Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-07-18
AIInn Pinkerton. nc,cc,iyc.

Few lives have been as crowded with exct-
ing incidents as Allen Pinkerton's, the famous
detective, who died at Chicago last week.
Even before he became a detective he had
gone through the political excitement of the
Chartist movement in Glasgow, his native
city and since he made the ferretng out of
crime profession his name has been identi-
fed with much of the most stirring and bril-
liant detective work done in this country. His
reputation was not fictitious. 1t had solid
reasoning and hard work for a basis.
Pinkerton may be said to have inherited his
police instincts for his father wrs a sergeant
of police in Glasgow. In 1927, when Allan
was nine years old, Sergeant Pinkerton died
of injuries received during struggle with
prisoner. Allan found employment in the
print-works of Neil Murphy, who is still re-
siding in Glasgow. Subsequently he learned
the cooper's trade. At nineteen he was car
ried along with the Chartist movement. When
the movement was put down by the govern
ment, Allan, hearing that he was in danger of
being prosecuted for seditious conduct, mar
ried his betrothed, Joan Carfral, and sailed
for this county with her.
This was in 1912. They were shipwrecked
but rescued, and landed at Quebec. The
young couple drfted to Montreal and Toron-
to, and finally made their way to Chicago by
the great lakes. Here John Anderson, the to.
bacconist, found employment for him in a
brewery. But Allan, finding wages small
moved to Dundee, Kane county, whore he set
up a cooperage. He was successful almost
from the very start. And now occurred the
chance incident which shaped his career-he
found his opportunity and turned it to the
best account Money was pretty tight in H.
linois in those days, and checks on certain
we'll known moneyed institutions were circu-
lated in its place Those of the Milwaukee
Fire Insurance Company were poorly engrav.
ed and easily counterfeited, and large numbers
of spurious checks were put in circulation by
gang of counterfeiters. Pinkerton was one
of the sufferers by these. He was in the hab
it of visiting a group of islands in the Fox
River to obtain material for his stock. One
day by the merest accident he stumbled on
counterfeiters' plant on one of the islands.
He kept careful watch, managed to identify
the leaders, and then with such assistance as
he coOld obtain, proceeded to break up the
gang. He had several desperate encounters,
in which he was twice shot, but finally ran the
gang down. He carried into that first detec-
tive job the maxim that guided him in every
thing he undertook, viz, whatever is worth
doing at all is worth doing we'll
The exploit earned him considerable repu-
taton, and he was made deputy sheriff for
Kano county. lie entered into his now pur-
cured for him an appointment to the more
important office of deputy to William A,
Church. of Chicago, the sheriff of Cook
county. After serving under Church and his
successor, he was appointed on the city de.
tective force. A brief experience here show
cd him the evil effects of carrying on detec-
tive system under the control of a semipoiti-
cal body like an American municipal police
force He saw the feasibility of establishing
an independent detective bureau and ii 1852,
at Chicago, "Piukerton's Detective Agency"
swung out its first sign. Some half-dozen
men were employed at the start. Two of
these were George II. Bangs, who died last
year. having risen to be superintendent of the
system, and Timothy Webster, who was hung
AZ Union spy in Richmond during the war,
Pinkerton's system is very different from that
in vogue in our municipal force The deteo-
tiyes of the latter are well known to the Grim
iuas, and probably more carefully watched
by the criminals than the criminals are by
them. In the Pinkerton system the detec-
tiyes are skillfully disguised there being full
sets of costumes in each branch office.
Pinkerton's success was in "A great measure
due to his stubborn adherouoo to several rules
he regarded as cardinal. In the first place he
laid it down as a maxim that a criminal can
not keep crime secret. lie has to tell ii to
some one, sooner or later, and Pinkerton
trained his men to be that some one. He also
made it a rule to employ honest reliable men.