Connecticut western news., 1888-05-16
PINKERTON'S MEN.
A Little Army that is Always
 Ready for Private Hire.
The Uses to Which They are
 Put, and Their Armament.

The Uses to Which They are
 Put, and Their Armament. There is in America a private busl- ness concern capable of suddenly bring ing into action anywhere in tho land, at the bidding of individuals or corpora tions rich enough to pay for their ser vices, large bodies of men armed, equipped, and drilled for offective mili-. tary service. Thus far nothing has cc- cured that has seemed to require the development of such force in greater numbers, at any one point, than 500 mon, but the system by which they are put into the field is perfected to such an extent that there is hardly question of the ability to muster 5000 with almost equal promptitude. The concern con- trolling this military strength is Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, tho headquarters of which are in Chicago, with branches in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, St. Paul, and Denver. While therc is nominal dividing line between the detective ser vice and the field of duty of the "prc- ventive patrol" or military branch, in point of fact they work together, and arc SO far changeable that the latter is offered from the former, when called into requisition, and that men demon strating peculiar talent therefor may be promoted from the patrol, which is an emergency employment to the perma- nency of the regular detective force. As to the system of organization and direction of the Pinkerton army, Mr. l H. G. Julian, who is one of MT. Robert Pinkcrton's principal aids In this city, says: "Telling you how we can here bring | into almost immediate service body of say 150 men, or more if required, will give you sufficiently comprehensr sive idea of our arrangements in the five other cities in which our branches are now established, the system in all being l about the same. Ia the first place, we have as our regular detective force body of thoroughly trained men, many of them brought up from youth in this employment, mon whom wo know to be cool, resolute, courageous, faithful, and resourceful. From these, when the> occasion arises, we Ulcer our compape ies of men enlisted for special duty. But we have also among those men good many who arc employed by us pretty much all the time, atleast during the spring, summer, and autumn, and who, consequently, are we'll trained and known to us as In every way per- fectly trustworthy. For instance, we supply by contract every summer from twenty-five to thirty men for the pro- lection of the public and the preserva- tion of order at Glen Island, and as many more at Man haitian Beach; for the spring, summer, and fall racing seasons we supply sixty or seventy men to the Coney Island Jockey club and about like number to the Brooklyn Jockey club, and then we havo smaller detach- ments on special services, such as the guarding of Vanderblts tomb, or tenn porary protection of stores of heavy im- porters of silks when they have unusually large stocks of valuable goods on hand. Taken all iu all, there are probably 200 men thus en- ployed by us-in work apart from the detective service--pretty much all the year, and of these we can command the services of at least 150 at very few hours notice, even out of their ordinary seasons of employ ment, since we keep all their addresses and they understand that they arc liable to be called upon for duty at any moment. Those men will serve as the nucleus of as large force as may be demanded. Then we have on record list of several hundred picked men from among the thousands who have applied to us for employ ment, all of whom have come to us we'll recom- mended, and whose character, record, and associations we have had thoroughly investigated by our own detectives. They arc also supposed to be ready to serve upon call at any moment, and, in point of fact, at least three or four hundred of them would respond immediately. In summer we, of course
 could not spare so many of our regular men for an extraordinary service, but we would still have enough to serve as a nucleus, especially since we arc so careful in our selection of the listed volunteers, among whom we always, by the way, give the prefcren co to men who have honorable discharges from the army, equal qualification otherwise being understood.
 1.-The largest number the Pinkerton agencies have ever had to furnish for emergency service at any one point was 500. That was on the occasion of the stock yards strike iu Chicago in 1886. In 1887, from January until March, we had to keep GOO men on duty at tho coal yards of Hoboken and Borgon Point. It costs something to employ large force of Pinkertou men, the charge for them being $5 day each in addition to