The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1893-06-01
THE COUNTRY DETECTIVE
His Work Is Harder Than His City
Brothers
His Only Reliable Assistant Usually Is His
Trusty ReyoIver--A Case In which
Oae Used His Weapon with
Remarkable Effect.

you take 1t, " said n member Of the pro-
fession, recently, sis interesting and
exciting, but out hero In the 'wtids Of
West Virginia the dangers go way by
those met with In regular city work.
The city detective has all the help and
needful accessories ne wants; out here
he, has to be the entire force himself.
for when he Is wandering around
among these mountains looking for an
escaped murderer or train wreclter he
can't have an army of police officers at
his beck and call He aud his revolver
have to be the whole thing, and the
only help he gets is what he has at
the end Of his weapon II makes him
self-reliant and pretty hard TO get
caught In o bad place, but he has a
harder time than one thinks, keeping
himself free. He plays i game Of
risky solitaire, In fact, and the worst
Of It is he doesn't even get into the pa
pers like his more fortunate, but no
Drawer. brother In the city. :"
"All right" said one Of his listenern,
ns the country detective stopped to re-
light his cigar. ''go ahead with your
story. It reminds you Of"
S Wrong again. young man. returned
the officer, smiling, for It doesn't re-
mind me Of any hair breadth escapes.
Fact IL. I have been lucky In not got
ting into any very close places. and
never did q thing that would warrant
my having my picture published In the
newspapers"
II should hope noti'' exclaimed the
young man, fervently.
But" went on tho other, without
noticing the interruption, Eve had one
man down in Kanawha county whose
life was one Of the saddest and at the
the state Never mind his name, he
was ut the head Of an agency, and died
only few months ago. He had had
more exciting incidents In the course
Of his life than any man ! ever knew,
and, If 1t is ever written out In full, 1t
will prove as interesting as any half
dime novel you could find He was a
tall, thin man, with the quietest ways
imaginable, and, strange to say. as
modest as a girl when talking of any
AZ the many fine catches he made
ne had been newspaper man long be-
fore he became detective, and that
gave him o capacity for listening In
stead OF talking himself. He rose8rap
idly In the last profession he took up.
and there Is hardly q well-known case
in the state which he wasn't connected
with In some way. He always acqnit-
ted himself well, too. and showed no
understood tho business clear from A
to q Perfectly fearless and as agile
as a tiger, 1t wasn't often that he was
caught unawares. But once he came
near being lost, and by tho grossest
piece Of carelessneks he was ever guilty
Of He had two men, as desperate
a. monntaineer criminals always are,
In his Office. They were handcufred,
but that was all, the guard having
gone to got the town officials to carry
them to fail. Ny friend was entertain.
ing them In the meantime, and he got
up to speak to the porter In tho hall
for not half minute, about getting
them some water which they had asked
for, when no heard movement IL the
room. He stepped quickly back In
time to see one Of the men reaching
with DObn H8uuo tON y PABtOA UClOA1kAuk
to the detective, which lay on his desk.
He had his hands on 1t before my friend
could speak, but the detective prompt
" threw chair at him, knocked him
down. and. jumping clear across the
room In ono spring, he had the weapon
and was covering the other prisoner
before either of them could move He
saved himself by his prese nee Of mind
that time, but he told me he wanted
me to kick him II he ever left another
prisoner In reach Of his dangerous
toys
Five years ago hc was on famous
case--a tram wreclxing. TWAS q hor-
ribie thing; two men tnTned afrains
into d switch running down the fivef,
as they Afterwards confessed. because
they had grudge against thesrer-
gineer Of the train. Several people
were killed, among them The conEiuclor,
who lost-his life trying TO gct brake
man out from under o burning car
but that Is another story As said,
my friend had this case, and the way
he worked 1t was worthy Of the man
l never saw him 40 tireless as he was
this time; he followed his men from
farm to farm and town to town, work
ing "a q common laborer here, as q
brakeman there. machinist In an
other place, but keeping them In sight
IT, s