San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-01-27
THE FACE OF A CROOK
WHY 1T Is THAT A THIEF is GEN.
ERALLY DETECTED.

tray Him to Officers of the Law.
"Police! Police! Where's the police?
Some thief's stolen my pocketbook!"
A tall, bearded and excited country
man yelled out these words in the Grand
Central depot one morning some months
ago. The alarm created the usual ex-
citement which follows the announce
ment of a robbery in crowd. Some of
the stream of arriving and departing
travellers stopped in their places to has
dly ascertain whether or not their own
wallets We're safe. Others crowded
around the countryman in eager curios-
ity to hear what he had to say. Some
of the chemically cautious hurried their
steps trife from tn, scene of trouble
and looked back somewhat fearfully at
the big policeman who was elbowing
his way vigorously toward the center Of
the crowd.
Any one of the score of people who did
not stop might be the thief. The rob-
berry had Just "come off," for the coun-
tryman had set up his outcry the mo-
ment his wallet was jerked by some
mysterious force from his fingers. Now.
in all this confusion of hurrying people,
how was suspicion to be pointed toward
any particular man? One would say
impossible. But one would be wrong.
A plainly dressed man, with sharp,
black eyes, who had been standing in
the door of the restaurant when the cry
of robbery went up, stepped quietly out
of the doorway and turned his keen eyes
in a series of quick chances to right an
left. He did not once look at the coun
TRUMAN or the little crowd around him.
but in ten seconds he had scanned with
lightning rapidity the face of every per-
son who was walking away. A sudden
look, as though of recognition, and he
walked quickly, unhesitatingly toward a
rather well dressed man who was carry
ing small valise ~ the stairway. He
overlook him at the top OF the stairs and
tapped him on the shoulder.
you are my prisoner" he said.
The thief was found.
WHY HE WAS RECOGNIZED.
How did the detective know him? That
is complex question to answer. Nat
ural Instinct of an order unclassed in
human psychology is what makes the
detective. A fox hound has it, and it
makes the dog hunt foxes and find them
and catch them where other dogs would
fail impotently or through lack of effort
If this instinct was lacking in the man
he would be no detective. He would
not only lack ability in thief catching,
but would have no disposition to go into
the business. 4,
This instinct which tempts him into
his distasteful and often perilious call
ing is developed by experience and OBJ
servation and constant study until it be-
comes almost a supernumerary sense.
He knows thief when he sees him, if
it is for the first time. 1t sounds i'm
possible, doesn't it? But it has been
proved hundreds of times.
Physiognomy has something to do with
it; fund of knowledge of the tricks and
devices of the escaping robber, a quick
perception of tiny details which lead to
suspicion, supersensitiveness to the
hints of circumstance. all go to make up
the professional instinct of the detective.
But the most powerful element of all,
and that which all serve but to REINFORCE,
is the mysterious sort of animal magnet
ism which tells a detective-a genuine
detective-that thief's thief.
The man who was arrested in the
Grand Central depot was afterward
proved to be professional pickpocket.
He made bold front when the detective
asked him for a moments conversation
and became highly indignant before the
cause of his detention was told. This Is
the mistake which nearly every petty
thief makes. The countryman's wallet
was found on him, and witnesses re-
membered having seen the thief walk
out of the crowd and pick up his yalise
Just before the cry of robbery was raised.
They would never have remembered the
circumstance if the detective had not
stopped the thief as he was escaping.
HOW THIEF is PICKED OUT.
"How do pick out thiefY said one
of the cleverest detectives at police head
quarters in response to a question.
well, there's whole lot of things that
help man to pick out thief, but it's
hard to just say in words what they are.
Any fly copper will tell You that there is
something characteristic about the APP
pearance of every thief. And it's only
good sense to believe it.
"If man spends his whole time study
ing thieves faces, haunts and habits, he's
bound to get the thing down pretty fine
if he has anything of head on him. I
don't say that you can pick top notcher
"a CON man or bunko sharp-out of
a crowd because he's mighty smsrt
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