BOBBING THE MAILS. ^METHODS USUALLY ADOPTED BY CRIMINALS. f. ' A PONOrClCK INRPKCTOU <11VKN EXPERIENCES Of Many Encounter* with People Wl«> Vta the Mull* for fraudulent Pur pour*—Poitofllra Robberies—IVHoa ol a Woman Postmaster. [Copyrighted, 1892, hy the International Press Association.] I am a postoftlco inspector, with headquarters in n largo Western city. This makes my nineteenth yent in the service, and it is not strange that during that period I have ac cumulated some interesting knowl edge as to the manner in which people will use the mails for criminal pur poses. The United States mails haven peculiar fascination for criminals. It offers an extensive range of oppotunl ties for irregularity by tho public ns .Ml ^aaai.ort.. _ SEIZED TUB NIOTIT CI.KItK. well ns by its own employes. Tlio most common abuse on tlie part of the public is the claiming to have sent or claiming not to Have received, articles alleged to have been mailed. This Is also a favor ite with professional swindlers. It is hard to catch tlie latter class. This abuse is also popular between friends and acquaintances. Not long ago my attention was directed to nn in teresting case. One of the parties re sides in a large Western city. . The other in a Southern city. The iattcr was a woman who had cut quite a swell as an adventuress. The Northern man had been touched by her winning ways. He sent her a railroad ticket and fc'fi to go to his *eity. Both were sent by mail. The woman claimed never to have received them. Tho second day after I was notified I found that the ticket had been sold to a scalper which was prima facie evidence that tho letter had been received. But the adven turess had covered up her tracks so thoroughly that I could not arrest her. This is a favorite trick with petty adventuresses. V There is a wide difference between ' the' exposure ot such transparent < tricks as that and the burglary of an office, which is generally done by ex perts, whose plans are well laid and all evidence destroyed. The posoffice at Albuquerque, N. M., was robbed in a very methodical way. When the postal clerks had registered in from their runs and gone to bed, at about 3 o'clock in the morning, three burglars entered the rear door of the postoflice, seized the night clerk, a boy of 10, bound and gagged him and proceeded to their work very deliberately. The postpfllce room had formerly been used'for a natlonal hank and had in its rear a large vault the doors of which were customarily olosed and locked with a key. In the rear of this large 'vault was a strong safe, which contained the postoflice funds, while the sacks of registered letters awaiting outgoing trains were put in the vault. By dosing the front doors of this vault the burglars were enabled to work without noise upon the safe and * by six o'clqck they had opened it, ab stracted its contents, taken the regis tered letters from the sacks by cutting the latter open and had then gone on their way. Early in the morning the postmaster engaged the local officers, .who were assisted by detectives of the express companies, but very little could be die covered. When I reached the place the only dew found was a blacksmith’s sledge, which lay among the weeds in the rear of the building. The owner of this we found after a diligent search to he a blacksmith half a mile away. • Be remembered that the day before the robbery a stranger lia.d been in his shop asking questions and that the next morning he found his shop door forced open and some of his tools missing. We next learned that this stranger was the son of a ranchman living five miles away and that he had gone from Albuquerque to a small town in Kansas. There we had him promptly arrested and himself and his baggage searched on suspicion, but as he gave a straight account of his proceedings and no stamps nor money were found upon him he was released. " The adjoining officers were thorough ly advised of the details of the robbery and the kinds and quantity of the plunder, and a month afterward word came from the marshal Of Western Texas that a clew had been found there. The inspector was in that way put in communication with a prisoner awaiting trial for murder in El Paso. This prisoner told a fairly straight story, to theeffect that he was hiding in a house on the Rio Grande, about five miles below Albuquerque, on the night of the robbery, and in the morning his friends, who were outlaws, camiafti with a lot of stamps and postal supplies, which the£ hid in the garden a Jew rods from the river. Jtefore he would give me their names htptvanted the government to pay him Jffiough to