Ten Years Among the Mail Bags. James Holbrook
when it is discovered that the trap has been sprung, and the rogue is almost within your grasp. For experience has shown, that missing a "decoy-letter," and establishing in a legal manner the guilt of the individual who is known to have intercepted it, are two very different things. Much caution is requisite in the management of these cases, in order to leave no loop-hole of retreat to the culprit. Too hasty movements might spoil all, by alarming him before he had put it out of his power to account plausibly for the detention of the letter; while a too long delay might enable him to increase materially the difficulty of obtaining direct evidence, by affording him an opportunity of disposing of the necessary proof—the letter itself, and the contained money.
In the present instance, it was considered that a too speedy return to search for the absent package, might result in finding it in a perfect state, allowing of the explanation by the post master, that it had been left over by mistake in overhauling the mail, which would have put the case in a capital shape for a tolerably sharp lawyer to defend. We therefore concluded to allow several hours to elapse before making a descent upon the premises, the time being mainly occupied in drawing up the requisite papers, and procuring the attendance of a proper officer to serve them.
All things having been prepared, we started, at about nine o'clock in the evening, for the post-office in question. The office itself was in a small building, some twenty rods from the post master's house, and as we approached the premises, no light was visible, excepting in one of the chambers of the dwelling. There, accordingly, we directed our steps, and a few raps upon the door brought down the post master, light in hand, who at once recognised "Squire Paarce," as he called the District-Attorney. This gentleman politely requested him to step over to the office, to transact some business, the nature of which he did not then explain. The post master expressed his readiness to accompany Mr. Pierce, remarking that he must first leave him a moment, in order to go to another part of the house for a lantern. Some such manœuvre on his part had been anticipated, and he was closely watched—in fact, Mr. Pierce went with him—while absent on his errand, to deprive him of an opportunity of secreting any money that he might have on his person.
On reaching the post-office, he was introduced to the Agent, whose first object was, to get an admission from him, that he was present when the mail arrived from Boston that day, that he overhauled it alone, and that he had at this time no packages on hand to go by the mail Northward the day following. These points having been ascertained, the subject of the numerous losses on that route was broached, and the fact plainly stated, that they had been traced to that office; which piece of information was received by the post master with the utmost apparent self-possession. Indeed, he seemed exceedingly surprised to hear of the various frauds which I enumerated, and professed entire ignorance that anything of the kind had occurred, assuring me that if such things had been done, my suspicions as to his office were utterly groundless.
"Do you receive much money in the course of your business. Mr. F.?" I asked.
"Some," was the laconic reply.
"Have you much on hand now, and is it here, or at the house, or where is it?"
"I don't know that my duty to the Post-office Department compels me to answer such questions—to strangers, anyhow," replied he, with an air of defiance.
"Then," said I, "my duty to the Department will require me to dispense with further interrogatories, and proceed to satisfy myself as to the present state of your finances in some other, and more direct way."
"Well, Squire," said he, turning to Mr. Pierce, "I want to know if you have brought this man here to bully me, on my own premises, and accuse me of doing things that I never thought of, to say nothing of his impertinence in inquiring into my private business affairs. Let him find out what he can about them. I sha'n't help him."
The District-Attorney assured him that all was correct; that his rights should be protected; and that he had better furnish the required information as to his means, and allow us to examine any funds he might have on hand. This, the Attorney suggested, would be the course which a regard for his own interests should lead him to adopt.
After much grumbling, and giving vent to his dissatisfaction by the remark, that "he didn't see why he should be picked out, and treated in this way," he reluctantly complied with my somewhat urgent request to be allowed to look at the money in his possession. Handing me his wallet, he awaited the result of the examination with all the composure he could command. He must have inferred, from what had been said, that it was in my power to identify whatever money he had that was unlawfully obtained, yet with the consciousness that he was thus open to detection, he did not flinch, nor betray but in a small degree, the heart-sinking that a knowledge of his perilous situation could not fail to produce. These were my first thoughts, but I afterwards had occasion to believe that he was not aware of the overwhelming proof against himself which he supplied as he passed his pocket-book into my hands. A hasty examination of its contents revealed unmistakable evidence of his guilt, for on consulting the description of the bills mailed that morning in Boston, to go some twenty miles above this point, every one of them was at once identified!
"Mr. F.," said I, "this money I saw placed in a letter in Boston, this morning, to go some distance above you; how came it in your wallet?"
For some time the unfortunate man was speechless. He had continued so long in his course of fraud, that the ground had begun to feel firm beneath his feet, when all at once this gulf opened before him, about to swallow up everything that man ought to hold most dear: character, liberty, the love and respect of his fellow men, and even property—a thing of comparatively little importance—for restitution would justly be required.
The words in which one of Milton's fallen spirits addresses a brother angel, might appropriately be applied to this victim of the lust of gold.
"If thou be'st he;—but O, how fallen, how changed!"
Yes, indeed, how changed! He had occupied a high position in community, enjoying the confidence of every one; and had been elected to places of honor and trust by his fellow-citizens, before his appointment to this office by the general Government. What was he now? What would he be when it should be known everywhere that the exemplary Mr. F. had been guilty of a felon's crimes, and was likely to meet with a felon's doom? How could he ever face again his children, already deprived of one parent by death, and about to lose another by that which is worse than death? Ah! if crime presented the same aspect before its perpetration that it does afterward, how vast would be the diminution of human guilt!
The District-Attorney and Sheriff having purposely retired for a few moments, I took occasion to represent to F., in as strong a light as possible, the disappointments and distress which his unprincipled course had occasioned among the pupils of the academy, at the same time urging him, if he had not destroyed their letters, to produce them at once, that they might be forwarded to their rightful owners. He did not deny that he was the author of all the mischief; and stated that the letters he had taken had been destroyed, but that the money—several hundred dollars—was invested in real estate, and could be restored.
After I had ascertained these important facts, I consigned the criminal to the Sheriff's hands, in virtue of the warrant which had before been made out, as I have already mentioned. The Sheriff returned to the house with him, to allow him to make some preparation for a night's ride, and as they issued from the dwelling, I noticed that F. had on the identical Quaker coat, which had been to him what the robe of Nessus was to Hercules—a garment bringing unforeseen destruction to its wearer.
The trial of the prisoner was held in due time, and its result furnished no exception to the truth of the Scriptural declaration respecting the way of transgressors.
Before closing this narrative, I should mention that measures were taken to secure the restoration of their money to those who had been defrauded by this man's dishonesty. It was, however, a slower process to heal the wounded feelings, to re-establish the broken friendships, and to reproduce the lost confidence, of which he had been the guilty cause. Whether he ever regained his lost reputation, I am unable to say.
A long course of upright conduct may and ought to obliterate the memory of former crime, but the commission of such crimes ordinarily raises