The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-05-23
Or like a husband
THE COUNTRY DETECTIVE
His Work Is Harder Than His City
Brothers.
His Only Reliable Assistant Usually Is His
Trusty Revolver-A Case In Which
One Used His Weapon with
Remarkable Eject.

Remarkable Eject
THE detective business, any way
you take it." said member of the pro-
fession, recently, lis interesting and
exciting, but out here in the 'wilds 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 he 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 wrecker he
can't have an army of police officers at
his beck and call He and his revolver
have to be the whole thing, and the
only help he gets is what he has at
the end of bis weapon. 1t makes him
self-reliant and pretty hard to get
caught in bad place, but he has a
harder time than one thinks, keeping
himself free. He plays a game Of
risky solitaire, in fact, and the worst
pers like his more fortunate, but no
drawer, brother In the city"
"All right, said one of his listeners,
as the country detective stopped to re-
light his cigar, ''go ahead with your
story. 1t reminds you Of"
Wrong again, young man" returned
the officer, smiling, ''for it doesn't re-
mind me of any hair breadth escapes.
Fact is. have been lucky in not get
ting into any very close places, and
never did thing that would warrant
my having my picture published in the
newspapers"
81 should hope notr' exclaimed the
young man, fervently.
But" went on the other, without
noticing the interruption, I'VE had one
man down in Kanawha county whose
life was one of the saddest and at the
same time the busiest of any mans in
the state. Never mind his name; he
was at the head of an agency, and died
only a few months ago. He had had
more exciting incidents in the course
of his life than any man ] ever knew,
and, il 1t is ever written out in full, it
will prove as interesting as any half
dime novel you could find. He was
tall, thin man, with the quietest ways
imaginable, and, strange to say, as
modest as a girl when talking of any
of the many fine catches he made
Ae had been newspaper man long be-
fore he became a detective, and that
gave him capacity for listening in
stead of talking himself He rose rap
idly In the last profession he took up,
and there is hardly well-known case
in the state which he wasn't connected
with in some way. He always acquit-
ted himself well, too, and showed he
understood the business clear from A
to 2. Perfectly fearless and as agile
as tiger, it wasn't often that he was
caught unawares. But once he came
near being lost, and by the grossest
piece of careless sness he was ever guilty
Of He had two men, as desperate
as mountaineer criminals always are,
In his Office. They were handcuffed,
but that was all, the guard having
gone to get the town officials to carry
them to jail. My friend was entertain
ing them in the meantime, and he got
up to speak to the porter in the hall
for not half minute, about getting
them some water which they had asked
for, when he heard movement in the
room. He stepped quickly back in
time to see one of the men reaching
with both hands for pistol belonging
to the detective, which lay on his desk.
He had his hands on it before my friend
could speak, but the detective prompt
" threw a chair at him, knocked him
down, and, jumping clear across the
room in one 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 If he ever left another
prisoner in reach of his dangerous
toys.
Five years ago he was on a famous
Casa tram wrecking. 1t was hor-
rible thing; two men turned a train
into switch running down the river,
as they afterwards confessed, because
they had a grudge against the en-
gineer of the train. Several people
were killed, among them the conductor,
who lost his life trying to get brake
man out from under burning car
but that is another story. AS / said,
my friend had this case, and the way
uC WOt6C0 ~ W 90 WI eAAJ "a viz A4beA-
never saw him 80 tireless as he was
this time; he followed his men from
farm to farm and town to town, work.
ing as common laborer here, as q
brakeman there, machinist in an
other place, but keeping them in sight
all the time. Not once in three months
did they ever get over half mile away
from him, and he knew every move
they made. And his reward came at
last They had crossed into Ohio and
were working as harvest hands-all
three of them-for he had used so
many DISCUSSES they didn't know him
and one night one Of them got drunk
and between his tears of repentance
and drunken hiccoughs he let the |
whole thing out The detective |
pumped him carefully and got every |
particular and then put him to bed be-
fore his partner came home The |
next day the drunk one sobered up, |
and the minute he came to his senses |
he knew he had let the thing out He |
went to his partner and confessed.
That evening as the detective was |
going home from the fields through |
stretch of woods they came |
on him from behind and both of |
them went at him with rails taken
from the fence. He got turned around |
before they had struck him more than
once, but he was so dazed he couldn't !
get his pistol out. Then those two
devils stood up and beat that poor fell
low over the head like they were
striking for blacksmith. They |
knocked him to his knees three times
but they didn't know their man. He
was grit from hair to heel, and the
third time he went down the pistol got
out. and as they started to run he
emptied all seven shots into them,
every one taking effect, which was GER
tainly remarkable, considering his con-
dition. One of them was killed and /
the other was wounded in both legs
They were all three quiet when the
reat of the hands came running up, but
the detective came to Ia time to tell |
them who he was and what had hap
pened. II was q fine thing for my /
"a a