Ten Years Among the Mail Bags Or, Notes from the Diary of a Special Agent of the Post-Office Department

A gloomy Picture--Beautiful Village--Litigation in Harrowfork--A model Post Master--The Excitement--Petitioning the Department--Conflicting Statements--The decisive Blow--The ne...

Business Rivalry--Country Gossiping--Museum of Antiquities--New Post Master--Serious Rumors--Anonymous Letters--Package detained--Bar-room Scene--_Ram_ifications of the Law--Fir...

Those who may have perused the preceding pages of this work, will require no further comment on the nature and utility of decoy letters. But as some persons are met with who, wi...

High Crimes in low Places--Honest Baggage-masters--Suspicious Circumstances--Watching the Suspected--Shunning the Dust--Honesty Triumphant--An Episode--Unexpected Confession--Th...

An incalculable amount of talent is perverted to dishonest purposes, thereby becoming a gift worse than useless to its possessors, and a fruitful source of evil to the community...

Embarrassing duty--An exciting Question--A "Hard Case"--Decease of a Post Master--The Office discontinued--The other side--Call at the White House--The Reference--Agent's Arriva...

Safety of the Mails--Confidence shaken--About Mail Locks--Importance of Seals--City and Country--Meeting the Suspected--Test of Honesty--Value of a String--A dreary Ride--Harmle...

An infected District--A "fast" Route Agent--Heavy Bank Losses--Amateur Experiments--Dangerous Interference--A Moral Lecture--The Process discovered--An unwelcome Stranger--Midni...

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"...

The wrong Address--Odd Names of Post-Offices--The Post-Office a Detector of Crime--Suing the British Government--Pursuit of a Letter Box--An "Extra" Customer--To my Grandmother-...

A competent Assistant--Yielding to Temptation--An easy Post Master--Whispers of Complaint--Assistant embarrassed--Application to his Uncle--The Refusal--Value of a kind Word--Re...

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 venerab...

During the whole of the author's official career, he has never been brought into physical conflict with any one, nor exposed to any great danger in the discharge of his duties....

The close of the year 1839, and the opening of 1840, were marked in the Post-Office Department with frequent and startling announcements of the loss, by mail, of valuable letter...

A small draft from the Post-Office Department having been presented by a mail contractor to the post master of P., payment was refused, on the ground that the office had been ab...

Infallibility is not claimed by those connected with the Post-Office Department, and it cannot be denied that mistakes sometimes occur through the carelessness or incompetency o...

In the narrations of mail robberies which we have thus far given, their perpetrators, though bold and unscrupulous, have not often plotted the destruction of human life in order...

Indian Depredations--The model Mail Contractor--Rifles and Revolvers--Importance of a Scalp--Indian Chief reconnoitering--Saving dead Bodies--Death of a Warrior--The Charge--A p...

The proper adjustment of the various interests, great and small, which are involved in the every-day life of a nation like ours, is a problem not always very easy of solution, y...

The facts of the following case were furnished me by a gentleman connected with the New York post-office. I will introduce him as the relator of his own story, taking some liber...

Some years ago, the post-office of a prominent city in Western New York became involved in a series of mail depredations, and at length it was apparent that some one of three cl...

Who Saint Valentine was, is not much to the purpose in this place. We will give him credit for having been, however, a very excellent and highly respectable individual. We must...

The institution of Special Agents did not originate in this country. At a comparatively early period it constituted a part of the British postal system, and these Agents are ter...

The exterior, as well as the interior of a letter is sometimes made the vehicle of sentiment, affection, wit, fun, and the like, which, thus riding as outside passengers, displa...

Cases sometimes occur of the loss of letters apparently by the carelessness of post masters or their clerks; and in view of such cases, an important question arises; namely, to...

A short time after the detection of the New Haven mail robber, a gentleman from the town of W. called upon the post master at Hartford, to say that he had some weeks since maile...

Editors are supposed by many to be walking encyclopedias, with the record of the entire range of human knowledge inscribed on the tablets of their brains; and there are those wh...

