The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1881-09-02
MODERN DETECTIVE WORK.
[G. II. Pinkerton in II. Y. Sun.l

tives are divided into three general
classes: shadows, investigators and
ropers. When Il man begins the busi-
ness he is put at shadowing. 1t is an
excellent way to try him and sec what
stuff there is in him. If he will watch
a house night after night, in all sorts
of weather, or man day after day,
without exciting suspicion, it is pretty
safe to employ him regularly. A good
shadow is an important part of d detec-
tive force. In a great many cases of
crime there is no clew to the criminal,
but only a suspicion. The shadow is
told to watch such a man and see what
he does, what sort of company he
keeps, where he resorts or he is told to
watch house, sec who goes in and
out, what the character of the inmates
is, what hours they keep. Now in
order to do this, a man 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. It
is very awkward for a detective to have
give an account of himself to a
policeman. While the policeman may
be the most honest and faithful in the
world, it endangers the case if he knows
a detective is around, and mentions it
casually to brother policeman. You
can see that to do his work we'll q
shadow must be 4 man whose appear
ance will not provoke comment or at
tract attention.. You'd not make a good
shadow. You're too tall. A very short
man won't do. In fact, Il thoroughly
man is the very
best. He should be young and active.
We havo had Office boys who develop
Ell considerable talent for that sort of
work. Sometimes Il boy can be used
where \ man cannot. He can hang
around 4 house, make the acquaintance
Of other, boys in the ncighborhood, and
Tho criminal, who may bo watching
from inside the house for q chance to
steal out unobserved, may think the
coast clear when he sees that there is no
one around except two or three boys
playing marbles on thesido walk. We
had 4 case Of this kind in Baltimore at
tho time of the robbery of the Third
National Bank there. We wanted to
watch house in Perry street, and wo
couldn't do it with any of our regular
shadows. So We put a boy there. He
was playing marbles when the man
camo out, and then gave the signal
that resulted in his capture. But boys,
as 4 rule, arc not safe. They are likely
and they may talk. Some
great criminals have been captured by
means of shadows. The Northampton
Bank robbers were shadoWed months
before Scott and Dunlap were arrested.
Billy COnncrS was shadoWed two
months, and Red Lcary, before his
last arrest, was shadowed nine weeks
by three different detectives.
tsThc investigator continued Mr..
"is the man who, after a
crime is committed, makes pre-
liminary Investigation. lie usually
works with the local officers. Hc sell
dom pretcnds to works in secret. He
looks the ground over, minglcs with
civilians, talks with every one, and
forms his conclusions. He must be a
man of greater intelligence than is
necessary to make q good shadow. He
reports the results of his Investigations,
and on his report is decided the course
to be pursued. Perhaps the result of
his report will be that a shadow is put
on certain man, and an effort is made
in that way to reach tho truth in the
The preliminary Investigator,
in short, opens the way for private
t'Thc roper must, to speak plainly,
rope men IN. lie comes nearest to
the dime novel detective of any in the
list, but he is Il great way Off from that
romantic hero. The roper is simply
person, social, of good adj
dress, able to frame excuses for any
thing Inc may do or say, and able to
turn tho conversation in any way he
pleases. lie must have Travelled, must
have Il good knowledge of men, must
be an easy talkcr, but q better lis
tcncr''
"Is detectives life particularly
?''
"Not in the East. No more SO than
yours. When Il man has the law on
his side and attempts to arrest a crim-
inal, there is not much danger. Grim
inaIs are very often towards, especially
our Eastern thieves and burglars.
Occasionally O young and reckless thief
will attempt TO shoot, but such men
arc of the lower order of criminals.
Burglars, counterfcitcrs, 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 at them in 4 proper manner, you'll
win every time. There is everything
in going strong enough. If detective
is foolish enough to go single handled
into thieves resort he's bound to
have trouble, no matter who the crimi-
nal is. But in the West and South q