Ten Years Among the Mail Bags: Or, Notes from the Diary of a Special Agent of the Post-Office DepartmentHolbrook, James
History
Ten Years Among the Mail Bags: Or, Notes from the Diary of a Special Agent of the Post-Office Department
Holbrook, James
Postal service -- United States
The ingenious device of sending ladies to the suspected domicil
under color of a friendly visit, but provided with a touchstone in
the shape of "a peic of cheese," wherewith to detect the other
piece supposed to have been purloined by some one of the thievish
family, was worthy of a Vidocq; and the triumphant issue of the
case, when their worthy Committee of Investigation "sliped a peic
of cheese in their laps" and settled its identity with the
"inglich cheese" which the victimized "shirtleff" had purchased,
showed the power of genius, attaining great ends by the use of
simple means.
This epistle developes a new ramification of the postal system. A
post master entreated to act as a conservator of public morals; to
exert all his powerful influence against "clarinda," who proved
treacherous to "mr sam shirtleff" in the matter of pork and
cheese; and abstracted from "mr alford blax and his brother the
old batchlor, the seventeen pare of socks" that their mother had
"nit" to comfort their nether extremities when she, by reason of
the infirmities of age, "coldent nit;" and filched "sope and
buter" out of "bengman grenes sular;" to say nothing of the "pare
of stockin" which were secreted in her "sunday bonet," and "to
shilling," the loss of which occasioned her discharge from the
service of "truman buts."
Upon this unfortunate post master was thrown the charge of seeing
that the city received no detriment from the demoralizing
influence of Clarinda!
This gentleman, not willing to be outdone by his correspondent in
his devotion to the public good, indited the following reply:--
B---- Post-Office, Dec. 13, 1854.
Mr. Silas Stickney,
Dear Sir:
I am in receipt of yours of the 19th ult., and in reply would say
that I cannot too highly commend your solicitude in behalf of good
morals, and your discretion in selecting the post master of this
place to carry out your benevolent designs toward its inhabitants.
The corrupting influence of small villages upon large towns is a
thing much to be lamented, and it grieves me to think that the
unsophisticated inhabitants of this place are to be exposed to the
machinations of the "widow stacy and her to girls." It will be,
sir, like the Evil One entering the garden of Eden, where all was
innocence and purity!
If in the course of my official duties, I find it feasible to ward
off impending danger from this immaculate town, be assured that I
shall not fail to do so.
Yours, &c.,
W. D----, P. M.
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