he had taken Little Egypt with him. Marie expected daily to hear from her husband, as he told her brother, Joel Ware, that he would write when settled, and would address all correspondence direct to him for her.
Leaving Marie, I consulted an old friend, in whom I had implicit confidence, for the purpose of making arrangements about my own correspondence, and put him "wise" to the situation. It was decided between us that in order to correspond with my family and friends and to receive such communications from them as they might wish to send me, it would be best for him to engage a postoffice box in San Francisco under the name of C. C. Cravet, a name I had selected at random for the reason that there was none similar to it in the city directory of San Francisco.
After renting the box, my friend returned to his home, where I was in waiting, and gave me the number, which I made a note of in my diary. I then instructed him to visit the postoffice for mail not oftener than three times each week, and always at night, and under no circumstances was he to abstract a letter from the box if any one was in the lobby. I instructed him further, upon receiving mail from me addressed to C. C. Cravet, that he was to open the outer envelope and deliver the sealed envelope inside to whomsoever it might be directed. All answers to my letters he was to call for personally, the same to be enclosed in a blank envelope, which he was to address to me in his own handwriting to J. H. Brownell, General Delivery, New York City.
I requested my friend to call on Mrs. Marie Ware McKinley, corner of Bush and Jones streets, at least once each week for any letters she might have for me from her husband, Horace G. McKinley. Also to call on my wife at Berkeley for any mail she might wish to forward, but not to make this latter visit until after he had received a letter from me addressed to her. It was distinctly understood that under no circumstances was my friend to divulge to my wife, any member of my family, or to Marie Ware McKinley, the name, J. H. Brownell, which I had assumed; neither was my whereabouts to be made known to them, nor was he to inform them as to the name or manner under which he was receiving mail from me. Visiting Marie McKinley again, I told her that a friend of mine would probably call at least once a week for any information she might wish to communicate to me from her husband, and instructed her, in all cases, to seal such communications in a blank envelope before delivering it to this friend, who would take care of the rest.
As to the name, J. H. Brownell, while I did not use the initials of the only original and notorious person of Oregon political fame, I could not resist the temptation of employing the name itself, as it occurred to me that a man with George C. Brownell's reputation for squeezing out of tight places, however pinched the situation or small the hole, could not help but bring me luck if I were ever surrounded by similar conditions.
In explanation of the great precaution taken with my mail to avoid detection, it may be stated that I became quite familiar with the methods adopted by the well known Government secret service agent, W. J. Burns, during the land fraud trials in Oregon. He had often related to me, in describing past adventures, of the difficulty experienced in trailing counterfeiters and other Federal criminals, in which cases, he would frequently be obliged to resort to seeking information through the mails in order to run his quarry to cover.
It is well known, of course, that Uncle Sam protects the patrons of his postoffice department to the extent of forbidding any one, the Government detectives included, from meddling with mail matter in transit from one place to another, or while being distributed at the postoffices. It is nevertheless true that in certain instances and under pressing circumstances wherein our Uncle himself may be concerned, these Secret Service men of the Govrnment, if I am to take Mr. Burns' statement seriously, have a peculiar habit of camping on the mail overnight, with the result that they are very much enlightened in the morning concerning the contents of certain letters over which they have slumbered.
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