enable him to defend bim JSelf on his trial for murder. Ilia figures were too stoop, and before ne gotiations were completed with him lie was tried and sentenced to be hanged. Hut I went with a guard to the place lie described and found a deserted house which tallied accurately with his de scription, and we dug up soil enough in looking for die stamps, ,t c., to make a Vdg garden, but did not find the valu ables. Although the men had gone awaj, later on two of them were se cured and connected with the burglary, but they were wanted also for a dozen like offenses that had prior at tention of the court. Not very far from Lebanon, N. C., about the same time, we had a ease that was peculiar in some of its feat ures and ns sad as it was unusual. On a starroute (that is, a route where the mails are conveyed by stage or horse back) running west from Salisbury, N. C., there had been many thefts of money from registered letters, and the department and the people thereabout were alike impatient to catch the thief. All the postmastors upon the route, about a dozen of them in all, boro excellent reputations, and all professed equal anxiety to have tho guilty pun ished. 1 had been at work once on this case without success, and tried it again, taking every possible precaution tlm second time to conceal my proceed ings. With a good assistant I put up at a farmhouse entirely off from tho route, and where at our liesure we completed our plans for carefully test-’ ing tho different offices. The weather was very stormy, which favored us, ns there wore few people traveling upon tho roads, and thus we were able to got around without the inquisitive discovering that strangere were in their neighborhood, which was very thinly settled at best. It was difficult then to decide which post master wo should begin with, for usuullv tho adjoining offices have to co-operate witli and he in tho inspec tor’s confidence, and if the guilty one himself is one of the two go trusted of course ho is put on liis guard. The last one to he suspected would naturally have been the postmistress at Hilesville. Mlic had been a school teacher, was of good family and had not only the respect liut the confidence and sympathy of tho people, because her liusbaud was a worthless fellow who was serving a term in prison for larceny. Un my first trip I rode over the route as a pretended book agent. I sut on the old stage conspicuously holding in my hand a flashily bound book when we reached her offieo and die came to the door and looked out at me. I was watching her covertly and did not fail to note that when she turned to go into tho offieo she threw >i quick look backward ut mo and spoke in a low voice to the carrier, who was coming out with tho mail sacks. Half an hour later I said to tho driver ,n a joking way, “I believe I made i good impression on that pretty post al istress at lfilesville. I wish I had diowed her my hook.” “Yes,” lie said, “and she asked me f you warn’t a postoffiee inspector.” “What’s that?” I asked. “Oh, ono of them fellers that go I w didn’t LOOK GUILT V. round catcliin’ up with the lame ducks. There's ben a lot o’ stea'in' on this road, and I wislu they’d do some thin’ about it. I’m gettin' blamed for it myself.” I inferred at once that unless the driver was a great deal smarter than he looked and acted he was not to be suspected, and from the quick suspicion of the postmistress that I was an officer that she herself was to be looked out for. So when 1 related this fact to my friend he agreed that we should first test the schoolma’am’s office. The last theft reported had been about ten j days before our visit, so that another 1 was about due. We fixed our lines in ! the usual way, sending four registered j letters through the schoolma’am's i hands. Wo got them ten minutes afterward. The earner made a very brief stop. Nobody else had touched the letters. They came out to our hands so clean and neat that we thought it impossible that they could have been tampered with. Wo opened them at once, how ever, and were astonished to find that all the four letters had been rifled. Returning to the office we found the stolen bills in the young woman’s purse, and her usually sad face was lighted up a little with the success of her day’s work. Sliest once confessed. She soon afterward died of a broken heart, and upon her deathbed con fessed, it is said, to having also stolen the money for which her husband was imprisoned and placed it upon him so as to get rid of him. His Lost Home of Clay. Colonel R. -A. Crawford, who died re cently at Atlanta, was laid to rest in the old and tattered