This is the designation of a very useful and indispensable class of officials, who were hardly known to the service in this country previous to the year 1839. Their introduction...

Our collection of "outside" delinquencies would be incomplete, were we to omit the following case, which was investigated by the author not long ago, and in which not a little i...

The post-office clerk who fails to do his duty thoroughly, is like a light-house keeper, who now and then allows his light to go out, or become dim. Sometimes no harm may result...

In the early annals of our country, many instances of mail robbery are found, some of which occasioned the display of great intrepidity and daring, as the perusal of the followi...

There are many who would recoil from the thought of robbing a letter of its pecuniary contents, but feel no compunction at violating its secrecy for the sake of indulging an idl...

In country villages, where few events happen to interrupt the monotony of every day life, the occurrence of an out-of-the-way incident is like seed sown in a fertile soil, produ...

As Shakspeare, after having displayed Falstaff in his ordinary character of rascal and rowdy in general, represented him as a "lover sighing like furnace," so we, in the course...

The greatest improvement in the English mail service, during the eighteenth century, was the introduction of mail coaches. This was brought about by the energy and perseverance...

After giving "outsiders" the share of blame which rightly belongs to them for the delay, miscarrying, and loss of valuable mail matter, a balance remains due to the post masters...

Before the adoption of the present rates of postage, much ingenuity was displayed in making newspapers the vehicles of such information as should legitimately have been conveyed...

High Crimes in low Places--Honest Baggage-masters--Suspicious Circumstances--Watching the Suspected--Shunning the Dust--Honesty Triumphant--An Episode--Unexpected Confession--Th...

Embarrassing duty--An exciting Question--A "Hard Case"--Decease of a Post Master--The Office discontinued--The other side--Call at the White House--The Reference--Agent's Arriva...

Sad Perversion of Talent--Increase of Roguery--Professional Men suffer--Young America _at_ the "Bar"--Papers from Liverpool--The Trick successful--A legal Document--Owning up--A...

A gloomy Picture--Beautiful Village--Litigation in Harrowfork--A model Post Master--The Excitement--Petitioning the Department--Conflicting Statements--The decisive Blow--The ne...

Safety of the Mails--Confidence shaken--About Mail Locks--Importance of Seals--City and Country--Meeting the Suspected--Test of Honesty--Value of a String--A dreary Ride--Harmle...

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 venerab...

Bank Letter lost--The Thief decoyed--Post-Office at Midnight--Climbing the Ladder--An exciting Moment--Queer Place of Deposit--A Post Master in Prison--Afflicted Friends--Sighs...

An infected District--A "fast" Route Agent--Heavy Bank Losses--Amateur Experiments--Dangerous Interference--A Moral Lecture--The Process discovered--An unwelcome Stranger--Midni...

A competent Assistant--Yielding to Temptation--An easy Post Master--Whispers of Complaint--Assistant embarrassed--Application to his Uncle--The Refusal--Value of a kind Word--Re...

Indian Depredations--The model Mail Contractor--Rifles and Revolvers--Importance of a Scalp--Indian Chief reconnoitering--Saving dead Bodies--Death of a Warrior--The Charge--A p...

Infallibility not claimed--"Scape-Goats"--The Man of Business Habits--Home Scrutiny--A Lady in Trouble--A bold Charge--A wronged Husband--Precipitate Retreat--Complaints of a La...

Business Rivalry--Country Gossiping--Museum of Antiquities--New Post Master--Serious Rumors--Anonymous Letters--Package detained--Bar-room Scene--_Ram_ifications of the Law--Fir...

The wrong Address--Odd Names of Post-Offices--The Post-Office a Detector of Crime--Suing the British Government--Pursuit of a Letter Box--An "Extra" Customer--To my Grandmother-...

A dangerous Mail Route--Wheat Bran--A faithful Mail Carrier--Mail Robber shot--A "Dead-head" passenger--An Old Offender--Fatal Associate--Robbery and Murder--Conviction and Exec...