Ten Years Among the Mail Bags Part 24

It seemed remarkable to me, as it doubtless has to the reader, that the boy should have such a remote and strange hiding-place. I afterwards learned that the house, the back part of which was occupied by a small family, belonged to an acquaintance of his, and that he used the room as a place of rendezvous, with some of his companions, and, as we have seen, as a receptacle for stolen money.

Having accomplished the object of my expedition, I returned light of heart, though heavy of limb, and communicated the facts as soon as possible to the Cashier of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, and to the post master. The lad was at once arrested, tried, and found guilty, but in consideration of his youth, and his apparent ignorance of the extent of his crime, and the recovery of the property, he was sent to the House of Refuge for three years.

The boy's reformation was permanent, as I have been informed by one who afterwards knew him, when he had removed to a distant place, and established a good character. If this was so, (which there is no reason to doubt,) it furnishes an instance of the salutary effects arising from early detection in a course of crime, especially to those who are not yet hardened in iniquity. The whole case, also, shows the danger of allowing boys, with principles hardly established as yet, and dest.i.tute of that firmness which habit and perseverance bestow, to occupy responsible stations in large offices, where the apparent facility for the commission of crime and the temptations offered, too often subvert the honesty which has not yet ripened into a second nature.

CHAPTER XIV.

OBSTRUCTING THE MAIL.

A sound Principle--A slow Period--A wholesome Law--"Ahead of the Mail"--Moral Suasion--Indignant Pa.s.sengers--Dutch Oaths--A Smash--Interesting Trial--A rowdy Constable--The Obstructors mulcted.

The proper adjustment of the various interests, great and small, which are involved in the every-day life of a nation like ours, is a problem not always very easy of solution, yet one of vital importance to the well-working of the social machine. Indeed, it has ever been an important part of legislation to determine the relative magnitude of different interests, both public and private, and to a.s.sign to each its proper place in the scale.

Republican principles require that the less should yield to the greater--individual convenience to public good. And an excellent ill.u.s.tration of the practical application of these principles by the wisdom of Congress, is found in the provisions which that body has made to secure the uninterrupted transmission of the mails.

It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the vast importance of punctuality in this branch of the public service. Time, as an element in business transactions, is increasing in value in proportion to the multiplication of devices for obtaining the greatest results possible from each pa.s.sing moment. An hour in the present year, represents more--more business--more planning--more results of various kinds, than did an hour thirty years since.

To take, for instance, the matter of traveling. The state of things no longer exists which will permit public conveyances to take pretty much their own time in starting and in arriving at their destinations. That was a distressingly "slow" period, when horses were in their glory, and wayside taverns afforded comforts and luxuries which are poorly replaced by the eating, or rather devouring department of a rail road depot, where ravenous pa.s.sengers, like the Israelites of old, are obliged to dispatch their repast, girded up for flight, at a moment's notice, instead of comfortably and deliberately sitting down under the auspices of "mine host," to a meal which deserved more respectful attention than could be given it in a less s.p.a.ce of time than half an hour; the driver, meanwhile, being easy in his mind on the subject of "connecting," inasmuch as he, the _connector_, felt quite certain that the _connectee_ would not leave him in the lurch, as "lee-way" of an hour or two was allowed, and often required, by the exigencies of traveling. But since, by the agency of steam, an hour swallows up thirty miles instead of four or five, minutes become correspondingly precious, and the locomotive infuses somewhat of its own energy into every mode of progression.

The inexorable hand of the rail-way clock waits not for dilatory drivers, and makes no allowances for detention, unavoidable or otherwise. Here comes in the application of our republican principle.

If it were in the power of any one to delay the progress of the vehicle containing the mail, to suit his whim or convenience, the public interests would often be seriously interfered with; and, in order to prevent such contingencies, the following law was enacted by Congress:--

_And be it further enacted_, That if any person shall, knowingly and wilfully, obstruct or r.e.t.a.r.d the pa.s.sage of the mail, or of any driver or carrier, or of any horse or carriage, carrying the same, he shall, upon conviction for every such offence, pay a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars; and if any ferryman shall, by wilful negligence, or refusal to transport the mail across any ferry, delay the same, he shall forfeit and pay, for every ten minutes that the same shall be so delayed, a sum not exceeding ten dollars.

It is obviously right that the pleasure of an individual should not weigh for a moment in the balance, with the interests of thousands depending as they do, in a degree, upon the prompt transmission of correspondence. Were all the consequences of simply impeded delivery of important letters to be made known, the record would be a melancholy one indeed.

