Morning journal and courier., 1888-12-27
The OId How Street Runners.

From the St. James, Gazette.l
 The recent East End horrors have led 10 much discussion on the existing detective system Some notes on the system which
 preceded it may not be without interest.
 During the eighteenth century and up Mi- ehaelmas day, 1899, when Peel's scheme of
 the thew police" came into force, the main reliance of the authorities for the detection of fragrant crime was on the Bow street
 runners. Special officers were attached to each police office, as it was then called;
 though the popular phrase termed the whole
 corps Bow street Rnnners, more familiarly
 known as ''Robin Redbreasts," from their
 red waistcoats.
 Townsend, the most famous of these off,
 cials however, did not wear 8 red waist
 coat. His unvArying ordinary costume con-
 sisted of ''a white hat with broad brim, a
 light colored suit, knee brooches, gaiters or
 top boots and a faxen wig" and he carried a
 heavy cudgel or silver headed cane. Others nearly as famous were Limberham, Mac- manus, Jealous, Forester and others. But Townsend was faeile princeps, and had the reputation of having with his own hands ta. ken into custody more desperate characters than any other runner. He became favor ite with George III. and his sons and sue cessors, being latterly detailed as special at- tendant on the monarchs-au office which dated from the outbreak of the French revo- lution. Townsend most prominently showed but all his colleagues followed similar process-the points in which the success of the Bow street runners consisted. They had none of the adventitious accompanimentR which science has In various forms afforded to the detectives of to-day, but their success was most marked. Chief among their rules was that of receiving all information from l the most unlike quarters with gratitude and appreciation; and their patience that of eoll -I.s sI-G GI-ms. grip was that of bulldog when the moment arrived for action. As far as ordinary street protection went, London depended solely on parish constables by day and watchmen by night.
 In the case of mysterious murders, bur. glaries and highway robberies the rumors l did their special work we'll. They all, and | Townsend specially, had a most minute
 and far spreading knowledge of the Lon don desperadoes; and in their day the bor ough, the Warrens of St. Giles, and the in | tricate lanes and slums Gncluding the notori ons and blood stained West street, formerly Chick lane), now swept away, in the neigh borhood of Smithfeld, were full of most ferocious criminals. Townsend used to say that ''the business of the State could not go I on without the help of them as knows the I tricks of the town;" and to know the tricks of the town in every quarter, and pick uE | every shred of information from every source | was the incessant aim of the Bow street runners. They were in constant and conf, dential communication with the magistrates
 and in rough and ready style made use oi every and any aid in their investigations l Townsend himself was so feared that when | he "wanted" man he went alone into the worst house, full of murderous rufians. and simply beckoned to the one he was in search l of, who quietly came out, no other stirring | Once, crossing Hounslow Heath, three | footpads stopped his post chaise. On merely hearing his voice they incontinently fled. Al
 the Brown Bear in Bown street he was sc