Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1870 — DETECTIVES AS THEY ARE. [ARTICLE]

DETECTIVES AS THEY ARE.

Bomb who have read the highly-spiced fictions purporting to be reminiscences of detectives, may take it for granted that a halo of romance o’erhangs the life of a professional taker of thieves and murderers. But in actual experience it Is not so. Contrariwise, the life of such a man is rather prosaic than otherwise; nor, in nature, does the detective go about in those wonderful digghises the bboks we have referred to so ejglirge upon—disguises only to be met jg Ith On the stage and ia novels,. He is truly "A plain clothes man,” «n<Hs sp spoken of by the members < f the force, just as,railroad people always speak of eoaobea- and not “carriages,” as the outer world does. The veteran Btrairiitforward assures mo that he has never adopted what could he legitimately called “a disguise” on any occasion. “Why,” said he, “I should not have got half way down the street or past a aoul I knew, -before one of the coves would have twigged me.” ‘‘Hollo t” he would have thought, “what’s the Servant got them togs on fort” And then it would have been all up with my little game, for the “office” would at once have been given, and my bird flown. Not I; I never used any disguise. I went out just as I was—plain clothes, of course. No; disguise is all bosh. When I wanted my man I always know where to put my hand on him. In fact I only had to go to his house of call at a certain time, beckon him out, and he would come with mo as quiet as a lamb. Did I ever have any cases of resistance or assault? Not many. If they were saucy I used to put the handbolts on them; ana if I thought they intended a blow I gave them one for themselves first. I can give you an instance how 1 used to manage my “ obstropolous gents.” I took one, not more than fifty miles from here, in a place he was well known, but not for the thief he was. I ordered him to carry his box before me to tho station. ’ He refused, till I tola him if ho did not do as I told him I would hire a cab, chain him behind, hand-bolted, put the box inside, and walk leisurely on the pavtment behind him, giving all the townspeople who asked questions their full of answers. Ho knew I would keep my word, and ho trot ted before mo to the terminus with his box on his head, as quiet as—well, as a lamb. “ I Interrogate the Sergeant upon the matter of burglary, and he instances a ‘representative’ raise. A message arrives at tho police office from Mr. Orecne Jones, saying his premises have been broken into, and c-. rtai n moneys or properties stolen. Tho chief sends myself and another dotective to the place. After a few minutes’ survey, wo glance at each othor in a peculiar way, wherenpou the proprietor of the stolen property looks uneasy and perturbed. ‘Well, officers, what do you make of it ? The marks are plain enough, are they not ?’ Mv mate—you know Driver, sir—whistles and swings from one hand to the other the polished holly stick ho alwas carries with him. I kneel down, Driver having made his inspection first, and examine some marks on the- Window sill. ‘ That,’ says Mr. Jones, ‘was evidently done with the chisel found in tho garden.’ “ I thought it wae rather too strong that ho should talk to us who knew what was what like that, but determined to bo even with him by and by. Bo I went on asking a lot of tom fool questions. After a bit he said : ‘ Well, what’ll you tako to drink ?’ My mate said that he thought a toothful of rum—Driver is partial to rum —wouldn’t poison him, while I gave a name to brandy hot. I remember it quite well. Ho asked us into a little room behind the shop. His wife wae thero, nursing a young child—an infant, in fact—and she looked, poor thing, awful down in the mouth. The husband hadn’t been long

