Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-02-26

men,, or plCKpOck0tS, VI UoAoiB
some one Of the many distinct classe
Of professional thieves. Some hav
rather limited specialties, like VIM
B. Toule, for instance. who work
doctors offices only, stealing valuabl
Instruments, or James Lee, ala
Hartman, alias Coleman, whose regu
liar scheme is to act as Custom Hous
Collector, giving bogus orders TO
packages at the Custom House, afte
the victim has paid the supposed
charges on the same. The method o
procedure of a given class of thieves
Il is about the same in all cases
variations are easily recognizable
Occasionally, of course. an ingen
Iious fellow turns up with something
lnew, but not often. A young detec
tive has at first only to acquaint him
self with the general lines in which
various classes of thieves work, and
he must be always willing and eager
to learn something new. I'd rather
take a brand new man, bright and en-
thusiastic, and teach him the profes
sion, than have a man who knew q
good deal about thieves and thought
he knew it all. The moment you meet
a man who knows it all, you meet a
fool. And the days are few and fal
between in which l cannot learn
something between the time I get UP
and the time 1 go to bed"
INSPECTOR BYRNEs' FORCE.
GLOW about the makeup of your
own force here?"
"I have fifty men under me. Most
of them are American-born, l believe.
The way they come up is about this,
usually: A young man is one Of three
or four children his father belongs to
the ordinary walks of life, and can
only give him good common school
education. The young fellow learns
a trade. He soon finds in that the
best he can do is to earn SO day,
and that only during ten months
of the year. He is ambitious
and intelligent, and wants to do
better. II he can get on the
police force he has steady employ
ment at $l00 per month, which is
better than he can do in his trade.
After he gets on the force, if he has
some native shrewdness and pluck he
attracts attention to himself. As O
patrolman he is serving his appren-
ticeship, learning the ways of thieves,
or adding in a regular way to the
helter-skelter knowledge he had
picked up before. If he is ambitious
and thorough he will not remain a
patrolman. 1t may be two, even five
years, but lie is bound to rise. A
man must help himself; he must
show what is in him. When find
a man with the needed experience
aud knowledge of the criminal classes
together with natural aptitude for
detective work, bring 1 him up here.
But in every case he has had police
training before he is put on the de-
tective force"
"Does this apply to your case, In
spector?"
"Most ce rtainly." was the reply.
"Let me see. I've been on the force
about twenty five years. | became a
patrolman in the Fifteenth precinct
in 1862. The Fifteenth, number of
wears ago, was in the heart of New
York, about what the Twenty-ninth
is now, full Of low resorts OF all kinds.
1t was there that got good knowl-
edge of thieves. l was naturally am
bilious and took an interest in my
work, but it was five or six wears be-.
fore got up to roundsman. We used
to have in those days what we called
car detectives, and it was in that ca
pacity got my start. 1t was in 1869
| became Sergeant, and the next year
Captain.
"But it was not until 1879 that /
was given the duty of reorganizing
this department. There were only
twenty-eight or thirty men then; /
have increased the number to fifty.
Ten of these constitute the proba-
tionary corps. (They are called de-
tective officers and receive $l2OO per
weary The rest are now ranked as
detective Sergeants and receive the
same pay as police Sergeants. As
fast as there are vacancies among the
Sergeants members of the Detective
Once Corps are promoted.
81 want to speak right here of a
couple of fallacies of the popular
mind in regard to the de-
tective business. First, the old
idea of setting a thief to catch a
thief is all nonsense. Why, you
could not trust your man-would
have to have another to watch hm.
No. you must have thoroughly honest
and reliable men. OF course, we
sometimes get information from one
thief about another, but never do we
employ a man who has ever been a
crook. The second popular fallacy is
that the detective is a regular variety
and lightning-chanee man. who at
will undergoes transformatiyn of ap-
pearance aud language. something
like the DIR. Jekyll and Mr.. HYDE
business. People fancy that collec-
ton Of wigs, whiskers, moustaches
and makeup apparatus, together
with a wardrobe that wonld put va
riety actor to shame, is regular and
necessary part Of the outfit of de-
tective bureau. That is all buncombe,
You get that in dime novels and
French detective stories. Years ago
in foreign countries that kind of thing
was, perhaps. resorted to, but never
nowadays. The most a man does
here, perhaps, is to change clothes.
II was just speaking moment ago
about the reorganization of the de-
tective bureau. The first thing we
did after increasing the force OF de-
tective Sergeants was to establish an
Office in the Stock Exchange. This
was in 1880. Before that time it was
a matter of almost daily occurrence
to have messenger boys robbed, tin
boxes stolen; indeed, the whole
lower portion of the city was infested
with thieves of all sorts. There had
probably been seven millions of dol
lars stolen between 1875 and 1880,
when we put a sub-office on
Wall street. Twelve men were
stationed there; always one or