The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, September 26, 1888, Page 6

I ti | eer ree —— STORY OF A DECOY LETTER. And the Handsome Girl Who Had it | Concealed in Her Stocking. C. B. Barrett, formerly long experience in this kind of work has taught him just how to dig a pit for his game, and as the train neared the village he walked through the smoker into the mail car, asked for the mail clerk, showed him his commission and said he had some- thing which he wanted doue. “What is it?” asked the clerk, nervously, eyeing the chief inspec- tor. “Where is the mail pouch you throw off at the next stop?” it was produced. “Open it.” It was opened for an inspector has absolute authority, not only over mail clerks, but over the postmasters of the larger cities. “Here is a letter,” said Mr. Bar- rett, “addressed to James Lancaster, a fictitious name. The letter tains a $10 bill. I want you to examine it, take the address, put it in that pouch and lock it with your own hands ~ All this was done, and Mr. Barrett went back to his seat in one of the day coaches, confident that the next move in the game would answer his expectations. The secret service agent stood upon the platform of the mail car when the train stopped and the pouch was thrown off, when he at once stepped to the platform. A boy, whose business it was to carry the mail, took the pouch over his shoul- der and started up the village street, never dreaming that achief inspector of the postal service was following him on the other side of the street and was watching him like a hawk, con- while seeming to watch nothing. It was a beautiful June day, the birds were singing, and although it was high noon, the leafy, lofty trees lining the quiet street cast such deep, cool shadows that Mr. Barrett did not find walking unpleasant. For about a quarter of a mile the boy kept on, followed by the inspector, and then turned into a small frame building, with a white and black sign over the door labeled “Post- office.” “Now,” said Mr. Barret, inwardly, “my letter has reached its desti- nation.” There was a crowd of visitors inside of the little post-office and outside who swarmed toward the desk “to get their mail,” and Mr. Barrett waited some fifteen minutes until they had all gone before he|. entered the place, and saw a hand- some girl, about seventeen years old, dressed in an old-fashioned bodice and light colored skirt, sitting behind awire grating in a rocking chair sewing. “Is there a letter here for James Lancaster?” said the inspector, and every one who knows his face and figure will not wonder that the girl took him for a well-to-do country- man. “No,” she said, after sorting some letters in a case marked “L.” “Won't you look again?” And she did look, but with no better result. “Tam sure the letter must have come,” said Mr. Barrett, and I, who know him well, can imagine how gently he said it. “It’s not here.” “Are you the postmaster?” “No. I am the assistant. father is the postmaster.” “Who opened the pouch that came by the last train?” “T did.” “No one to help you?” “No, sir.” The girl's bright eyes looked as innocertly at Mr. Barrett as anv girl's bright eyes ever looked at anv man. x My heard of such thin “Won't you look?” She took the pouch, upside down. shook it and looked he said. inside. No letter. “Won't you let me come in end chief in- spector of the United States secret service, had a queer experience some time ago in a beautiful little town way downin Maryland. Mr. Barrett's | (help you look for it?” | rett. “No. No one is allowed in here.” The chief inspector drew from his | pocket the commission from the | United States gov | official signatures and seals, and showed it to the girl, asking as she | read it, “Can I come in now?” “Yes,” blushing; “I beg your par- don.” “You did perfectly right, my child,” said the venerable agent of the se- cret service. There was a board petition six feet high beyond the wired window and a gate in the end of this par- tition, towards which the postmaster’s daughter went, but Mr. Barrett thought she moved very slowly. At last she turned the key in the lock, opened the solid gate and admitted the inspector. He walked forwarda few feet and looked around. There was nothing in sight but bare deal shelves and the letter boxes, and he knew his mission was | not there. “I mailed a letter myself to James Lancaster,” he said at last. “That is a fictitious name, ‘Lancaster’ be- ing my mother’s maiden name. That letter was put in the pouch by the mail clerk on the train, who took a memorandum of it and locked the pouch in my presence. When that pouch was put off at the station I followed it and kept it in sight until it was taken into the post-office. Now you say you opened it alone, that no one else touched it. Where is my letter?” “T never saw it, sir. If you doubt me, you can search me.” Mr. Barrett said that he would not do that, and that he had never done such a thing to a woman, and he began to pace the floor in deep thought. The girl, more beautiful than in her excitement, sat down in the rocking chair, crossed her limbs and began to rock. said Mr. Bar- ever “Call your mother, and she can search you in my presence,” said he at length. “My mother is dead.” Again the