confederate uni form which he had worn during the war, and which, in its bullet holes,told how near he had been to death from the federal foe. WATCHED-BY THE HUNTER. Shrewd is oar bird; not easy to outwit him! Sharp is the outlooh of those pin-head oyos; Still, he is mortal, and a shot may hit him; ine cannot always miss him if he tries. ' •—U. W. Holmes. AN AERIAL CRIME. There was a storm of cheers from a thousand breathless spectators. The balloon was going up. Like a falcon suddenly unhooded by the hunter it escaped to the sky, darting upward In a straight line. Al ready one could scarcely distinguish above the rim of the baskot tho heads of tho two aeronauts who ascended. Leaning on the frail wicker bul wark, thgy saw far down below the mall terrestrial forms lessoning every second and vanishing. What was that mass of whito and gray things crossed every w»J by black linos? Was that the city? Yes, tho city they had just loft, a city reduced to the proportions of an ant hill. But right and loft, be fore and behind, what a marvelous hor rizon! There, far away tho serrated lino of tho moifntuins, and on the other sido tlie sea, tho vast, blue ocean sparkling in a flood of sunshine. Suddonly. in the profound silence of tho azure, a woman’s voice resounded, dear as a tinkling of crystal. ■•Oliver,” said she, "givo me your bund!” "Here is my hand, Laura," replied n man’s voice. “Thank you,” said tho fair voyager, straightening herself and closing her jyes with a shudder. Tho man raised his head and looked it his companion, who, very pale, sat iown on a light bamboo soat. - ‘What is tho matter with youP” he asked. "I was afraid,” said she. “I was so iizzy. But it is'over.” Sho passed bor pretty, gloved hand across her '-yes. "Do you regret your notion?” "No; certainly not. But a first trial may surprise the nerves. Oh, I shall ?ot used to it. Don’t worry.” He remained erect, looking at her. 3ho was charming in her tight-fltting traveling dross, which revealod the lines of a form harmonious and sifpple, with a little masculine hat coquotishly posed on her golden hair knotted in the neck, and with tho dead pallor that heightened tho effect of her blade eyes. The young woman also looked at her companion, whoso blond beard—heavy and closoly trimmed—framed a manly, noble face. Seeing him frown, she said, in her turn, with her singing voice: "And you, Oliver; why do you look so gloomy?" lie did not answer, but, leaning slightly over the side of the basket: "Wo are going up too quick,” said he. And soizing a rope which hung near by ho pulled on it. Almost instantly the young man had a sensation of their movement being retarded, then of a stop and at last of descent. ••Are you going down for good?” sho asked. “No.” roplied Oliver. “Wo will go up again preseiltly.” “When?” “When I choose. I have only to close the valve which secures the, gas. You see this rope I hold in ray hand? That regulates our course.” “And if it should break?” “It will not break—it is firm. But if by a kind of iniriiole it should disap pear we should be lost-’1 “How?" “The balloon is sufficiently inflated to carry us to regions where we could no longer breathe. We should be as phyxiated.” “Luckily it needs two miracles.' That rope is double, is it not?” “It looks to be double now, but in reality there is but one. Lean out a little. Do you see that ring high up there? The rope passes through that and these are its two ends which I hold in my hand. They are tied, besides. But it needs only a blow with' a knife to separate them. See, now, here are the two ends free. I have only to pull one. The rope glides through the ring and falls at my feet, and, behold! we have started on the grand voyage!” He had joined the action to the word. The rope had fallen to his feet. He coiled it with a turn of his arm and hastily flung it intjo the void beneath them. The young woman started to her feet, trembling and horrified. “Oliver, what are you about? Are you mad?” The young man looked her full in the face and said very calmly: “I am not mad.” “Then what are you doing that for?” “I have planned it all. I intend that we shall die together, here in mid air, far from that earth which I in tensely hate since it is there you have proved to me what you are, «since the mire of which it is made has splashed the idol that my superstition adored in you.” The stupifled girl made a gesture as If appalled. “Oh! do not protest,” cried Oliver. “All feint is useless. I will convince you in one sentence that* you are lost to me—that you intended to marry another. Yes, that fool, that insipid Moreno, who has followed us