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. These duties have seldom called him to undergo "moving accidents by flood and field," excepting so far as severe weather, dangerous roads, fractious horses, or some other of the inconveniences and perils incident to the different modes of traveling, might be classed under that head.

An incident, however, once occurred while I was engaged in investigating a case of depredation, which may be worthy of record here, as it is not devoid of a certain picturesqueness, even aside from the extremely interesting circumstance (to me) that my head, for a short time, seemed to be in imminent danger.

The case referred to was that of the loss of a letter containing six hundred dollars, posted by the cashier of a Northern bank. The person, (a post-office clerk,) whom I suspected of being the robber, was detected in taking a decoy letter which was placed in his office after the loss of the one first mentioned. On the strength of this, I boldly charged him with the first loss, and insisted that he should restore the money. After the usual assertion of innocence, and some demur, he intimated to me that the spoils were hidden somewhere in the post-office.

This interview was held in the directors' room of the bank which had suffered the loss, and I immediately proposed that we should go over to the office and get the money. Accordingly we proceeded thither. It was then after midnight. As soon as we entered, my companion locked the door behind us, and preceded me, with a lantern in his hand. A remark which I made respecting the lonely appearance of a post-office at that time of night, drew from him nothing but a sullen assent, which put an end to any further conversational efforts on my part.

The room (or rather recess) in which he lodged, was over that part of the office devoted to the public, a space in front of the boxes, and access was had to it by means of a ladder inside the office.

The clerk rapidly ascended this ladder and I followed closely behind, without a word being spoken by either of us. The apartment, besides the ordinary furniture of a lodging-room, contained a few shelves of books, indicating some pursuit more creditable to their owner than those which had rendered my interference with them necessary. I had before been told that he was somewhat diligent in the cultivation of his intellect.

Setting down his lantern upon the table, he reached up and took down a rifle which was suspended to the wall, directly over his bed, a fit emblem for one engaged in rifling the mails.

Although the moodiness which he had displayed during our intercourse that evening, had not surprised me, yet I was by no means prepared to expect that he would resort to such extreme measures as his movements seemed to indicate.

I was uncertain what to do. "The better part of valor" being "discretion," it was by no means clear whether this same discretion required me to rush upon him, or to make a precipitate retreat down the ladder, or to jump and disappear in the darkness below. There was evidently no time to lose, for the deadly weapon was already pointed in my direction, and its desperate owner was fumbling about the stock, as if, in the dim light, he could not easily find the lock.

Springing towards him, I seized the rifle by the barrel, remarking, that I wished he would not turn the muzzle upon me, and then I saw what he was attempting to do. He had crammed the stolen notes into the "patch-box" of the rifle, and was endeavoring to get them out, which he could not readily effect as they were tightly wedged in. I cheerfully volunteered to assist him, and by our united efforts, the debt was discharged instead of the rifle! In other words, I recovered the identical bank-notes, deposited in the office by the cashier several weeks previously, all in one hundred dollar bills.

The evidence furnished by the "patch-box," was of course amply sufficient to convict the depredator, had other proof been wanting, and he was recently sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in the State Prison.

An ingeniously planned and successfully executed escape of a mail robber from prison, occurred in Troy, New York, less than a year ago.

This person had held the office of post master in a place of some note in the Northern part of New York. He was a man of education, and connected by birth and marriage with some of the most respectable and influential families in that part of the State, and in the Province of Canada.

These favorable circumstances, however, did not prevent him from becoming seriously embarrassed in his pecuniary affairs, by which he was led, in an evil hour, to resort to mail depredations, continuing them until this course was cut short by his detection and arrest. As he failed to give the requisite bail, he was thrown into prison to await his trial, which was to take place in the course of a few weeks.

As the efforts which he and his friends had made to secure the intervention of the Post Master General for postponing the trial were unavailing, and the direct and positive proof against him made it certain that he would be doomed to at least ten years' imprisonment at hard labor, the desperate expedient of breaking jail seemed to be the only hook left to hang a hope upon.