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.

A curious trial under the law I have cited, was held in Boston before the United States Court, about two years since.

It appears that the regular mail-coach from Worcester to Barre, left the former place on the afternoon of January 8, about half past four, full of pa.s.sengers, and ornamented, as well as distinguished, by the words "U. S. Mail," painted in conspicuous letters on both sides of the foot-board.

The pa.s.sengers were beginning to develope those sparks of sociability which are elicited by the collisions with one another, and the stimulus to the brain resulting from sundry jolts inseparable from the vicissitudes of stage-coach traveling. In other words, the coach had proceeded about two miles, when, arriving at a place where there was some ascent in the road, it overtook three one-horse wagons, which made way for it to pa.s.s. Very soon, however, the two occupants of the hindmost wagon, (whom we will call Stark and Baker,) whipped up their steed, and rushed by the coach, like some saucy cutter shooting ahead of a seventy-four. After this demonstration, their horse, having gained four or five rods on the coach, subsided into a walk.

The correspondingly moderate movements which the driver of the coach was compelled to adopt, did not very well suit his views, as the icy road and his heavy load formed a combination of circ.u.mstances which rendered him anxious to make all possible speed, in order to fulfil the requirements of the U. S. Mail, as well as those of his pa.s.sengers. But he was obliged to retain his humble position of follower to the wagon, for the road at that point was too narrow to admit of pa.s.sing, and as no other means of attaining his object were at his command, he proceeded to try the effect of moral suasion.

"I say, you, there," shouted he to the obstinate couple in the wagon, who were smoking very much at their ease, and apparently busily engaged in conversation, "I wish you'd drive on faster, or let me go by you."

"Couldn't do it," replied the provoking Stark, "unless you'll race."

"It's none of my business to race," returned the driver; "all I want is to go on."

"Well, let's see you do it, then," said Stark, checking his horse still more.

They soon came to a wider portion of the road, and the stage driver attempted to pa.s.s the wagon, but was foiled by the dexterous manoeuvring of Stark, who so accurately adjusted his motions to those of the stage-coach as to check-mate its presiding genius. Upon coming to a still wider place, the driver outsailed his persevering tormentor, and pushed on at a rapid rate, say seven knots an hour, indulging the sanguine hope that he was rid of his Old Man of the Sea.

But this expectation was short-lived, for, on arriving at a curve in the road, where it was narrow and icy, he was compelled to "shorten sail," whereat Stark added wings to his speed, and ran by the coach, directly afterward reining his horse into a walk as before.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

A succession of similar manoeuvres was kept up till the coach reached Holden, a distance of three or four miles, and during this time the facetious Stark, not content with these highly aggravating proceedings, added insult to injury by personal reflections on the skill of the driver and the character of his horses.

"Hallo, you driver!" shouted he derisively, "why don't you _drive_? If there's any of your pa.s.sengers in a hurry, I'll take 'em on, and tell the folks that you'll be along in the course of a day or two."

To this the driver wisely answered nothing, but his tormentor did not profit by his example. After some ineffectual attempts on the part of the U. S. functionary to pa.s.s the wagon, which were foiled as before, Stark again essayed to beguile the time with a further display of his conversational powers.

"Guess your horses ain't very well trained to keep the road, are they?

They seem to go from one side to the other as if they couldn't draw a bee-line. May be, though, they are kinder faint, and that's what makes 'em stagger about so. I'll try 'em."

So saying, he proceeded to open a bag which lay in his wagon; and, taking from it a handful of oats, he allowed the horses to come nearly up to him, when he held out the grain to them, calling "k'jock, k'jock," as if he was desirous of enticing them along.

Before this time, the occupants of the coach had become aware of what was going on, and were naturally highly indignant at the imposition practised on them by the audacious Stark and his fellow conspirator.

One irascible gentleman did not bear the infliction with as much equanimity as his "guide, philosopher, and friend," upon the coach-box; but, every time that the wagon pa.s.sed the coach, he popped his head out at the nearest window, and fired at the enemy a volley of reproachful epithets that could be likened to nothing but the "nine-cornered Dutch oaths," which on special occasions were wont to rumble through the gullet of William the Testy, at the hazard of choking that ill.u.s.trious individual, as we are a.s.sured by the grave and matter-of-fact historian of New York.