from Venice, whom we have found every where—Milan, Florence, Rome, Lon don, New York, Chicago. You made me treat him os a companion. I have shaken hands with him daily—imbe cile that I am! Have I not been con stantly the slave of your will, of your caprices? You said you wanted to wait till the time of your widowhood was past. You made the disdainful charity of this concession to the usages of the world. When the two years had rolled by you would engage yourself to mo—you would marry me. Touching scruple, truly! I was in earnest—you were not. It was a piquant role for you to play and you have shown yourself a consummate comedienne. You, for whom lova was nothing but poetic aspirations, ethereal (1 roams, Jlights into blue distance; you, whose siren voioe, with its vibrant melodies, sang to me the delights of an infinite ecstaoy, of an ideal journey into the blue heaven like the winging of birds! “Very well, behold your dream! Here it is realized and you are going to live in it until it kills you! See, now, you aro caught in a trap of your own invention. For it was you, last night, who had tho idea of buying this balloon from the aeronaut, who was going up in it, and of raveling through air with.. me. A caprice of tho season, was it not, to fitly finish our Now Year’s fostivitius? It was my vengeance that you offered me. I have seized it. And now I deliver you to another venge ance, that of the azure mocked at by your poetical lies, to that of heaven scoffed at by your sacrilegious ironyj! “Ah, they will cruelly avenge themij selves, those impassable judges! Do* you know what punishment they will! inflict on you? 1 “One tiay two adventurers of tho air—too hardy— made the trial. They were found in their basket, rigid and frozen, thoir faces swollen and blood running from their ears, oyes and mouths. “Behold the end that awaits you! Soon, my charmer, a rod foam will heighten the carmine of your lips, red drops will simulate coral pendants from your fine ears and your beautiful eyes will weep tears of blood!’ THe young woman stoad erect, con vulsively shuddering. “You would not do that, Oliver! It is too horrible! I cannot die that frightful death!” Oliver folded his Arms across his chest. “I would like to prevent it now, ” said ho, ‘ 'but I have no longer the power.” She sprang upon him and tore from him the knife he still held in his hand. "But with that,” she cried, "one ought to be able to cut that accursed canvas. She looked up at the globe of gas above them. “Try it,” said Oliver, coldly. Cling ing to the cordage she put one foot on the edge of the basket and tried to raise herself by her slender wrists. But she turned giddy and fell back pant ing. The knife, escaped from her hands, tumbled over and over through the air. She paused a moment—col lapsed—crushed. “See," said Oliver, mockingly, “the noon sun heats the balloon and hurries us along. We shall soon arrive now." He threw back his head, looking at the Bky as if hallucinated. ' Suddenly, while he was speaking, the young woman made a gesture of delight, despair brightened her face. Slowly, softly she carried her hand to her pocket and drew out an object which she held from his possible view. Then she quickly naised hor arm and two detonations resounded. “You reckon without your host, my dear Oliver!” she cried with a laugh ot triumph. “A good Californian never travels without her revolver, and she is right!” Pierced through and through by the two balls the balloon began to fall. Oliver leaned over the basket-rim. “So be it!” said he. “We are over mid-ocean. Blue for blue, we shall still die in the azure.” The balloon was visibly losing gas. The swiftness of its downward course was startling, Oliver, himself suffo cated, closed his eyes. And in the silence of the empty sky the balloon pursued its dizzy descent. * * * * My Dear Oliver—I have just heard* about you. They tell me you are better. I am glad. I am recovering alto. Cer tainly you will learn this with pleasure. • I have rewarded the fisherman who picked us up in a dead faint, both of us, and brought us in his boat to shore. Here is a poor devil who can say without meta phor that bis good luck fell from the skies! Traveling, my friend, is decidedly too dangerous in your company. I begin to believe that some day or other you will bring me misfortune. Excuse this super stition—you know I have lived where they believe in the evil eye, and allow me, henceforth, to pursue alone my voyage into blue distance. Believe me, my dear assassin, without too much bitterness. ( Yours, Laura. .1 Czar Hotelkeeper. •The most autocratic hotelkeeper In the world is in Orland, Colusa Co. I was preparing to go out one night, when he said to me: “Be back by 9 o’clock.” “Why?” I asked. 