TEN YEARS
AMONG
THE MAIL BAGS.
CHAPTER I.
No "Ear-Biters" employed—The Commission—A whole School robbed—Value of a "quarter"—Embargo on Trunks—Unjust Suspicion—The dying Mother—Fidelity of Post Masters—A venerable pair of Officials—President Pierce assists—A clue to the Robberies—The Quaker Coat—An insane Traveller—The Decoy Letters—Off the Road—The dancing Horse—The Decoy missing—An official Visit by night—Finding the marked Bills—The Confession—The Arrest.
In the fall of 1845, information was received from the Post-office Department at Washington, of extensive depredations upon the mails along the route extending from Boston to a well known and flourishing inland town in one of the New England States, accompanied with the expression of a strong desire on the part of the Post Master General, that prompt and thorough efforts should be made to ferret out, if possible, those who were concerned in these wholesale peculations.
It so happened that the gentleman at this time at the head of the Post-office Department, had not been a very ardent believer in the necessity or usefulness of "Secret Agents," so called. In fact, when he entered upon the duties of his office, he dismissed the entire corps of this class of officials, and notwithstanding the urgent calls of the public, and the dissenting views of his most experienced Assistants, he steadily refused to re-employ them, excepting temporarily, and in special cases, until near the close of his official term. Justice to that honest and thorough-going officer, however, requires some mention of the causes which controlled his decision in this important matter.