James Holbrook

“ It appears to us a strange dispensation of Providence, that such a perfect nest of loveliness should be invaded by inharmonious cat birds, and mischief-making wrens. But dissensions did creep in through the post-office. Up to a certain time, such universal peace prevailed among the inhabitants, that its two lawyers would have been beggared, had they not wisely resorted to farming, as a more reliable occupation than the occasional and precarious one of conducting some tame and straight-forward case, for a petty fee. ”

“ What degree of integrity should be reasonably required, let me ask, of a person in the service of the public, occupying a responsible position like that of a post master? upon whose fidelity depend the prompt and safe transaction of business, and the security of many other interests of social life. Will a valetudinarian virtue answer the purpose? a virtue strong against weak temptations, but weak against strong ones? The man whose principles cannot withstand every degree of enticement to dishonesty, is unfit for any place of trust. ”

“ How society in the nineteenth century could exist without mail routes and the regular delivery of letters, it is impossible to conceive.
Imagine a town without a post office! a community without letters! "friends, Romans, countrymen, and lovers," particularly the lovers, cut off from correspondence, bereft of newspapers, buried alive from the light of intelligence, and the busy stir of the great world! ”

“ But the crowning shame of Stark's delinquency consisted in the fact that he was constable and tax-collector of the town of Hubbardston. History is not without instances of monarchs and others high in authority, who have descended to the indulgence of freaks inconsistent with the dignity of their station; and Shakspeare has immortalized the frolics of Prince Henry. But neither historian nor poet has hitherto been able to record of a constable and tax-gatherer that he amused himself with maliciously driving a smooth-shod horse, so as to obstruct the progress of the United States Mail. ”

“ A Windfall for Gossipers—Suit for Slander—Profit and Loss—The Resuscitated Letter—Condemned Mail Bag—An Epistolary Rip Van Winkle.
In country villages, where few events happen to interrupt the monotony of every day life, the occurrence of an out-of-the-way incident is like seed sown in a fertile soil, producing a fruitful crop of speculations and surmises, and affording food for conversation for many a day to the eager gossip-hunters who abound in such small places. ”

“ It cannot be denied that a considerable degree of talent is requisite to insure success, even in a course of knavery; and by success I mean nothing more than that longer or shorter career, which ends, if not always in detection, certainly in disappointment and misery. Success, then, in this connection, signifies putting off the evil day—a day which is as sure to come as any other day. Time is an enemy which no rogue can ever outrun. ”

“ I cannot here refrain from saying a few words respecting the heinousness of such villanous conduct on the part of post masters or their employés. Leaving out of sight the fact that they are sworn to do nothing contrary to the laws, in their official capacity, and that if they incur the guilt of a breach of trust, they also become guilty of perjury, it should be considered that the well-being of community in all its relations, domestic, social, commercial, and literary, depends on the fidelity with which they discharge the duties of their office. ”

“ The arrest and punishment of another inspires him with salutary fear of similar results in his own case, should he venture upon a like course.
And the effect of such occurrences upon those who have never turned aside from the path of rectitude, is no less decided.
These are the times that "try men's souls." It is a hard thing for one to bear up for weeks and months under a load of suspicion, though conscious of innocence; but this is a still harder task, if he has nothing between the eyes of the public and his inward rottenness but the thin shell of a decent and false reputation. ”

“ For although many hearts are made glad by these silent messengers, yet in every day's mail there is enough of sadness and misery, lying torpid like serpents, until warmed into venomous life by a glance of the eye, to cast a gloom over the spirits of any one who should know it all ”

“ Joy and sorrow as yet have no voice; vice and crime are yet concealed, running, like subterranean streams, from the mind which originated, to the mind which is to receive their influence. The mail bag is as great a leveller as the grave, and it is only by the superscription in either case, that one occupant can be distinguished from the other. ”

“ The numerous instances which are every day occurring, illustrative of this principle, leave us no room to doubt its truth. "Murder will out," and so will all other crimes. Let the guilty one envelope himself in a seemingly impenetrable cloud of secrecy; let him construct, ever so cunningly, the line of his defences, sparing no pains to fortify every exposed point, and to guard against every surprise; yet some ray of light, darting, like the electric flash, he knows not whence, will pierce the darkness which surrounded him ”

