Connecticut western news., 1884-07-02
TWO DETECTIVE STORIES.
The Difference Between the English and
 French Detectives,


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 Our English detective is the exact contrary ofhis French confrere. He does not wear uniform, but he might just ns well do so, for his appearance aud dress proclaim him to be what he is as plainly ns if he was clad like x li2 of the force. He is a wellmeauing, intelligent fellow; but both his want of training and the system under which he has to work quite unit him for the detection of any crime which is hidden in mystery. l remember, some years ago, being on n visit to a couutry-house where tho iewel-case of lady visitor was stolen. 1t was quite safe when the owner had finished dressing for dinner but Q couple of hours later her maid missed it, md gave the alarm. Search was made it is needless to say, in vain. The house was full of visitors, many of whom had brought with them their own vnlets and ladies maids. besides which there was a large staff of servants belonging to the house itself. A telegram was dis. patched to Scotland Yard the next morning, md in due time two detective officers arrived from London. They ex- amined the room from which the jewell box had been taken; questioned, and, as a natural consequence, set by the ears, all the servants of the house as we'll as those of the different visitors; made in- quiries at the neighboring railway station about the travellers who had left the place during the last few days; and, finally, took their departure, leaving matters exactly where they were-where they have remained to the present day, and where they are likely to remain for all time.
 As comparison with the foregoing I may mention Q case of very similar kind which once witnessed in Paris. A friend of niue, living with his wife, daughter and male and female servant au second of large old-fashioned house, found one morning that all his plate had been stolen. It was quite safe when the family went to bed the pre-. vious night, but in the morning it had vanished. He communicated with the police; and an elderly gentleman, who looked like the manager or ono of the head clerks of & bank, was sent to the house. Neither the concierge nor any one else had the slightest idea who the individual was. He came ostensibly to see my friend on some business md only told him what this business really was. He came again the next day and the following four or five days, making his visits purposely when my friend md all his family were out SO as to have an excuse, while awaiting their return, oi talking to the servants, or of wasting . quarter of an hour in the concierge's den. He managed to ingratiate himself with this latter individual, and in the course of the next few weeks, during which time he still paid occasional wis it's, ostensibly to my friend, became quite intimate with the servant. It end ed in the concierge being arrested one fine day on the charge of having stolen the plate. This was brought about partly by something the detective had seen in the concicrge's room, but chiefly on account of what he had heard at a place where a number of the agents or brokers for stolen goods used to congre. gate for business and to which the de- tective went in the character of thief. The crime was thus discovered and the thief was duly punished.- Chambers's | Journal