He occupied a large room, adjoining that of the notorious murderess Mrs. Robinson, and had for his room-mate a person who had been committed for some minor offence.

He was frequently visited by his relations, whose high respectability exempted them from the close examination which should have been made by the jailor, to ascertain that they carried no contraband articles on their persons. Respectability in this case, as in many others, served as a cloak to devices from which rascality derived more benefit than the cause of justice.

These afflicted friends, in the course of their visits, contrived to supply the prisoner with the tools necessary to enable him to effect his escape from "durance vile." Sighs and saws, regrets and ropes, anguish and augers, were mingled together, supplying both consolation for the past and hope for the future.

The time selected for the escape was a Sabbath night. The first thing discovered by the jailor on the next morning, was a rope suspended from a back-hall window in the second story, and reaching to the ground, the window being open. On ascending the stairs, he found in the partition separating the mail robber's room from the hall, an opening about large enough to admit of the egress of a small person; and on entering the room but one occupant appeared, who was fast asleep; but the mail robber was gone.

It was with the utmost difficulty that the sleeper could be aroused. He was evidently under the influence of some powerful narcotic, as was fully shown by his replies to the interrogatories of the jailor after he had sufficiently recovered from his stupefaction to understand what was said to him.

His story was, that on the previous evening he was complaining of a severe cold, whereupon his sympathizing room-mate remarked that he had some medicine that was just the thing for such complaints, and offered to give him a dose, if he wished to try it. To this the unsuspecting victim of sharp practice assented; and the amateur "M. D." measured out a quantity sufficient for the purpose intended, first pretending to swallow a dose himself, in order to convince his patient that the medicine was perfectly safe.

One of the last things that the patient remembered on the night in question, was that about eleven o'clock he was affected by a very drowsy sensation which he could not overcome, and that he lay down on his bed to sleep. About this time his attending physician came to him and inquired "how he felt;" to which he replied, "very sleepy." His benevolent friend assured him that this was a "favorable sign," and asserted further that he would be "all right by morning." At the same time showing his solicitude for his companion's comfort by taking the pillow from his own bed and placing it under his head.

The cause of these phenomena stood revealed, in the shape of a vial labeled "Laudanum," which was found upon a table in the room. Near it lay a note addressed to the jailor, of which the following is a copy.

Among the "effects," left behind, were sundry saws, files, and chisels of the best workmanship and materials; a large roll of putty, to have been used in concealing the saw-marks, in case a second night's labor had been required; and a valise containing a variety of books, wearing apparel, and letters received from his friend during his confinement. One of them was from his wife, a young, lovely, and accomplished woman. It is full of love, devotion, and Christian resignation, and ends as follows:—

It was a doctrine advanced by Mahomet, that all men after death were obliged to cross a fiery gulf, upon a bridge as narrow as a single hair. The good always succeeded in effecting their passage safely, while the wicked were precipitated into the depths below.

This idea might be extended to the present life, by way of illustrating the difficulties which beset those who follow a criminal course, and attempt to conceal the fact from the eyes of others. A step too far, or not far enough, this way or that, is sufficient to cause them to slip, and this kind of tight-rope balancing is a species of moral gymnastics, in the execution of which few are successful.

A specimen of this was once furnished me by a post master against whom serious complaints had been made to the Department, but who was not aware of the existence of such charges. In the course of several interviews which I held with him, I gave him not the remotest hint that I suspected his integrity, yet (probably on the principle of taking medicine when one is well, or thinks he is, in order to be better) he resorted to several somewhat original expedients to establish a character for honesty in my estimation.

The most striking of these was the following:—

As I entered the vestibule of the office one day, he pretended to pick up a ten dollar note from the floor.

After the usual morning salutation, he said.

"I am in luck, this morning. I just picked up here a ten dollar bill, and I must see if I can't find the owner;" and he forthwith proceeded to write a flaming placard, announcing the finding of "a sum of money" outside the delivery window, and to post it in a conspicuous place.