“ There is, perhaps, no situation in which a lack of promptness and accuracy in the transaction of business may be productive of so great evil, as in that of a post-office employé. Those engaged in ordinary branches of business have some idea of the relative consequence of the matters about which they are occupied from day to day. They can generally know what is the actual importance of any given transaction, so that, if they are disposed to be negligent, they may, if they choose, avoid incurring the guilt and blame which would follow unfaithfulness in great things. ”

“ For myself, I must acknowledge that the prospect of reestablishing lost confidence among my fellow-employés in the post-office, and of putting an end to the suspicion which had haunted almost every one, as well as restoring the stolen property to its rightful owner, produced in me an exhilaration of spirits strangely at variance with all that met my eye. ”

“ Tardy and indolent correspondents, who can save a few steps by taking their letters to a mail car or steamboat, instead of to the proper place of deposit, a post-office, find the hard-worked Route Agent an invention admirably calculated to facilitate the indulgence of their lazy habits, and do not scruple to avail themselves of the opportunity to the utmost extent. ”

“ The laws of the land are intended not only to preserve the person and material property of every citizen sacred from intrusion, but to secure the privacy of his thoughts, so far as he sees fit to withhold them from others. Silence is as great a privilege as speech, and it is as important that every one should be able to maintain it whenever he pleases, as that he should be at liberty to utter his thoughts without restraint. Now the post-office undertakes to maintain this principle with regard to written communications as they are conveyed from one person to another through the mails. ”

“ I am gratified that the Department has at last authorized some one who is impartial, to look into its matters here, and if I can have a day with you, I will convince you by the testimony of the best men of all parties, that the stories detrimental to me are the invention of enemies, who seem determined to put me down if possible. But they haven't succeeded yet, and what's more, they can't succeed. Things have come to a pretty pass when a man can't carry on a more flourishing business than his neighbors, without being set upon and slandered out of his life. ”

“ I cannot, indeed, claim for this corps of officials entire immaculacy. Could I justly do so, they would be vastly superior in this respect to mankind at large. But without setting up any such high pretensions, I would suggest that those connected with the post-office receive a greater share of blame for failures in the transmission of letters than justly belongs to them. Many people seem to think that nobody can commit a blunder, or be guilty of dishonesty in matters connected with the mails, but post masters or their employés. ”

“ The package, tied up with this tell-tale string, was then thrown into the bag, and we soon set out on our return in the mail conveyance. The road lay for the most part through thick swampy woods, upon whose grim silence the cheerful [Pg 142] sound of our sleigh-bells made but little impression. Nor did we possess any other means for dispelling the gloom around us than the red glow of a couple of cigars, with which we resisted the encroachments of Jack Frost, so far as our noses were concerned. These (the cigars, not the noses) must have appeared like feeble imitations of a pair of coach lamps. ”

“ Whoever takes this responsible station with the expectation that a faithful discharge of his duty will protect him from all suspicion and blame, cherishes a pleasing dream that may at any moment be dispelled by the stupidity, or carelessness, or rascality of any one among the many-headed public, whose servant he is. ”

“ How could he ever face again his children, already deprived of one parent by death, and about to lose another by that which is worse than death? Ah! if crime presented the same aspect before its perpetration that it does afterward, how vast would be the diminution of human guilt! ”

“ It is comparatively an easy matter to follow up a mail robber when once upon his track, (though there is often nicety even in this,) but to collect the scattered rays of suspicion and conjecture, and to bring them together into one focus, throwing its revealing glare upon the criminal, requires a higher order of intellect than any after operations. ”

“ The duties of a Special Agent are often made more difficult by the thoughtlessness or curiosity of those whom he meets in the course of his official business. The maintenance of secrecy is absolutely necessary to much success in his plans. It is perfectly obvious that the measures taken to detect a rogue should be concealed from him, and it is generally no less important that he should not know that any one is on his track. The public at large, however, seem to think themselves at liberty to inquire of an Agent all about his plans ”

