Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1884-11-07
MODERN HAWKSHAW WIS.
The Requisites for Successful Career AZ
Detective. ;eI.

The Requisites for a Successful Career AZ
Detective. ;al@
From the Philadelphia Times. All +.
Hooking back over my twenty years
experience Icannot say that + regret
my choice Of q profession. remarked a
detective at one Of the city agencies
yesterday.
"What are the requisites OF good
ietective?" asked reporter who had
been listening to his stories.
"Fearlessness, GOODNESS and self-con-
5rol, Without these man can never
be perfect detective, for though
be may be useful in some branches
Of the business he can never at
tain to the highest eminenee in
all Of them. He must also have strong
perceptive faculties, and that power Of
generalization which will enable him to
lump at once to correct conclusions.
Memory is one of his most important
essentials. One sight of a face must
imprint it 50 indelibly upon his recol-
lection that he can never forget it, and
be must remember not only the face IT.
self, but the time, place and clrcum-
stances with which it is associated. A
memory Of faces alone is not sufficient.
The detective must have a strong mem
orv for names, numbers and dates as
well. He must be intelligent and there
is no knowledge of any kind that may
not some time be of value to him in his
profession. His eyesight and bearing
should be Of the best and he should Gull
tiyate q power of observation which
will enable him to carefully note,
without seeming to do so, every
thing by which he is surrounded.
STAGE AND REAL DETECTIVES.
"Detectives in real life are very
different from those IN novels and plays.
The latter are represented as wearing
various DISCUSSES, such as wigs, false
whiskers. ETC., which they suddenly
pull off at the most unexpected mo-
ments, thereby revealing their identity.
Dion Boucicauit, in one Of his plays,
represents detective who is quite q
young man as making himself up for
quite an elderly gentleman of more
than 60 and going about in broad day
light, holding conversations with peo-
pie who know him we'll in propria per-
sonle without discovery. Charles Reade
and Wilkie Collins do the same thing
in some of their novels. This is simply
nonsense. 1t is utterly impossible for
the most skiIlful hair worker to make
ND O. wig or a set of false wh1skers that
cannot be detected as false when worn,
and every theatre goer knows that the
most sllllful artists in make up can
not put upon their faces the lines and
wrinkles which indicate age in such q
way as to deceive, even when aided by
the glamor Of the footlights. No de-
tective in real life ever attempted to
wear any such disguise. Detectives on
the stage are usually debonair indi-
viduals. in neat suits and mutton chop
whiskers. In real life there is nothing
distinctive il the deep appearance and
manner Of detectives any more than
there is in those of lawyers or mer-
chants. For nv own part, am more
frequently taken for 'well-to- do
farmer than anything else"
"They don't become; they have a
natural gift in that direction. Detec-
tives like poets, are born, not made.
Many of them begin as amateurs. For
instance, something occurs in THEN
own lives which causes them to turn
detective for their own purposes. They
work up the case successfully; they
frd they like the work and they en-
bark in it as business. You know
that is the way Allan Pinkerton began,
He lived IN the far west, and having
horses stolen from him on several occa-
sions he traced out the thieves in every in
stance. brought them to justice and re-
covered his property.
"You would be surprised to fad how
clever some amateur detectives are. [
know young Chestnut street merchant
who would make one OF the greatest Of
ali detectives il he would follow the
! business. He wanted to find out the
whereabouts and antecedents of a young
fellow whom he suspected in q certain
manner He employed detectives, but
they could discover nothing. Finally
he began to look into the matter him
self, and, although the man he was
after had left the city and covered up
his tracks, I'm blest if he didn't find
out everything there was to find. He
discovered the address of girl on Race
street to whom the MIN had been paying
attentions.
He called on her, represented himself
as a lawyer, said that her lover would
inherit fortune if his identity could
he established, and in order to do that
he'd have to have some specimens of his
handwriting, and he persuaded her to
let him have two of the love letters the
fellow had written her. That was ais
neat piece of detective work as I ever
heard Of.
HE LACKED SELF CONTROL.
cit often happens that man fails to
be good general detective through the
lack of some one quality. Thus, I en-
ployed a young fellow once who I
thought would make splendid detect
i've. He had everything in his favor,
possessing splendid physique and adj
pearance. an elegant and insinuating ad-
dress, great shrewdness, remarkable
quickness Of perception, and, in short,
every requisite of great detective, ex-
cept one, as I afterwards discovered
He was lacking in self-control, having
an ungoverned temper, to which he
gave way on slight provocation. This
great fault was not apparent at first,
however, and assigned him to num-
Der of difficult cases, which he worked
up very satisfactorily. At last I re-
solved to test his skill to the utmost and
set him to try and extort confession