Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1893 — NOT WHAT HIPS PICTURED. [ARTICLE]

NOT WHAT HIPS PICTURED.

TLv Selective Not Such a Wonderful Being After All. r i !■ i’ever-watchful, ever-present, wily ami wary detective, whose doings as depicted in the pages of dime novels have long fired the ambition as they have canm ed the heart of the small uoy, e .iots only in the imagination of the writers of those novels. The detectives o o- ay are much inferior to the s.euais who'ie pictures are so vividly drawn for toe delight of the youth iof the land. Not that men are not born nowadays with natures well fitted to serve iu ferreting out a great mystery, but ra her because men wdh su. h natuies find mu h more lucrative fie ds of employment other than the 'i.-agre*'-able one of hounding iov>n c.-oots un.l thieves The age of well-lighted streets, Of telegraphy and telephones, o rogu; galleiies and (o-operative . late systems makes it almost in possi ie )©r a great dark mystery to occur. The reform schools and educational annexes to many criminal inst.tu'ions now turn aside lrom the downward path ma-jv a bright young youth, who, if but lcit alone, would Soon succeed in puzzling iho brightest peace officials, and so create a demand for clever detective work. Mysteries there are that da lyoe ur, but they are as deep as the uofths of the human Suul, and nothing but self*confession can ever solve them. The old sleuth of dime-novel fame wtis credited with possessing a wondrous wardiobe of the vilest combinations and physical aspects. He eba ed the villain “that still pursues her” o er hill and dale, into mining camp and out again, among thieves banded together and meeting in dark, grewsome oaves and lonely, villainous-loo', ing houses, and ever eventually “downing his man” with clock-work precision and hanging him mrst thoroughly and triumphantly. Lut such men never lived. In the great cities of the Union defective work Is commingling with the ordinary work of the routine officer. They are mere emergency men, liable to be dressed in uniform and placed on temporary duty in the absence of the regular officer. Their work is strictly local. No traveling over the country is necessary, except in cases where identification is necessary or a criminal is to be brought back.