“ In some instances, where the emoluments of the office itself would not exceed the sum of fifty dollars annually, and where its entire abolishment would not prove any serious inconvenience, a whole neighborhood has been thrown into the most intense excitement, and feuds and animosities have been engendered which the parties concerned will perhaps carry with them to the grave.
But, like numerous other phases of post-office life, they furnish many admirable and instructive illustrations of human nature as it is. ”

“ There are some persons in the world of firm principles and unbending rectitude, who need not the aid of outward circumstances for the maintenance of an upright character. But perhaps the majority of mankind require some external helps in the way of restraints, from public opinion, and even the threatenings of the law. On such the fear of detection frequently acts in a most salutary manner, deterring from the commission of crime, and sometimes leading to a higher motive for right conduct than apprehension of punishment. ”

“ It has been said that whoever acts upon the principle that "honesty is the best policy," is himself dishonest. That is, policy should not be the motive to honesty, which is true; but taking into view how many there are who would not be influenced by higher considerations, it is evident that whatever serves to impress on the mind the [Pg vi] inevitable connection between crime and misery, if not between honesty and happiness, will aid in strengthening the barriers against dishonesty, too often, alas! insufficient to withstand the pressure of temptation. ”

“ A long course of upright conduct may and ought to obliterate the memory of former crime, but the commission of such crimes ordinarily raises additional barriers in the way of a virtuous life; and too often it were as hopeful a task to collect the fragments of a diamond which has just been dashed upon the pavement, and attempt to reconstruct it in its original beauty, as to gather up the remains of a ruined character, and endeavor to restore it to its former lustre. ”

“ All the route agents, post masters, post-office clerks, and mail messengers, whose spheres of duty lay within the infected district; all these officials felt the severity of the test of character, which existing circumstances applied. Such a state of things as that which we are describing, often serves as a thunder-shower, to clear the moral atmosphere. Half-formed purposes of roguery are, for the present at least, laid by; those already guilty of peculation on a small scale cease from their operations; all wait in breathless suspense for the denouement of the drama ”

“ For there is much of wit, humor, and jollity running through these secret channels, that never is diffused through the medium of the press, but flows among the privacies of domestic circles, adding life to their intercourse, and increasing the attractions of social fellowship, like some sparkling stream, both refreshing and adorning the landscape through which it takes its course. ”

“ And the brilliancy which surrounds the successful development of some deep-laid plan of knavery—the admiration which it involuntarily excites, in the mind even of those who abhor the deed, and condemn the cunning designer, render such misdirected powers doubly dangerous, by exciting in the weak-minded and evil-disposed a desire to emulate such wonderful achievements, and to become notorious, if they cannot make themselves famous. ”

“ How a man, uniformly discreet, should have suffered his feelings to run away with his judgment in a public discourse, we cannot conceive, unless it be that in the whirlwind of eloquence that bore him away, all consideration of law, patriotism, and duty, were lost sight of. After all, it is not Upton who is to blame, it is the times. ”

“ Arriving at the site of the late post-office, I found its former incumbent to be a highly respectable merchant, well advanced in years, and blessed with one of those countenances which, to a person at all accustomed to study character in that way, at once dispels all doubt and distrust. ”

“ In the narrations of mail robberies which we have thus far given, their perpetrators, though bold and unscrupulous, have not often plotted the destruction of human life in order to further their projects. But in the case we are about briefly to relate, murder on a large scale was coolly contemplated for the sake of the facilities which would be afforded to the plunderers of the mail, by the confusion, distress, and preoccupation which necessarily follow the throwing of cars from a railroad track. ”

“ In crowded cities especially, through whose streets the mails are many times a day conveyed to steamboats and rail road stations, it is particularly important that all obstacles in their way should be removed; and pains have been taken to make the law on this subject generally understood, so that at the approach of the wagon bearing the magic characters "U. S. Mail," the crowd of vehicles which throng the busy streets, separate to the right and left, and do homage to that supreme power—the Public Good. ”