The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1881-10-28
MODERN DETECTIVE WORK.
A Profession With Little Romance or NV
terry About II.

G. II. Pinke1ton, the well-known New
York detective, said to n New York re-
porter:
To begin with, I'll say that detectives
are divided into three general classes:
shadows, investigators and ropers.
When q man begins this business he is
put at shadowing. 1t is an excellent
way to test him and see what stuff there
is in him. II he will watch house
night after night in all sorts of weather,
OF man day after day, without exciting
suspicion, it is pretty safe to employ
him regularly. A good shadow is an
important part Of a detective force. In
q great many cases Of crime there is no
clew to the criminal, but only suspi-
cion. The shadow is told to watch such
n man and see what he does, what sort
Of company he keeps, where he eresorts;
or he is told to watch house, see who
goes in and out, what the character of
the inmates is, what hours they keep.
Now, in order to do this aman must have
tact, intelligence, perseverance. He
must not only not excite the suspicious
of the suspected parties, but he must
not excite the suspicious of the police.
1t is very awkward for n detective to
give an account of himself to police
man. While the policeman may be the
most honest and faithful in the world,
it endangers the case if he knows de-
tective is around, and mentions it casu-
ally to brother policeman.
You can see that to do his work we'll
shadow must be man whose appear
ance will not provoke comment or
attract attention. You'd not make 8
good shadow. You're too tall. A very
short man won't do. In fact thor
oughly commonplace-loolying man is
the very best. He should be Young
and active. We have had office bows
who developed considerable talent at
that sort Of work. Sometimes q boy can
be used where man cannot. Ho can
hang around n house and make the
acquaintance of other boys in the neigh
borhood, and the criminal who may bo
watching from inside the house for q
chance to steal out unobseIved, may
think the coast clear when he sees that
there is no one around except two or
three boys playing marbles on the side
walk. We had case of this kind in
Baltimore at the time Of the robbery
of the Third National bank there. We
wanted to watch q house on Perry
street, and we couldn't do it with our
regular shadows. So we put a boy
there. He was playing maibles when
the man came out, and then gave the
signal which resulted in his capture.
But boys, as a rule, are not safe. They
are likely TO become too important in
their own estimation, and they may
talk. Some great criminals may be
captured by means Of shadows. The
Northampton bank robbers were shad-
owed months before the arrest of Scott
and Dunlap. Billy Connors was shad-
owed two months, and Red Leary, be-
fore his last arrest was shadowed nino
weeks by three different detectives.
"The investigator" continued Mr..
Pinkerton, " is the man who, after
crime has been committed, makes
preliminary investigation. He usually
works with the local officers. He eel
dom pretends to work in secret. He
looks the ground over, mingles with
civilians, talks with every one, and
forms his conclusions. He must be a
man of greater intelligence than is
necessary to make good shadow. He
reports the results OF his investigations,
and on his report is decided the course
to be pursued. Perhaps one result of
his report will be that a shadow is put
on certain man, and an effort is made
in that way to reach the tho truth in
the matter. Tho preliminary investi-
gator, in short, oPens The way for pri-
vate investigation.
The roper must, to speak plaiuly,
rope men in. He comes nearest to
the dime novel detective Of any in the
list, but he is great way of from that
romantic hero. The roper is simply a
gentlemanly person, social, of good
address, able to frame excuses for any
thing he may do or say, and able TO
turn the conversation in any way he
pleases. He must have Travelled, must
have good knowledge OF men, must
be an easy talker, but better listener.
"is a detectives life particularly
dangerousi"
Not in the East. No moreTso than
yours. When man has the law on his
side and attempts to arrest criminal.
there is not much danger. Criminals
are very often towards, especially our
eastern thieves aud burglars Occasion
ally a young and reckless thief will
attempt to shoot, hut such men are of
the lower order Of criminals. Burglars,
counterfeiters, forgers, and the like,
take chances of being arrested as one Of
the chances Of their business. If you
have the law on your side and go ut
them in the proper manner, You'll win
every time. There is everything in going
strong enough. II q detective is foolish
enough to go single handed into n
thieves resort he's bound to have
trouble, no matter who the criminal is.
But in the west and south a detective
takes bis life in his hand. Thedetec-
tives who are sent into Arkansas, Texas,
Missouri, Western Tennessee, Missis-
sippi, Alabama, the Indian Territory, !
and into the great south and west gen.
orally, run u tremendous risk. We lost
five men in Missouri in eight months in
looking up the James and Younger
brotners. Oar men were working for
the Adams express company at the time. |
The men who go out after such Grimm
ais earn their money every time 1 can
assure you."
"That suggests the question of pay"
"Well. the pay runs all the way from
Sl5 and $40 week to $500 a year.
Tho man that goes on a dangerous
mission doesn't necessarily get higher
wages. In fact, he does not get them.
He works for so much, and does what
he is ordered to do. But at the same
time man is not asked to do a dan.
gerous piece of work AGAINST his will.
III he hesitates, he need not go. To
succeed, a man must so willingly. OF
course the fact that man succeeds in
a dangerous piece of work is often the
means of an increase of his salary.
Why, it's like any other business, ex.