The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-03-05
SLEUFHS IN HIGH LIFE,

The dude detective is a much more
mportant parsonage in sWelldom than
formerly. Since the theft Of 100000
worth Of gems belonging to Mrs. !.
Townsend Burden, and a score or
more scarcely less important robber-
les, the smart women who wear $780,
600 worth Of jewels at the various soci-
ETY. functions have felt more than
nervous.
But the dude detective is not of a
recent creation. He has always been
g more or less important part Of the
gaieties of fashionable life, but just
now he is treated with considera ton,
as fine as if he were an English duke
on a wife-hunt. All this is pleasing to
the vanity of the dude detective. He
feels that he is the equal of the mill
lonaire, or of the most expert cOtillion
leader of the season. Beautiful bellies
smile on him, ravishing matrons looE
kindly on him, and the heads of solid
families treat him with courtly civility.
1t must not be inferred, from this,
that the dude detective is an amateur
in his business. On the other hand, he
Is the best of his kind. Usually he is
the cleverest man in the central office
Of the regular police force At times
men belonging to agencies are hired to
do the work, but as a central office
man can be had for the asking, the
outside men are rarely called upon.
The men detailed by Acting Capt.
O'Brien, the present head of the de-
tective force, to do society work, are
always selected because of their broad
knowledge of criminals. They are the
men Who have been long enough in
the service to know all the great
frauds of the past generation and with
a memory retentive enough to recog-
nlze one of the gentry in less than no
time. ,s.rr...
They must always possess another
qualification, and that is, the art of
wearing an evening suit gracefully
and to appear thoroughly at home
amid the splendors of society. There
are some very able men attached to
the central office, but they would be of
no earthly use at Patriarch's ball or
at an Assembly dance. In the first
place, it is impossible for many of the
detectives to discard the "sleuth'' look,
an earmark which would brighten an
experienced crook into a hiding place
in jiffy. : :.
Then there are number who would
be painfully ill at ease in dress suit
and surrounded by bevy of gorgeous
lyzgoWned women and fashionable
~1iaen. They would be so overpowered
that their professional usefulness
would amount to nothing. For these
reasons the dude detective is quite
superior person compared with the
ordinary sleuth.
Z In the old days of the central Office
when Byrnes was at. the wheel, two
men, McCloskey and Crowley, were
known as the society men, They were
always fashionably dressed, and
looked like Wall street men rolling on
the hlgh wave of prosperity more than
anything else. They had both made
$envlable records as thief-takers, and
mad been sent to all parts Of the world
TO bring back criminals apprehended
In foreign countries. But the advent
OF Rooseveltism in the police depart
ment showed them into the back
ground.
Now the work is divided among a
variety Of men, some of them not so
well chosen as in the former days.
During the sason, this class Of work
requires considerable attention on the
part of the central Office, for if clev-
er crook were allowed to srnuggle him
eslf into an assembly of jewelbe-
decked women and deftly gather up a
pocketful of the gems, the scandal
would be great, and some official heads
would surely be decapitated.
The society detective is called upon
to Otf1ciate at fashionable weddings, at
Large banquets, at dances and recep-
tons. He is always the first to ar
rive, and while the guests are troop
Ing IN he takes up a comforta BILE posi-
ton near the door, where he can scru-
tinize the faces Of all those who enter.
Nearly all the -Four Hundred are
known by sight to the experienced
dude detective, both the men and the
women. When the strange face APP.
pears he makes a mental note Of it,
and later asks some one he knows who.
the lady or gentleman is
Keeps Up With the Fashions
He always follows the fashions care
fully, so as to appear exactly like the
men in the smart set If duty calls
him to an afternoon wedding he wears
a long sfrock coat, gray trousers, pat