Ten Years Among the Mail Bags Part 27

After the usual morning salutation, he said,

"I am in luck, this morning. I just picked up here a ten dollar bill, and I must see if I can't find the owner;" and he forthwith proceeded to write a flaming placard, announcing the finding of "a sum of money"

outside the delivery window, and to post it in a conspicuous place.

His singular manner, however, while speaking of the money, and while engaged in drawing up the notice, attracted my attention, and I became strongly impressed with the belief that the whole affair was one of those silly devices which are as effectual in preventing the detection of those who employ them, as is the device of the ostrich, in hiding his head under his wing, to conceal him from his pursuer.

It occurred to me, after a little reflection, that I had seen a well-known merchant in the place hand the post master a ten dollar note the day previous, in payment for postage stamps. This fact was confirmed by inquiries which I made of the merchant, who further informed me that he could recognise the bill if he should see it again, from the initials which it bore of a correspondent, who had sent it to him by mail a few days before. Having ascertained what these initials were, ("C. P.,") I took occasion to examine the note, (which the post master had rather ostentatiously laid aside in a drawer, to be ready for the _owner_ whenever he should claim it,) and found the "C. P." upon it.

After the notice of the finding had been posted some twenty-four hours without the appearance of any claimant, I suggested to the _honest_ finder, by way of annoying him a little in return for his attempted deception, that as the money was found within the post-office limits, the Department would probably require that it should pa.s.s into the United States Treasury, in the same way as funds contained in dead letters for which no owners can be found.

This view of the case did not seem to strike him favorably. He looked blank, but attempted to pa.s.s it off as a joke, by saying that he didn't know that the post-office was a dead letter.

The next morning the placard had disappeared, and the post master informed me that a stranger had called late on the evening before, who claimed and described the bill, and to whom it was accordingly surrendered!

The termination of this case fully confirmed my opinion of the post master's double-dealing in relation to this affair.

It sometimes happens that the ends of justice are best secured by allowing criminals to go on for a time unmolested in their course, and even by affording them facilities for the commission of offences, which will be to them as snares and pitfalls. When means like these are adopted for the detection of crime, a temporary check to the operations of the suspected persons, from whatever cause arising, creates some additional trouble and anxiety to those who are endeavoring to ferret out the evil-doer, and provokes a degree of exasperation toward his unconscious abettor.

Such an untimely interference with plans carefully laid, and carried out at a considerable expense of time and effort, once occurred while the author was attempting to bring to light an unscrupulous depredator, in whose detection the public was much interested, as many had suffered by the loss of money sent through his office.

I had been hard at work for a week in pursuing this investigation, having for the third time pa.s.sed decoy letters over the road on which the suspected office was situated, (the road being one of the roughest kind, about forty miles in length, and very muddy,) and was flattering myself that _that_ day's work would enable me to bring my labors to a conclusion satisfactory to the public and myself, if not to the delinquent; when my hopes were, for the time, dashed to the ground by the innocent hand of the village parson.

And it happened in this wise:--

The mail carrier was instructed to throw off his mail, as usual, at the suspected office, and to remain outside, in order to afford the post master a good opportunity for the repet.i.tion of the offence which he was supposed to have committed, the Agent being all the time a mile or two in advance, in another vehicle, impatiently waiting to learn the fate of his manoeuvres.

As the part of the road where I was stationed, was in the midst of woods, and the carrier had no pa.s.sengers, no particular caution was needed in conducting the conversation, and before my a.s.sociate had reached me, he called out,

"I guess you'll have to try it again; the Dominie was there and helped to overhaul the mail to-day."

The sportsman, who, having just got a fair sight at the bird which he has been watching for hours, beholds it, startled by some blunderer, flying off to "parts unknown;" the angler, who, by unwearied painstaking, having almost inveigled a "monarch of the pool" into swallowing his hook--sees a stone hurled by some careless hand, descending with a splash, and putting an end to his fishy flirtation;--these can imagine my feelings when the mail carrier made the above announcement.

"Confound the Dominie," involuntarily exclaimed I, "why couldn't he mind his own business?"

I examined the mail bag, but nothing was missing except the matter that properly belonged to that office.

But at the next trial, the paris.h.i.+oner did not have ministerial aid in opening his mail, and accordingly, probably by way of indemnifying himself for his forced abstinence, he not only seized the decoy package, but several others.

The following day, instead of overhauling the mail, he was himself thoroughly overhauled by an United States Marshal.

A man of such weak virtue, should hire a "dominie" by the year, to stand by and help him resist the devil, during the process of opening the mails.

