Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1881-08-20
MODERN DETECTIVE WORK.
A Profession with Little Romance
or Mystery About Il.

Chow do men Decome detectives. what
sort of men are detectives, and what sort
Of lives DO they lead ?" asked a San re-
porter of Mr.. Robert II. Pinkerton.
''There seems to be just enough of sup
posed mystery and romance about the
detectives calling to make it attractive
to the average citizen, and especially to
the younger citizen"
"Rob" Pinkerton, as he is pretty gen.
orally called, q are-shouldered, we'll
built young man, with a pleasant face
and slight lisp, smiled 8s he replied:
"Ihere's precious little romance about
detective work nowadays. The modern
detective is the last man for II nance or
mystery. We leave that for the French
novels ard the blood and thunder stage.
Crime has become scientific; it keeps
up with the progress Of the times, and
the detective has got to keep up, too.
So that the detectives of to-day are
very different from the mouchards of
Paris, the old Bow street runners of
London, and the "shadows" of the old
American police system. Men of intel
lgence and strong will devote their
lives to the study of means for getting
hold of the property of others. To
meet such men the detective must be
intelligent, clear-headed, acute, persis-
tent, honest, and physically vigorous.
He must be man of resources, able in
an emergency to strike ont new course,
and save himself from detection by the
criminal he is pursuing. He must have
quick insight into character, and must
be q good actor, ready to assume any
part at a moments notice. His usual
bearing should be unobtrusive, and his
address agreeable, and instead of being
known as a detective, he should be the
very last man upon whom such suspi-
cion should fall There, that is rather
plain statement of the general qualifca-
tions of detective. There is nothing
romantic or mysterious about that, is
there ?"
"You talk like a book. But l want
| to know about detectives as they are.
not as they should be. Who are they
How do they work."
Gas to the first question, that's not so
easy to answer. Detectives are-well,
they are detectives. They may have
been clerks, statesmen, students, news
paper men, anybody. A man In any
|
work as an amateur, becomes fond of it,
and, if he really has it ill him, eventu-
ally gets to be master of the art Oh,
yes, there's an art in it. A great many
boys and young men are often anxious
| to become detectives. They get their
ideas of the work and the life from dime
novels and flash illustrated papers.
| They think that detective is q mystic
rious parsonage, who always goes dis
guised and prepared to assume any char
acter at a moments notice, who is
walking arsenal, and has the happy fac
ulty of turning up at just the right mo-
ment, clapping a big pistol on the vii
lsin's head and rescuing youth and beau
ty. We have had great many applica-
tons from these deluded persons, and
once we tried one of the lads.
ellis father, a wealthy man in Chicago,
came TO us and said his boy was crazy to
be detective, and asked us to take him
and give him some work that would dis
enchant him. He was a bright. smart
Young fellow, full of dime novel idea.
| We set him to watching a house in
lonely part of the city. He had explicit
instructions not to lose sight of the door
from dusk in the evening until daylight
next morning. 1t was winter The boy
stood it one night and reported all right
next morning. The second morning he
did not report He never has reported.
The father, however, did report that his
boy was ready to go to school, and was
very much obliged to us. You ask me
who detectives are. l can tell you who
they are not. They are not ex-thieves.
In the first place, it is not safe to trust
ex-thieves. While, perhaps, they might
have information that would be inval-
uable to detective, they are not temp
tation-proof. They will take advantage
of their position to put up jobs in crime
that they never could accomplish were
they are not employed as detectives. The
experiment has been tried it will not
work as a rule. OF course we sometimes
get information from thieves, not be-
cause they are thieves, but because they
have the information. But we have to
use the greatest care in verifying their
information.
"You ask How do they work 2 and
that is another difficult question to
answer. To begin with, I'll say that
detectives are divided into three general
classes: shadows, investigators, and
ropers. When man begins the busi-
ness he is put at shadowing. 1t is an
excellent way to try him and see what
stuff there is in him. If he will watch
house night after night, in ell sorts OF
weather, or q man, day after day,
without exciting suspicion, it is pretty
| safe TO emnloy him repniarV A uond