His singular manner, however, while speaking of the money, and while engaged in drawing up the notice, attracted my attention, and I became strongly impressed with the belief that the whole affair was one of those silly devices which are as effectual in preventing the detection of those who employ them, as is the device of the ostrich, in hiding his head under his wing, to conceal him from his pursuer.

It occurred to me, after a little reflection, that I had seen a well-known merchant in the place hand the post master a ten dollar note the day previous, in payment for postage stamps. This fact was confirmed by inquiries which I made of the merchant, who further informed me that he could recognise the bill if he should see it again, from the initials which it bore of a correspondent, who had sent it to him by mail a few days before. Having ascertained what these initials were, ("C. P.,") I took occasion to examine the note, (which the post master had rather ostentatiously laid aside in a drawer, to be ready for the owner whenever he should claim it,) and found the "C. P." upon it.

After the notice of the finding had been posted some twenty-four hours without the appearance of any claimant, I suggested to the honest finder, by way of annoying him a little in return for his attempted deception, that as the money was found within the post-office limits, the Department would probably require that it should pass into the United States Treasury, in the same way as funds contained in dead letters for which no owners can be found.

This view of the case did not seem to strike him favorably. He looked blank, but attempted to pass it off as a joke, by saying that he didn't know that the post-office was a dead letter.

The next morning the placard had disappeared, and the post master informed me that a stranger had called late on the evening before, who claimed and described the bill, and to whom it was accordingly surrendered!

The termination of this case fully confirmed my opinion of the post master's double-dealing in relation to this affair.

It sometimes happens that the ends of justice are best secured by allowing criminals to go on for a time unmolested in their course, and even by affording them facilities for the commission of offences, which will be to them as snares and pitfalls. When means like these are adopted for the detection of crime, a temporary check to the operations of the suspected persons, from whatever cause arising, creates some additional trouble and anxiety to those who are endeavoring to ferret out the evil-doer, and provokes a degree of exasperation toward his unconscious abettor.

Such an untimely interference with plans carefully laid, and carried out at a considerable expense of time and effort, once occurred while the author was attempting to bring to light an unscrupulous depredator, in whose detection the public was much interested, as many had suffered by the loss of money sent through his office.

I had been hard at work for a week in pursuing this investigation, having for the third time passed decoy letters over the road on which the suspected office was situated, (the road being one of the roughest kind, about forty miles in length, and very muddy,) and was flattering myself that that day's work would enable me to bring my labors to a conclusion satisfactory to the public and myself, if not to the delinquent; when my hopes were, for the time, dashed to the ground by the innocent hand of the village parson.

And it happened in this wise:—

The mail carrier was instructed to throw off his mail, as usual, at the suspected office, and to remain outside, in order to afford the post master a good opportunity for the repetition of the offence which he was supposed to have committed, the Agent being all the time a mile or two in advance, in another vehicle, impatiently waiting to learn the fate of his manoeuvres.

As the part of the road where I was stationed, was in the midst of woods, and the carrier had no passengers, no particular caution was needed in conducting the conversation, and before my associate had reached me, he called out.

"I guess you'll have to try it again; the Dominie was there and helped to overhaul the mail to-day."

The sportsman, who, having just got a fair sight at the bird which he has been watching for hours, beholds it, startled by some blunderer, flying off to "parts unknown;" the angler, who, by unwearied painstaking, having almost inveigled a "monarch of the pool" into swallowing his hook—sees a stone hurled by some careless hand, descending with a splash, and putting an end to his fishy flirtation;—these can imagine my feelings when the mail carrier made the above announcement.

"Confound the Dominie," involuntarily exclaimed I, "why couldn't he mind his own business?"

I examined the mail bag, but nothing was missing except the matter that properly belonged to that office.

But at the next trial, the parishioner did not have ministerial aid in opening his mail, and accordingly, probably by way of indemnifying himself for his forced abstinence, he not only seized the decoy package, but several others.

The following day, instead of overhauling the mail, he was himself thoroughly overhauled by an United States Marshal.

