ns, and finally settling
upon some sharp-featured, but unimpeachable attorney as the
malefactor, indulge in wise reflections as to the impossibility of
mistaking a rogue from his appearance.

I have seen their start of surprise as the real criminal, genteel,
cool and gentlemanly, would rise from his seat and plead to the
indictment that would be read to him, and their solemn shake of the
head as their wise reflections were scattered to the winds.

My first experience with the town of Bridgeport was particularly
suggestive of these reflections. I was engaged in a detective
operation in which the Adams Express Company were the sufferers,
having been robbed of a large amount of money, and, as the robbery
took place in the vicinity of that city, the thieves, whom I
succeeded in capturing, were confined in the jail there.

The affair occurred during the first week of January, 1866, and the
facts were as follows:

On the night of the sixth of January, in the year just mentioned, the
public mind was startled by the announcement that the Adams Express
Company had been robbed of over a half million of dollars, by the
thieves breaking into the car in which their valuables were placed,
prying open the safes, and abstracting over six hundred thousand
dollars, in notes, bonds and other valuable securities.

The train to which the car was attached had left New York for Boston
at eight o' clock in the evening, and it was not until arriving at
New Haven that the depredation was discovered.

The dismay of the company's officials may be imagined when, on
entering the car at the latter place, the fractured safes met their
astonished gaze. A marlin spike, three dark lanterns and a sledge
hammer which lay beside them, told too plainly how the work had been
accomplished, but it furnished no clue as to how, or when, or by
whom.

The car was of the ordinary size of a box freight car, built with an
iron frame, sheathed over with thick sheet iron plates, rivetted
strongly together, and so closely made that a light placed inside
could not be seen when the doors were closed. A messenger always
accompanied this car, but he usually sat in the baggage car of the
train, and as the train did not make any stoppages between New York
and New Haven, it was only at this time that the theft was discovered
by the entrance of the messenger.

It further appeared that the company's safes were taken from the
depot in New York and placed in the iron car