in business, and. we. knew that business' had been queer with him for sometime. He had to send out for the stuff, which ho did by a little slatternly' servant' girl. While he was away talking; to tho girl, my mate was led to pump tho missis j but I stopped him, for I saw how the land lay us clear as mud. Bhe began, however—uneasily, I could soe—to talk of it herself, saying it was strange they had hoaTd no noise, that tho servant had always slept at her mother’s, and bo on. When her husband returned, followed soon after by the girl, ho had in hot water, and mixed the grogs—stiff ones they were, too, though it was only about noon., By tho time we had all three finished our second tumblers our man got maudlin, fl/st sniveled over his losses, and then talked big all in a breath, as the saying is. This was more than I could./stomach, though I had had his grog; so, when my mate and I went out, Driver being in front—'l suppose, said he, 'you have ap idea who dirt this V “I can give a shreWdtKh guess,” said I. “ Ay! IhaVe heard yon detectives are clever chaps and know a man’s work, as you call it, by the way Jhc goes about tho job. Now, who do yon suppoeodid Oust” “ You!” said.l, looking him full in the faco. You should have seen his countenance change, sir—first as white as that pipe, then as red as that bar curtain; ana all of a minute. 1 never saw Buch a thiDg. Had I wanted proof of the truth of what

I had s&ld, 'twas written there in red and white. “ What I” he blurted out, trying to gulp down a something that seemed to stick In his throat “Met How dare you lay such a thing?” “ I dare say anything that I know is true. You asked me a plain question, and I gave you a plain answer.” Calming down a bit, when he saw I was not cowed or taken aback at all, he says: “ Do you think I should be such a born fool as to rob myself?” , “That’s another plain question; So if you want another plain answer, here it is. Not yourself exactly,, but your creditors. That’s about the breadth of it” Then he began to bluster again. In the midßt of which I left him and walked after Driver, who said: “ What were you a-jawing with the cove about ? ’Twas his own crack,” “Right you are,” said I; “and what’s more, I tola him so.” “You see, sir,” s&id the detective, in explanation, “the marks on the window-sill were all made from the inside.” It will astonish the unsophisticated reader to learn that the proceeds of a robbery are often not recovered, because it would not pay to recover them. A detective is sent for the day following a burglary. He receives a description of the spoil. He knows by what channel—as we shall presently show—intelligence may be conveyed to the present holder of the booty that the person robbed will give so much for the restoration of his valuables. But where nothing is offered, the plate goes to the limbo of the melting pot. With watches, the rogues melt the cases, and having erased name and number on the works, put them into fresh cases. Rings or bracelets they denude of stones, which they dispose of on the continent, or even at home j except in some cases, when they send them as they are, if bearing no name, crest, or mark, to the richer colonies. Indeed, it is a well known fact, that the wife of a very high official had a bracelet offered to her in one of the first shops in Melbourne that had been stolen from her house in Park lane, London, but fifteen months before * Even bank notes, though stopped, can be got rid of; and there is plenty or machinery for doing so. A stranger lost several Bank of England notes for fifty pounds each -in A certain pro vincal town. Notice was given to the Branch Bank of England in the same place of the loss, the number of the notes being also supplied to the district manager. Now, Bank of England notes, when once paid into Threadneedlc street, are never re issued, even if they have left the bank new the same day. No fear was folt of their getting abroad again, if they once went “ homo;” so a duplicate list of the lost notes was forwarded more leisurely to town. In about six weeks, news was sent down to the provincial town to the effect that the notes had reached home. They had been paid by a bank in the provincial town to their city agents. The country bank had received them from a professional gentleman, and they had been paid to him by a tradesman in a large way of business, who had been long suspected by the police of being a buyer of stolen notes. There tho clew abruptly stopped, and could be pursued no further. The tradesman said he could not tell whom he had the note from. Invited by the police to attend before tbe magistrates, he repeated tho same tale. Asked particularly by the magistrates’ <flerk if he took so many fiftypound notes in a day that he could not tell whence they came, he replied, generally, that he often took fifty-pound notes without indorsing them, and this must be one; and he positively could not tell how the note had come into his hands, except he knew It must have been in the regular course of trade. And so it ended. Now, if this had been a man in a small way of business, be could not have got off by such an excuse. The police were morally sure the tradesman had bought the fifty-pound note, but they could not prove it. The'vastness of his business protected this man; whereas the petty trader, being unable to urge such a plea, would have been caught and trounced. — Chambers' Journal.