1 'Because, I go to bed at that time, and if you are not back you won’t get in, that’s all.” “Give me my key,” I said, "I won’t stop in such a hotel.” “Oh, ho! you won’t, won’t youP Where else are you going? There is no other hotel in this here town, no other stable and no other store. You can’t buck agin me. You be back, now, by 8:80 p. m.” I looked at the old brute, and con cluded I had better stay. I sat down and he came around and affably questioned me. “Look here,” I said, “I have to stay in your hotel, but I don’t want to be bothered with you. So keep your questions to yourself” "I’ve half a mind to tell you Jo leave. Can’t I speak to a man in*my own house?”—Globe-Democrat. Some Hope Still. An editor at Sandusky has promised to pray. Gentlemen who have consid ered the profession without hope will please revise their estimates_Colum bus Dispatch. A Sharp Cot. A little girl, in order to prove that it is wrong to cut off the tails of horsei and dogs, quoted the scriptural injunc tion, “What God has joined together let no man put asunder. "—Table Talk. FARM AND HOUSEHOLD. A PLEA FOR PURE WATER AND PLENTY OF IT. Farm Animals Suffer for Lack of it—The Orohard—How to Dress Calves —Pork Pointers and House hold Helps. Pure Water. Pure water ought to be where the stock can get at it at all times, par ticularly during warm weather, as it very often makes the difference be tween gain or loss. A half-dozen times a day is not too often to offer water to stock any time of the year. During the »hotb weather of summer farm animals suffer more from lack of proper care in watering than they could from neglect in the matter of food. In truth, the best pastures and most ap proved systems of feeding cannot give good results when there is lack of at tention or inadequate facilities in wa tering. Keep water constantly be fore them, advises the Ohio Farmer. The best posted farmers take a bar rel of water to the Bold when plow ing. fitting land, cultivating, haying or harvesting, or any work whero it is necessary to be away from water a half day, and offer the horses some every hour or two, also bathing the head and nostrils with a sponge. The jug containing water for the men can bo kept cool by setting in the barrel of water. A barrel with one head out, set in the wagon, then filled with pure well water and covered with old, clean blankets or gunny sacks, will keep cool a long time. By watering often, horses will do very much more work without fatigue or overheating. Having practiced it for years, I know this to be true; besidea the conscious ness of having used “man's best friend" right ought to be worth some thing. What a guilty feeling one ought to possess who has given horses long drives, or obliged them to work five or six hours until they are so be side themselves with thirst as to drink large quantities of water at a draught Besides, it upsets the wholo animal organization because of the forced draft on the water already stored in the system, and the best care iD other respects proves futile. Horses will not drink to excess at any time if it is offered to them often. Another thing—no matter how warm a horse may be^ it is always safe, in fact very desirable^ to give some wator. say six or ten swailowa and more if the ex ercise is to be coutin-ued. As regards watering before and after feeding, Prof. Sanborn reports, after two carefully conducted experi ments, that there is very little if any thing in the theory that watering immediately after feeding causes the food to be washed or forced out of the stomach into the intestines, whero it will not receive the benefits from the gastric juices of the stomach to aid digestion. Prof. Sanborn concludes that it “seoms advisable to water both before and after feeding, ” which logically means—give water when ever needed. The use of abundance of pure, cold water In the dairy is plainly import ant Cows giving milk not only need water in lurgo quantities, but often, and should always, particularly in hot weather, be where they can help themselves. About 85 per cent of milk is water, and the process of secroting the lacteal fluid is ever go ing on; then there is the waste of water by perspiration. and the needs of the many functions of the system to bo supplied, at all times, if paying results are desired. If the water supply is deficient the cows bocome restless, feverish and fretful. One day will often show a marked decrease in quantity, and a flow of milk once lost not easily regained. A