The persevering repet.i.tion of the provocation at last excited a degree of rage in the breast of our peppery friend which could not be allayed by the expedients we have mentioned. He called out, "Driver, I say, stop and let me out, and I'll see whether this sort of thing will go on much longer. Why don't you stop? Do you suppose we are going to stand this for ever? How the deuse do you think we shall ever get to Barre, at this rate?"

The driver advised him to keep cool, telling him that very likely they would get rid of the wagon before long; with which opinion another of the pa.s.sengers coincided, who knew the men, remarking that they belonged in Hubbardston, and would probably turn off at the road leading to that place. This road was beyond Holden, where the coach stopped at the public-house. Here the men in the wagon came up, and expressed a wish to exchange their horse for the four coach-horses, provided sufficient "boot" were offered them. To this impertinence the driver made no reply; but the fiery pa.s.senger intimated to them that, if they would come within his reach, he would give them _boot_ enough to make their accounts _foot up_ even.

After leaving the mail, the coach started out of Holden, preceded by the wagon, which dodged back and forth along the road as heretofore.

They pa.s.sed the Hubbardston road, but the men did not turn off; and, about a mile from Rutland, they made that once-too-often attempt which such mischievous individuals usually make somewhere along their course. The patience of the much-enduring driver had become finally exhausted; and, as the annoying wagon was in the act of pa.s.sing him, at a rather narrow place in the road, he drove on without particular reference to that vehicle, and experimentally tested the relative strength of the fore wheel of the coach and the body of the wagon. The latter structure was "nowhere," or, to speak more accurately, it was resolved into its original elements; while the aforesaid wheel rolled away uninjured, bearing its share of the triumphant pa.s.sengers.

The occupants of the smashed vehicle survived the "wreck of matter;"

whether with a whole skin or not, does not appear, as the personal knowledge of the driver, as stated on the trial, was summed up in the words, "_I left 'em there!_"

In consequence of the proceedings which have been described, the coach arrived at Barre an hour and a quarter behind the time.

It having been thought advisable to prosecute these men for obstructing the mail, a suit was brought against them in the U. S.

District Court of Ma.s.sachusetts.

The evidence on the part of Government went to show that they must have known the character of the coach: that it carried the mail, for the words "U. S. Mail" were conspicuously painted on the coach; and the sign "Post-Office" was up at the place in Holden where the mail was taken out, and where they saw the coach stop. Also the men were known by sight to some of the pa.s.sengers; and one of them had been a stage-coach proprietor, and the other had driven a coach. Indeed, one of the pa.s.sengers, while they were at Holden, addressed Baker, whom he knew, by name, and told him "he should think that he had been in the stage business long enough to know better."

The pa.s.sengers were unanimous in considering the case as clearly one of wilful detention.

The testimony for the defence was rather lame. The post master at Rutland testified that the mail from Worcester was due at 7 P. M., though he had known it three-quarters of an hour later. He thought it arrived, on the evening in question, at 5 minutes past 7; but could not say certainly that the 8th of January was the night when the mail arrived at that time, though he had no doubt of it, nor had he looked at his register since that night. In short, his evidence amounted to a rough guess, which could make no impression on the Gibraltar of opposing testimony furnished by a coach full of pa.s.sengers, as well as other witnesses.

Another witness for the defence testified that Stark's horse was "smooth-shod," with the view of establishing the extreme improbability of the alleged performances, as the road was icy, and rapid motion therefore hazardous to an animal thus shod. But, as the quadruped in question was shown actually to have done the thing, this ingenious theory was set aside, although a slur was thus cast upon Mr. Stark's character as a prudent driver.

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. .h.i.therto 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.

This man, set to be "a terror to evil-doers" should have been a terror to himself; indeed we may conceive of him as smitten with compunction, and arresting himself--Stark the constable tapping himself on the shoulder. At least he should have arrested his own progress, before he fell from his high estate, and degenerated from a constable into an unlucky buffoon.

The questions for the jury were, First, Did these men obstruct the United States Mail? And, secondly, Did they do so knowingly and wilfully? If they did so obstruct the mail, then as a man is presumed in law to intend what is the natural and necessary consequence of his acts, in the absence of controlling testimony otherwise, the inference would inevitably follow, that their conduct in this affair was the result of "malice aforethought."

They were both convicted, and sentenced as follows,--Stark, the driver of the wagon, to a fine of thirty dollars, and Baker to a fine of fifteen; thus footing up the pretty little sum of forty-five dollars for their evening's diversion, besides the destruction of their wagon, which was taken into the account in determining the amount of the fines.