as concerned any danger of being overtaken by me.

"Well done!" exclaimed the jolly landlord, as Bob re-a.s.sumed his quadrupedal character.

"No, no," replied I, "there's too much _rare_ meat in him for that."