solicitation of the special agent, reinforced, probably, by painful twinges of conscience for paying such a miserable stipend for services that began early and ended late, the lawyer took back the little fellow at an increased compensation.

The special agent sought out the distressed family, plunging his hand deeply into his pocket to relieve their wants. Others, too, were brought to take an interest in their welfare.

The boy kept his promise to the letter, and has since won several well-earned promotions.

ARN APPLICANT FOR REAPPOINTMENT.

YEAR or two after the close of the late war, the first assistant postmaster-general received a singular letter, covering four pages of foolscap, from Oldbury, South Carolina. Through much painful chirography and bad spelling, the writer, one Abel Ridley, complained that, though rightful postmaster, he was kept out of possession of the office by violence and fraud. Many months before, according to the allegations, he had received the appointment, made the bond, and been duly commissioned, but during all this long period had been cruelly deprived of his rights by some mysterious usurper, who persistently refused to recognize the just claims of the complainant.

A special agent was directed to proceed thither to learn the facts and take such action as the merits of the case might require. On reaching Oldbury he found that the let

ter contained a little truth, mixed with a good deal of falsehood.

For a number of years after the war, great difficulty was experienced in filling the smaller offices at the south, as incumbents were required to take the "iron-clad oath," which few were able or willing to do. Among the devices for evading the law the most common was a dual arrangement whereby one party did the swearing and appeared on the record, while the other performed the work and drew the pay. Unmarried women or old men generally served as the figure-heads.

Oldbury was a thriving village, and on the return of peace the community were in haste to secure a restoration of former mail facilities. They desired that the gentleman who had acceptably filled the position of postmaster for fifteen years should continue to serve in the same capacity; but he could not take the prescribed oath, having held office under the confederacy. In looking about for a man of straw to do the swearing, they hit upon Ridley, a comparative stranger, who, at the suggestion of the proposed beneficiary of the arrangement, swallowed the iron-clad, and relapsed into obscurity. The old postmaster ran on in the old groove, evidently believing that he held the place by prescriptive right and by a lifetenure. Meanwhile the humble mercantile ventures of Ridley turned out so badly that he found himself pushed to the wall. While his fortunes had been going down, the salary of the postmaster had been going up, till it now amounted to about eight hundred dollars a year. The temptation was too great. Ridley, who had no weight in the community, and whose connection with the office was purely nominal, determined, if possible, to make its emoluments his own. Without friends or influence, how was he to accomplish this? Hardly thinking his words would ever return to confront him, he wrote to the department the letter referred to at the outset.

On bringing the rival claimants together, the special agent learned that Ridley had never demanded the office from the actual incumbent, or even intimated that he would like it. In

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fact, not a word had ever passed between them on the subject, the tale of dispossession by fraud and violence, with its various embellishments, being a pure fabrication.

equally surprised at

the turn of affairsRidley at the exposure of his duplicity, and the unconscious assistant that his tenure should be covertly assailed by one who had been brought into the affair as a matter of convenience, and whose connection with the arrangement was almost forgotten.

Though it was a great trial to be compelled to interpose in behalf of a liar and a sneak, no alternative was offered but to place Ridley, who held the commission, in possession of the office. In his case a bad beginning missed widely of making a good ending.

The Pawnbroker.

Both were

In the summer of 1870, a banker of Augusta, Georgia, accosting on the street the special agent already mentioned, informed him that a certain pawnbroker was offering about the city, at a

discount of five per cent., a lot of postage stamps worth on their face one hundred and fifty dollars. Some postmaster was obviously perpetrating a fraud on the government, and the first point in the investigation was to locate the swindle.

The records of the post-office at Augusta showed that for several months the pawnbroker had been sending registered letters to Ridley, the postmaster at Oldbury, South Carolina, with whom the reader already enjoys a slight acquaintance. As a faithless employé of the department would not be likely to use the mails for the transmission of contraband wares, the special agent went to the headquarters of the Southern Express Company to inquire whether any packages had been transmitted through their hands between the suspected party and the pawnbroker. Although the rules of this company require the business of its patrons to be treated as strictly confidential, the general and division superintendents uniformly co-operate with the post-office department in its efforts to detect fraud. Agents of the government are indebted to them for much valuable assistance, which, the writer is happy to testify, has within the range of his observation uniformly been rendered with zeal and courtesy.

In this case, the books of the company happily supplemented the information furnished at the post-office. Ridley had sent to the pawnbroker several valuable packages by express, and the proceeds less the discounts had obviously been returned in registered letters.

Readers unacquainted with post-office details will naturally inquire how Ridley, after supplying stamps to his own neighborhood, could accumulate a stock to be peddled elsewhere. Had he been honest there would have been no surplus. Under the law as it then existed, the salaries of postmasters in offices like Oldbury depended mainly on the number of stamps canceled, which every two years were counted for three or six consecutive months, and reported to the department under oath. By swearing to false returns he had succeeded in a brief period in running his salary up from eight hundred to