Not the least painful of the various duties connected with the detection of crime, is the sometimes necessary one of revealing a husband's guilt to his wife.

I antic.i.p.ated a severe trial of my feelings in making such a disclosure during the progress of a recent important case where the mail robber was in possession of a mail-key by means of which he had committed extensive depredations. He was at length detected, and has lately entered upon a ten years' term in the State Prison.

On his arrest he manifested much solicitude for his wife, fearing that the intelligence of his situation would overpower her. "She is in feeble health at best," said he, "and I am afraid this will kill her."

It was necessary, however, that I should see her in order to get possession of some funds, a part of the proceeds of the robberies, which her husband had committed to her keeping. Furnished with a written order from the prisoner, and leaving him in the Marshal's custody, I proceeded to call on the invalid, racking my brains while on the way to her residence, for some mode of communicating the unpleasant truth which should disclose it gradually, and spare her feelings as much as possible.

On my arrival at the boarding-house, the note was sent to the lady's room. It read as follows:--

My dear Susan:

Will you hand to the bearer a roll of bank-notes which I left with you.

EDWIN.

The lady soon made her appearance. She was young, rather prepossessing, and evidently in delicate health. Finding that I was the bearer of the note, she addressed me, expressing great surprise that her husband had sent a request so unusual; and with an air of independence observed that she did not "know about paying over money under such circ.u.mstances to an entire stranger."

Desiring not to mortify her unnecessarily by making explanations in the presence of others, I requested her to step into a vacant room near at hand, and after closing the door, I said in a low tone,

"It is an extremely painful thing for me, Mrs. M----, but as you do not seem inclined to comply with your husband's order, I must tell you plainly that the money was taken from the mails by him. There is no mistake about it. He has had a mail-key which I have just recovered, and has made a full acknowledgment of his numerous depredations. I beg of you to bear this dreadful news with fort.i.tude. No one will think less of you on account of his dishonest conduct."

I expected to see the poor woman faint immediately, and had mentally prepared myself for every emergency, but, a moment after, _I_ should have been more likely to have fallen into that condition, if astonishment could ever produce such an effect, for as soon as I had finished what I was saying, she stood, if possible, more erect than before, and with some fire in her eye, and one arm 'akimbo,' she replied in a spirited manner,

"Well, if he _has_ done that, he's a dam'd fool to own it--_I_ wouldn't!"

She gave up the money, however, soon after, and although the recklessness displayed in the speech above quoted seemed to make it probable that she was implicated in her husband's guilt, it afterwards appeared that this exhibition of "s.p.u.n.k" was due to the impulses of a high-spirited and excitable nature, which sometimes, as in the present instance, broke away from control, and went beyond the bounds of decorum. Such an ebullition of pa.s.sion indicated, in her case, a less degree of moral laxity than it would have shown in one differently const.i.tuted.

In a subsequent examination of their apartment in search of other funds and missing drafts, a touching incident occurred, strikingly displaying, when taken in connection with the outbreak just mentioned, the lights as well as shades of an impulsive character.

During this examination, it became necessary to investigate the contents of a well-filled trunk, and this was done by the lady herself, under my supervision. After several layers of wearing apparel had been taken out, she suddenly paused in her work, and wiped away a falling tear, as she gazed into the trunk. Thinking that some important evidence of her husband's crimes was lurking beneath the garments remaining, and that her hesitation was owing to reluctance on her part to be instrumental in convicting him, I reached forward and was about to continue the examination myself, when she interposed her arm and said sobbingly,

"Those are the little clothes of our poor baby,--they haven't been disturbed since his death, and I can't bear to move them."

A second glance into the trunk confirmed her sad story, for there were the little shoes, scarcely soiled, the delicately embroidered skirts and waists,--all the apparel so familiar to a mother's eye, which, in its grieving remembrance of the departed child,

"Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form."

A similar affliction had taught me to appreciate the sacredness of such relics, and I waited in sympathizing silence, until she could command her feelings sufficiently to continue the search.

She soon resumed it, and the contents of the trunk were thoroughly examined, yet none of the lost valuables were found therein.

CHAPTER XVIII.

FRAUDS CARRIED ON THROUGH THE MAILS.

Sad Perversion of Talent--Increase of Roguery--Professional Men suffer--Young America _at_ the "Bar"--Papers from Liverpool--The Trick successful--A legal Doc.u.ment--Owning up--A careless Magistrate--Letters from the Un-duped.

Victimizing the Clergy--A lithograph Letter--Metropolitan Sermons--An up-town Church--A Book of Travels--Natural Reflections--Wholesome Advice.