PERSECUTION BY POST

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 72, 28 March 1901, Page 1

PERSECUTION BY POST

Some Melbourne residents have for months past been the victims of a species of practical joking that comes within the category of crime. They have been the recipients, from anonymous correspondents, of letters and post-cards of a character calculated to cause them considerable perturbation of mind, and, in some cases, to destroy the peace sof their homes. "When a man receives a pofet-card addressed to his private house, and delivered in his absence, bearing an invitation in feminine writing to come and see the writer who signs with initials only, he may be able to convince his wife that it is merely a heartless “joke,” but when such a post-card is followed by others of a more pronounced character, the task of explanation becomes more difficult. Some of these diabolical missives have been of a particularly brutal nature, sufficient to test the confidence of the best of wives in the best of husbands, and possibly on this- very account the unfortunate recipients have suffered in silence rather than appeal for the aid of the law, preferring to demonstrate, as well as they could, that the attempts to break up their homes had utterly failed. One suburban resident, we are told,.was singled out for this species of persecution, which, in his case, was of the most persistent and bitter description, while iris wife and children were also harassed by the same methods. One day an undertaker, having been instructed by a post-card, in the writing of the person who had sent all the others, came round to measure the man for a coffin, “and the wife was so overcome with grief that her health was seriously affected.” Fortunately for the peace of mind of these and other victims, some of the individuals thus attacked put the affair into the hands of the Post Office detectives, and after months of investigation these officers managed to so narrow the field of suspicion that the writer or writers of the libellous letters “ suddenly ceased operations.” Matters were apparently becoming too warm to be comfortable, and since then there has been no repetition of a crime that under some circumstances might be attended by most unhappy results.