A man of such weak virtue, should hire a "dominie" by the year, to stand by and help him resist the devil, during the process of opening the mails.

Not the least painful of the various duties connected with the detection of crime, is the sometimes necessary one of revealing a husband's guilt to his wife.

I anticipated a severe trial of my feelings in making such a disclosure during the progress of a recent important case where the mail robber was in possession of a mail-key by means of which he had committed extensive depredations. He was at length detected, and has lately entered upon a ten years' term in the State Prison.

On his arrest he manifested much solicitude for his wife, fearing that the intelligence of his situation would overpower her. "She is in feeble health at best," said he, "and I am afraid this will kill her."

It was necessary, however, that I should see her in order to get possession of some funds, a part of the proceeds of the robberies, which her husband had committed to her keeping. Furnished with a written order from the prisoner, and leaving him in the Marshal's custody, I proceeded to call on the invalid, racking my brains while on the way to her residence, for some mode of communicating the unpleasant truth which should disclose it gradually, and spare her feelings as much as possible.

On my arrival at the boarding-house, the note was sent to the lady's room. It read as follows:—

The lady soon made her appearance. She was young, rather prepossessing, and evidently in delicate health. Finding that I was the bearer of the note, she addressed me, expressing great surprise that her husband had sent a request so unusual; and with an air of independence observed that she did not "know about paying over money under such circumstances to an entire stranger."

Desiring not to mortify her unnecessarily by making explanations in the presence of others, I requested her to step into a vacant room near at hand, and after closing the door, I said in a low tone.

"It is an extremely painful thing for me, Mrs. M——, but as you do not seem inclined to comply with your husband's order, I must tell you plainly that the money was taken from the mails by him. There is no mistake about it. He has had a mail-key which I have just recovered, and has made a full acknowledgment of his numerous depredations. I beg of you to bear this dreadful news with fortitude. No one will think less of you on account of his dishonest conduct."

I expected to see the poor woman faint immediately, and had mentally prepared myself for every emergency, but, a moment after, I should have been more likely to have fallen into that condition, if astonishment could ever produce such an effect, for as soon as I had finished what I was saying, she stood, if possible, more erect than before, and with some fire in her eye, and one arm 'akimbo,' she replied in a spirited manner.

"Well, if he has done that, he's a dam'd fool to own it—I wouldn't!"

She gave up the money, however, soon after, and although the recklessness displayed in the speech above quoted seemed to make it probable that she was implicated in her husband's guilt, it afterwards appeared that this exhibition of "spunk" was due to the impulses of a high-spirited and excitable nature, which sometimes, as in the present instance, broke away from control, and went beyond the bounds of decorum. Such an ebullition of passion indicated, in her case, a less degree of moral laxity than it would have shown in one differently constituted.

In a subsequent examination of their apartment in search of other funds and missing drafts, a touching incident occurred, strikingly displaying, when taken in connection with the outbreak just mentioned, the lights as well as shades of an impulsive character.

During this examination, it became necessary to investigate the contents of a well-filled trunk, and this was done by the lady herself, under my supervision. After several layers of wearing apparel had been taken out, she suddenly paused in her work, and wiped away a falling tear, as she gazed into the trunk. Thinking that some important evidence of her husband's crimes was lurking beneath the garments remaining, and that her hesitation was owing to reluctance on her part to be instrumental in convicting him, I reached forward and was about to continue the examination myself, when she interposed her arm and said sobbingly.

"Those are the little clothes of our poor baby,—they haven't been disturbed since his death, and I can't bear to move them."

A second glance into the trunk confirmed her sad story, for there were the little shoes, scarcely soiled, the delicately embroidered skirts and waists,—all the apparel so familiar to a mother's eye, which, in its grieving remembrance of the departed child,

"Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form."

A similar affliction had taught me to appreciate the sacredness of such relics, and I waited in sympathizing silence, until she could command her feelings sufficiently to continue the search.

She soon resumed it, and the contents of the trunk were thoroughly examined, yet none of the lost valuables were found therein.