secret service agent paced the floor. He looked into an adjoining room, brightly and neatly furnished, and wondered whether the girl could have secreted the letter there while she pretended to be going to the gate to let him in. As he paced back and forth he noticed the swinging feet of the postmaster’s daughter, that one of her stockings had sagged down, and that under that stocking was the shape of an envelope. “Your stocking has ‘dropped,” he sai The girl turned scarlet and white and stopped rocking. She caught her breath as if to faint.2 “Now, give me my letter,” said the inspector. She took it from its hiding place, handed it to him and burst into a flood of passionate tears. The decoy letter, as usual in cases of this sort, had been fixed so that it would be apparent to anyone that money was inclosed. It had done its work. “Where is your father,” asked Mr. Barrett. “In the garden,” sobbed the girl? Mr. Barrett went into the garden, found the old man hoeing and brought him in, and when he was told all he bowed his white head and sobbed with his child. The inspector learned that the girl had admirers, as was natural; that her father was very miserly, not giying her money needed for a bright bit of ribbon, 3 new hat or a new dress; that she had been tempted to take money from the mails for bits of finery, and had done so. Mr. Barrett bitterly ac- ; cused the old man of being the one to blame. and he acknowledged it. ; “I suppose you will arrest her?” | said the girl's father. | On account of your miserliness?” | “Yes; here it is.” and it was hand- | °° ed over. “Will you arrest her?” “Maybe it stuck in the pouch. Teal “If I did. what would be her | 2 future? No. she it will never be known in Unless you or the old should ne ernment, with its ! “Will you make restitution of the j ; Sum (it was about $10) she has taken | | to handle the mails again, and when | he submitted his full report to the | head of the department at Washing- | ton his course was fully approved. ese Frightfully Gored. Wichita, Kan., Sept. 17.-—Robert Somerville, a leading cattleman living in the southwestern part of the county, about twenty miles from here, was salting his cattle last even- ing, when he was attacked by a mad bull and knocked down before he saw him, and before he could get up the animal was trying to stamp him with his fore feet. In a moment Somerville drew revolver and began to shoot at the animal. The third bullet brought him to the ground. Somerville was unable to get up. His son, who was about half a mile away, saw the fight but before he could reach the the other cattle. which had been excited by the shooting and smell of blood, gathered about the prostrate man and killed him. The cattle then went to fighting each other, and as there was over two hundred in the herd, several were seriously injured. The body of Somerville was frightfully mangled, having been gored in many places. his scene It was some time before the son was able to rescue it. gia cured in by Detchon’s suffer and waste Thts abso WU]. LaANs- S-om. + monev on o lutely never powN, Drug gist General Gresham Tells a Story. *Oue day,” said the general, in a recer.t interview with Eli Perkins, “Tinet an old soldier who had been wountedin his face, and when I aske 1 in what battle he had been injured he said: “I got it the first day at Shiloh, sir."] “But how could you get hit in the face xt Shiloh?” I asked. “Well, sir,” said he, half apologet- ically, “after I had run a mile or two I got careless and looked back.” This story reminds me of how one of E!!sworth’s fire Zouayes killed his first confederate. He said that he marched out to the battle of Bull Run and when about half way there he met a Johnny Reb in ambush. “What did you do then?” I asked. “Well, sir.” he answered, “I drew out my revolver and he drew out his bowie knife. Then I took the lead from the start and kept it clear into Washington City, and—” “But how did you kill the man?” “Run him to death,” was the re- ply. : EnglishSpavin Liniment removes ail hard, sof} or calloused lumps and blem- ishes from horses, vlood spavin, curb, splints, sweeney, stifles, sprains, rore and swollen throat, coughs, etc. Save fifty dollars by use of one bottle. Warranted. Sold by W. J. Lansdown, Druggist, But- er, Mo. Ui-rt yrZ The views of a workingman are al- ways of interest to workingmen, since they must have at least the common bond of labor to put them in sympathy with each other. John H. Colgan, who was for eight years master machinist employed in Indi- ana, has been making speeches for the democratic national committee to tne workingmen of that state. Mr. Colgan has become a lawyer since he stood shoulder to shoulder with the Hoosier mechinist, and has built up a practice at Buffalo. But he soon found himself in sympathy with his former friends at Elkhart, Indianapolis and other points, where he oddresses laborers’ meetings. His experience at the former place, where £409 men who voted for Blaine in 1884 are said to have sign- ed the rolls of a Cleveland and Thurman club, is borne out by the action of more than eleven hundred workingmen at the Hoosier capital who, Mr. Colgan says, also arrayed themselves formally on the side of revenue reform. A Safe Investment, ranteed to bring , oF in case of fail- se price. On this n our advertised ing’s New Dis- arantee2 | were nearly "| blankets The President and The Campaign. New York, Sept. 17.