Sierra County Advocate

A NOVEL WAY OF DETECTING CRIME.

"Yes," said Postoffice Inspector Small to an Evening Post reporter, "the work done in detecting crime in this branch of the government service is somewhat different from the running down of what you might call every day crime. We have had some very peculiar cases here, but the most remarkable one I ever heard of occurred in South Dakota a couple of years ago. In that part of the country at that time there was a stage mail route - one of the most important in the Northwest. There came a time when it seemed almost impossible to have registered letters come through safely over it. Every three months or so depredations were reported, and the department was greatly annoyed. It seemed impossible to locate the scene of the robberies. There were a dozen or fifteen postoffices on the route. Inspectors were sent over the line time and time again, and yet the depredations continued. One night Colonel Stuart, chief inspector for that district, worrying over this thing, had what he called an inspiration. He concluded to go over the line himself, openly and above board. He visited the various postoffices, telling the postmasters that he was running over the line for his health on a vacation and stopped at each place to make a friendly call. He asked how they were getting on and, of course, made no official demonstration, but at most of the offices he asked permission to write a letter home, which gave him access to the postmaster's ink bottles, mucilage pots and all that. He made the entire trip, came home and was then prepared for the next development. He did not have long to wait.

"In about three weeks came a report that a registered letter containing a large sum of money, on the old route, had been opened and its contents stolen, the original package going to its destination. The Colonel said nothing, but quietly sent to the office at which the empty package had been received and asked that the package be sent to him. When he got it he carefully steamed it open, touched his tongue to the mucilage and said: 'Quinine, by G-d!' And then he went over a little list he had, and in an instant he had located the scene of the depredation.

"The secret of this is very simple. Before starting out over the route on his journey for health he had consulted a friendly druggist, and by his aid had prepared to dope every mucilage bottle on the mail route. Into every postmaster's mucilage bottle he put some strong and distinctive drug which could be readily detected by the sense of smell or taste. He kept a record of his various doses, and when he found quinine on the depreciated money package he knew instantly what postoffice it came from. Then he surrounded that postoffice with inspectors. The inspectors followed a registered mail pouch, and when they got to the last postoffice before it reached the quinine office they opened the pouch, took out all the packages and stuffed it full of dummies. Then the inspectors on watch at the next office further on were instructed to open the pouch when it came to them. They found three or four of the dummies gone. They proceeded immediately to arrest the man, and found the plunder property on his person.

This is a fair illustration of how the detective system of the postoffice department works under capable and shrewd management.