The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1893-04-15
THECOUNTRY DETECTIVE
His Work Is Harder Than His City
Brothers
HIS Only Reliable Assistant Usually Is His
Tru.ty ftsvolver-A Case In Which
Ouo Used His Weapon with
Remarkable Effect.

fcSsion, recently, "s Interesting n
exciting, but out here in the 'wiIds 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
cscened murderer or train wrecker he
can't have an army of police oficers ct
his beck and call. lie ard rs revolver
have to be the whole thing, and the
only help he gets is what he has at
tho end of his weapon. 1t makes him
self-reliant and pretty hard to get
caught in 4 bad place, hut he has n
harder time than one thinks, keeping
himself free. He plays n game of
risky solitaire, in fart, and the worst
of II Is he dpe,R't even get into the pa
per. like his more fortunate, but no
hrarer, brother in the CITY,"
"All right" said one of his listeners,
as the country detective stopped 10 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 J
never did n thing that would warrant
my having my picture published in tho
newspapers"
~ should hope mott" exclaimed the
roung man, fcrvcntly.
"But," went on the other, without
noticing the interruption, "ws had cSo
man down in Kanawha county whose
life was ere 81 the saddest and at the
satpe time the busiest of any mans in
the state. Never mini his name; he
was al the head Of ali agency. and d."
| only a few months ago. He ha-
more exciting incidents in !. ~
| of his life than any mar - ta,, y,
and, if 1t Is ever h.,t
will prove as int find iIa vas =
dime novel yorvitb .be onistost -
TAU .hin and, strange to say, as
ihaS'"as 4 girl when talking of n
noe!s many fine catches he made.
S had been a newspaper man long be-
fore lie became a detective, and that
gave him a capacity for listening in
stead of talking himself. He ros rap
idly in the last profession he took up
and there is hardly Il well-known ease
in the state which he wasn't connected
with in some way. He always acqnit-
ted himself well, too, and showed he
understood the bushes. clear from A
TO u. Perfectly fearless and as agile
rs a tiger, It wasn't often that he was
caught But once ne came
near being lost, and by the grosscst.
piece of carelessness he was ever guilty
of. He had two men, as desperate
as mountainecr criminals always are,
10 his Office. They were h~andcuffed,
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 a minnie, about getting
them some water which they had asked
for. when he heard q movement in the
room. He stepped quickly back ip
time to see one of the men reaching
with both hands for a pistol belonging
to the detective, which lay on his desk.
He had his hands on it before Ely friend
could speak, but the detective prompt
ly threw a chair at him. knocked him
down, and, jumping oiear across the
in one spring, he had the weapon
and was covering the other prisoner
before either of them could move He
saved himself by his presence of mind
that time, bat he told me he wanted
me to kick him if he ever left another
prisoner in reach of his dangerous
Five years ago he was on a famous
casa tram wrecking. 1t was a hor-
rible thing; two men turned a train
into a switch running down the river,
as they afterwards confessed, because
they had a grudge against the ell
of the train. Several people
were killed, among them the conductor.
who lost his life trying to get a brake
out from under a burning car
but that is another story. As l said,
nv friend had this case, and h way |
he worked 1t was worthy Of the man.
! never saw him so tireless as he was
this time; he followed his men from
farm to farm and town to town, work
ing rs a common laborer here, as a
brakeman there. a machinist in an
other place, but keeping them in sight
all the time. Not once in three months
they eve get over half a mile away
from him. and he knew every move
they made. Aud his reward came at
last They had crossed into Ohio and
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
AMI between his tears of repentance
and drunken hiccoughs he let the
firing out. The detective
pumped him carefully and got every
particular and then put him to bed be-
lore his partner anne home. The
next day the drunk one sobcred up,
and the minute he came to his senses
be knew he had let the thing out He
went to his partner and confessed.
That evening us the detective was
home from the fields through
stretch of woods they came
IN him from behind and both of
hem went at him with rails taken
BON the fence. He got turned around
sezcfe they had struck him more than
,nce. but he " as SO dazed he couldn't
ret his pistol out Then those two
lewis stood up and beat that poor fell
over the head like they were
striking for q blacksmith. They