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
As I stood over him, attempting to revive him by the use of such means
as were at hand, I thought how great must have been the shock which
had so overpowered his faculties. His strength of body, and pride of
soul, were, for the time, laid low. What a pity that he had not
possessed the right kind of pride; not merely the ambition to rise
above the machinations of his enemies, and put them under his feet,
but the pride that despises a mean action, and dreads a crime more
than its consequences. Such a feeling would have been a safeguard; but
I was sorry to observe that, while he was confessing his guilt, the
thought of his enemies' triumph over him was uppermost in his mind.
He had now somewhat revived, and wishing to calm his exasperated
feelings, (which I supposed were in some measure the cause of his
present condition,) by turning his thoughts to another channel, I
inquired of the Marshal, in a rather low tone, whether he had any
family.
"He has a wife, I believe," was the reply, and in a moment B. was
saying to himself, his eyes still shut,
"Jane, Jane, what will _you_ think? Don't despise me, if you can help
it."
He went on for some little time in this strain, displaying a high
regard for his wife's affection and good opinion, and an apprehension
that he might have forfeited them by his misconduct; an apprehension
utterly groundless--so far, at least, as regarded affection, for the
undying flame of love in a true woman's heart cannot so be quenched.
Mrs. B., as I afterwards learned, was a most estimable woman, whose
influence had doubtless been of great benefit to her husband. Alas!
that the power of his good angel could not have triumphed over the
temptation to which he yielded!
When he had recovered sufficiently to walk about, the Marshal took him
in charge, and conveyed him to a neighboring town, where the United
States District Judge resided, for examination. His friends, who were
highly respectable, were informed by telegraph of his arrest, and gave
the required bail for his appearance at trial.
Thus we have traced out an important part of the career of one whose
character was laid low, not by his enemies, but by his own hand. And
whenever I pass through the pleasant town which was the scene of these
transactions, a shade of melancholy comes over me, entirely at
variance with the general cheerful appearance both of the place and
the surrounding landscape.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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