News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-04-25

'"There is all the difference in the
world, he said "between the methods
used by the secret service agents of diff
ferent countries. People who read
French novels have an idea that the dis
guises spoken of in them as being worn
by the Lecoqs of the digerent stories as
something utterly untrue. Strange as
1T may seem, however, it is true.
"a French detective who can not SO
disguise himself that his superior can
not recognize him could not find en-
ployment in any detective bureau. The
disguises are wonderful, too, and even
the strong light of day shows no imper-
fection in them.
'"There are two sorts of detectives in
France-State detectives and the munich
pal or city force. Among the former no
one knows who his fellow detectives are,
and as they never work in pairs, the ne
cessity for knowing each other is not SO
great. The workings of the French
bureau is very thorough and more
like the American method than tie
English.
"The latter never think of Disgusting
themselves, and go to work openly. IL
bank is robbed in France a new assis-
or SO aftcrward He is n detective, Of
course, and where in England the de-
tective would be called in in front of all
the employees and ask them all manner
of questions, the French would say
nothing, and nothing more would prob
ably be heard of the robbery until the
thief was caught.
'"The English have a great system of
stool pigeons. Among the vicious of all
classes, male and female, are always
those to be found who, for the sake of
being protected in certain way, carry
all the news of the crooked work done
among the swell mobsmen, as high class
thieves are called, to Scotland Yard,
where is situated the Criminal Investi-
CATION Bureau. If Harry the Swell is
flashing great deal of money about
the fact is at once reported TO the po-
lice, and if any large forgery or robbery
has recently occurred, Harry the Swell
is liable to prove an alibi. Inside the
great portico of Scotland Yard is large
case containing the photographs of all
the detectives employed by the bureau,
and the crooks or thieves can have free
access at any time to study the faces of
those who are liable to be after them at
system is not used much in America, as
the police do not put much faith in it.
I'm France or England, if the en-
ployee of big banking house is sus-
pected of Irregularities his habits are
watched and the facts ascertained,
wilhelm America a man will be set on
the track of the supposed thief, make
his acquaintance and ingratiate himself
into the suspected mans confidence
He will spend as much or more money
than the suspect, and will go into any
dissipation with him. In the event of
irregularities in any large concern, the
American detective becomes an employee
of the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES as n porter
or director of a bank. The clew and
the working up of lis made much more
of by an American than by any one
else. He will jump at conclusions from
a faint something, and frequently hit
the mark, where the stolid Britisher
would be stumbling in the dark.
''To be good detective man must
be possessed of courage, brains and
GOODNESS. There is no mystery, how
| over impenetrable it may appear, but
| what can be solved if the right methods
are employed. There was n case re-
member in Chicago.
/ found murdered one morning IN ms
office. The crime had evidently been
committed the night before, for tho
body had been cold long time, and tho
mans family had waited for him to
come to his home tho evening previous.
His valuables had been taken, the safe
had been rifled, and beyond the ghastly
bullct-hole in the mans head, there was
nothing to indicate with what the crimo
had been committed. No pistol could
be found.
81 was put on the case and reasoned
that as the robbery was evidently COM
mitted for gain the murderer must be in
poor circumstances. l visited all the
pawn shops in the city, and found that
five revolvers had been pawned between
six o'clock. the previous evening and the
morning. Three were 45-calibre, the
size evidently used to kill the man.
Two of the men were well dressed and
the other wasn't. The latter was de-
scribed to me, and / took the pawn
broker down to the different railway
depots where trains were leaving. We
went through three trains, and finally
located the man in n smoking car. L
arrested him, and much of the dead
mans property was found in his posses
sion. 1t is not much of story-if the
man hadn't pawned the pistol he would
certainly have got off, but it shows how
much little things amount to, and will
give you an idea of how detective will
go to work.
"Those who are intrusted with the
handling of large sums of money are
frequently watched by detectives, par
ticularly if any money is missing from
the institution. Bank clerks are par
ticularly liable to be kept under surveil.
lance. Not long ago a leak was known
to exist in one of the banks of this city.
Every clerk was shadowed by detect
i've, until finally the thief was discovered.
His mother made good his defalcation,
and, being 'of good family, he was per
mitted to resign The other clerks
did't know they were being watched,
but they didn't make movement but
what was observed. All was reported to
the President of the bank. 1t cost
several hundred dollars to locate the
leak.
"The life of detective is startling
enough, but it gets tiresome and monot-
onous, and expect soon to retire. l
remember one case that happened in
New York. A very swell reception was
given by one of the leaders of society.
One of the guests had laid valuable
solitaire in the ladies' dressing-room on
the wash-stand, and, forgetting it, had
left it. On her return to find it, it had,
of course, disappeared. Nobody knew
where it was. The trunks of all the SER
wants were searched, but no trace could
be found of the jewel, which was worth
S4, 900. L finally found it where it had
been pawned for $500 in pawnshop by
n French woman. / took the visiting
list of the hostess, and finally, after
weeks search, found that one of the
guests, rich woman, had a French
maid, and that she had gone to Europe
shoytly after the reception. l had TO
wait for her return, made the acquain-
tance of the maid, and took her to tho
where he identified her.
She confessed and her mistress redeem
ed the diamond and paid all the ex-
penses. / never told on her.
''You see also that pawnbrokers are
factors in our business, and
that they are frequently of service i'll de-
tecting crime. Still, pawnbrokers en-
robbers, for it there were no
shops the temptation to steal would not
be so great.
''It's n singular business in every
way" concluded the thief -taker. "Fasci-
mating i'll many ways, but like every
thing else, one gets tired of it. "-Den-