—Hon. C. F. Black, president of the national as- sociation of democrat clubs, has re- ceived the following letter from president Cleveland: Hon. Chauncey F. Black, President, ete.: My Dear Srzr: The papers which you kindly sent for my perusal touch- ing the seope. method and purposes of the asspciation of democratic clubs, have strengthened my belief in the extreme importance of 4 organizations as have been thus as- sociated. The struggle upon which we have entered in behalf of the peo- ple—the plain people of the land— and they must be reached. We do not proceed upon the theory that they are to be led by others who may or may not be insympathy with their interests. We have nndertak- en to teach the voters as free inde- pendent citizens intelligent enough to insist upon being treated justly, their Thus, this cam- and patriotic enough to desix country's wel paign is one of information and or- ganization. Every citizen should be regarded as a thoughtful. respon- sible voter, and heshould be furnish- ed the means of examining the is- sues involved in the pending canvass for himself. Iam convinced that no agency is so effectual to this end as the clubs which have been formed in all parts of the country, and mak- ing their influence felt in every neighborhood. By a systematic ef- fort they make the objects of the democratic position in this contest and among those with whom their members daily come in contact; and by preventing o neglect of the duty of suffrage on election day, these clubs will become. in my opinion, the most important instrumentality yet devised for promoting the suc- cess of the party. Yours truly. Grover CLEVELAND. A DENIAL. Philadelphia, Sept. 17.— President Cleveland has written a letter in re- ply to one received from George Whitley, of this city, making inquiry inte certain statements that are said to have appeared in an article in the North American Review. The letter, which explains itself, is as follows: George Whitley: Dear Sir: Your letter of the 8th inst. has been presented to my at- tention, and it affords me the first intimation I have had that in an ar- ticle published in the North Ameri- can Review Iam charged with the declaration that: “I believe in free trade as I belieye in the protestant religion.” In answer to your inqui- ry as to the truth of this allegation, I have to say that I never made use of that expression or any like it. The statement is a fabrication. While it would be in vain to meet or refute false statements made to serve the purpose of misrepresenta- tion in the heat of the political can- vass, the friendly spirit of your in- quiry has led me to make this deni- ab. Yours truly, Grover CLEVELAND. “Doubting Thomases.” remarked aneminent divine “must exist in a ratio to the too credulous.” The habit of caution is not, a gen- eral thing, but is the result of a nat- urally generous and confiding nature repeatedly victimized by the cunning and crafty. So the many dissapoint- ments, and often injurious effects, arising from the use of various vaunted remedies, have induced an undue cautiousness, and. in many cases, entire abandonment of any. We call theattention to the remedies of Dr. R. V. Pierce of Buffalo, which physicians are employing in their dractice with the most beneficial re- sults. His “Golden Medical Dis- covery,” for diseases of the lungs and kidney’s, heart affections, fever and ague, dropsy and all diseases of the blood, has never failed when put to the test. A Daring Deputy Sheriff. Cheyenne. Wy. T., Sept 20.— Jack Rodgers, deputy sheriff of | Crook county, captured five horse | thieves and a band of stolen animals | near Sun Dance Monday. | The horses were driven from | Texas, Kansas and Nebraska to this | | territory and offered for sale. There} Dal | The thier whe a Winches They jail. ed them to med but ¢ Is prepared solely for the cate oF complaints which afflict all womankind. It ves tone and strength to the uterine organs, and corrects dangerous lacements and irregulart- bes, Itisofxreat value in chang? oftife. Theuseof MEBRELL’S FEMALE TONIC duringprez- Dancy greatly relieves the pains of motherhood and Promotes speedy recovery. It assists nature to Esfely make the eritieal change from girlhood to Womanhood. It ispleasant to the taste and may be taken at all times with perfect safe é FOR SALEBY ALL DRt v-S.MERRELL DRUGCU..Sole. ena fre = Pestage fviomes suziy BRAntiglo | Return (0, Price, @1. aucrug¢isis. = MW’ FARLAND BROS. Keep the Largest Stock, Atthe Lowest Prices in, Harness and Saddlery, EET va 2 Spooner Patent Collar! —PREVENTS CAN NOT CHOKE AHORSE Adjusts itself to any Horse’s Neck, has two rows ot stitching, will hold Hames ‘in place better thanany other collar. SCHWANER’S ~ CHAFING Prevents braking at end of clip, and loops from tearing out. USED ON ALL OF OUR HARNESS. SOUTH SIDE SQUARE BUTLER MO. WHY NOT BUY YOUR ‘Dry Good BOOTS AND SHOES NTS FURNISHING GOODS. Where you can get them asrepresented. A large stock to select from. Good quality, low prices, a call will convince you of the fact. RESPECTFULLY. J, M. McKIBBEN,