dairy cow will show a falling off under circum stances where an animal not in milk may take on flesh. On the most arid lands found in sections of Texas, do mestic cows do not give hardly any milk, while steers not un frequently do fairly well taking on flesh during dry weather. This shows that cows per haps above all other animals require more particular attention as to water supply. In winter the water should be slightly warmer for cows; though where water is taken from deep wells it is never cold enough to do any harm. Hut water that is down near the freezing point must have the ••cold edge taken off” if cows are ex pected to make the best use of their milk-producing powers. Hogs require a great deal of water, and it would bo better wisdom to givo them pure, cool water than to stuff them with foul •-swill" as so many farmers do. Pure water, clean quar ters and food make the best pork. Sheep are neglected in the way of in sufficient water more than any other of the domestic animals. Formerly it was quite a common belief that sheep could get along without water when on pastures and • oat snow" in winter; but no one now who makes sheep raising a profitable business lets them go without good water and plenty of it. Proper watering is cer tainly more economical and humane than losing the benefits from feeding because of neglect in this lina How to Ure»H Calves. Calves from three to six weeks old, and weighing about one hundred pounds, or say from eighty to* ono hundred and twenty pounds are the most desirable weights for shipment The head should be cut out so as to leave the side of the head on the skin. The logs should bo cut off at the knee joint The entrails should be removed, excepting the kidneys; the liver, lights and heart should be taken out Cut the carcass open from the neck through the entire length— from head to bumgut If this is done they are not so apt to sour and spoil during hot weather. Don’t wash the carcass out with water, but wipe out I With a dry cloth. Don’t ship until iho animal heat Is entirely out of the body, aDd never tie the earcaes up in a bag. as this keeps the air from circu lating, and makes the meat more liable to become tainted. Mark for shipment by fastening a shipping tag to the hind leg. Calves under fifty pounds should not be shipped, and are liable to be seized by the health officers as being unfit for food. Merchants, tom are liable to be fined if found soiling these slunks for violatiort of tho law. Very heavy calves, such as have been fed upon buttermilk, never sell well in our market—they are neither veal nor beef. —Farmers Voice. In the Orchard. The value of advice for fruit trees is generally proportioned to the umount of territory which it is in tended to apply to. When it becomes so general that it includes all sections of tho country, it is of little real value to tho professional, although it may do inestimable good to the beginner. A great deal of the advertised ac counts of wonderful trees and success with them are from sections of the country entirely different from where tho purchaser lives, and if buying from tho far-away nurseryman we must take the trees as we get them. They havo been accustomed, probably, to a rich, heavy soil, and they are now to be transferred to a light, poor soil. In the process of digging the roots have very likely been mutilated and cut, and in the shipment to us they have been injured in other ways. It is moro than one can expect of the best grown trees to respond quickly and satisfactorily under such condi tions. If tho trees are properly dug I and shipped, and tho soil and climate to which they are transplanted are the same, wo may expect success from tho trees. But those risks are generally at the bottom of the widely diverse re ports from orchardists concerning the success aud failure of some of tho finest varieties of fruit trees. The propagation of a fruit tree is tho simplest thing in the world if one will study it for a year or two, and when one considers this it seems a wonder that there is not a small nursery attached to every orchard. One can buy a few trees to start with, but after that his own nursery ought to supply him with all the young seed lings needod. It may bo occasional ly that ho will want to add some new variety to the orchard, add a young seedling will have to bo shipped from a distance: but as a general rule he can depend upon his own nursery to supply the orchard with new trees. In this nursory tho starting work is tho most difficult, and it takes so long to raise the trees from tho seed; but this may bo obviated by buying tho stocks in bud.