The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-11
SCOTLAND YARDS SYSTEM.
METHODS EMPLOYED BY THE MEN
WHO FOLLOWED lyman.

Charing CrOss-The COmmi ssiOn er
and the Troubles He Used to Have
TO UndergO-TeIephOni AmrOnts
to His Dignity-LondOn Detectives
Work Through Reports and Cheap
CriminaIs-COnsider 1t Underhand-
ed to Go Secretly or Disguised.
Peculiar Powers of the Detectives.
f. A in the Chicago Times-Herald
The achievement of Inspector Melville
in nipping an alleged Fenian-nihilist plot
in the bud is calculated to confirm the
popular impression that with the Scot
land Yard detective "all wickedness is
print" as in Mrs. Camps estimate it was
to young Bailey. He seems to be never
SO happy as when telling the world of his
deeds, and, as happening in 1884, a great
plot may blossom under his feet while the
public is applauding.
AT the time, while the yard was hilari-
ously celebrating the arrest of DAILY in
Liverpool, bombs were quietly placed un-
der the government palaces in Westmin-
ster and the criminal investigations de-
partment in Scotland Yard itself. The
Saturday Review sarcastically inquired
for the cat who had pulled the Birming-
ham chestnuts out of the fire for the Sc
cret service to display as evidence of their
valor. Many comparisons were drawn be-
tween the French system of catching
crimianls and the English system of fail
ing to do the same. Scotland Yard is
not nearly to omnipotent and omnipresent
as it seems. 1t makes the most of the
occasions when somebody informs" to
reap it's glory.
Scotland Yard is a peculiar institution.
1t is the head of the municipal police sys-
tenn and also the secret service depart
ment of the British government, under
direct control of the home office, and there
fore part of the imperial government. A
few years ago its dignity was so little I'M
derstond that a man was as apt as not
to call up the commissioner over the tele
phone to demand that an officer be sent
to London bridge to find his keys, or that
one would kindly come to assist an in
ebriated gentleman into a cap and see
him home.
This incensed the commissioner so that
he cut off communication with the wire
rescrving the right to connect the office
in urgent cases. The public would have
followed him into his sanctum If they
could have found him. AS it was, they
wrote letters to the Times, and their
wrath was appeased.
Five years ago, if a man wanted to see
any particular officer of the Yard, he had
to take a day off to do it. The head
quarters were at Charing Cross, which,
as everybody knows, is at Charing Cross
Station, by the bridge, just off the strand,
and overlooking the Victoria embank-
ment, which is definite enough if, when
you got there, you could put your finger
on spot and say This is Charing
Cross" Very likely any cabby would tell
you you were standing on the spot. All
You had to do then was to find the south
east corner of it, and there you were.
A curious medley of stables, outhouses,
temporary offices. sheds and private
houses each more inconvenient than the
other, and all connected by a labyrint thine
web of passages, so that half Whitechapel
could have hidden in them and Jack the
Ripper defied pursuit-and that was Scot
land Yard 1.-The accommodations are
simply scandalous," the London press
declared, but nobody got excited, and
it had stood there a good while.
1t was anciently the site of the Saxon
palace for the reception of the kings of
Scotland when visiting London, and as
such was actually Scotland's yard, back
and front, when the jewellers were i'm
mune from the laws of England. Every
vestige of the palace has been obliterated,
except in the inner court, where there
are some curious chevrons on an old arch,
such as may be traced at Melifont Abbey
in Ireland 1t stood literally at the tail
end of the backbone of old
London, the head being West
minister, with st. Pauls at the other
end. The way of any procession lay along
the Strand, which overlooked the river.
The embankment was about as safe as the
Scottish border.
But the antiquarian has no cause to
weep over the destruction of the wretch
ed building assigned to the convict office
and the detached barn of two floors, al
lotted to the public carriage department,
which the dynamiters attempted to blow
up when it was occupied by the criminal
investigation department. This gloomy
medley of rotten buildings have all dis
appeared, and Great Scotland Yard is no
more. In 1891 the new building rose on the
embankment, within. bow shot of the
home office, one frontage actually facing
the government building.
This was more convenient for any COM
commissioner who might be inclined in lu-
ture, like Mr.. Jacob Townsend in the
past, to playfuliy poke the house secre-
tary in the ribs in his most refined man
ner and playfully remind him that the
business of the queen could not we'll go
on without the help of US as knows the
tricks of the town"
Ten years ago the banks Of the Thames
were covered with rickety wharves, oozy
old piers, huge, dark piles of warehouses
and tumble-down public houses. 1t was
no safer then by night than Hounslow
Heath in the days of Jonathan Wild. Now
the embankment is one Of the fairest
scenes of London, in its several parts
from Chelsea to Charing Cross-a solid
river wall of granite backing up the
broad drive and gardens. On this, with
its back to the river and its front to the
home office, stands New Scotland Yard
Home Secretary Matthews chose the arch
itect and ordered the use of convict
dressed granite. so that the lower half Of
the structure looks like Newgate jail
The home secretary's control is not linn
tied to the bricks and mortar, but he is
! absolute director at times in opposition to
the commissioner, so that the incumbent
often finds it more comfortable to resign
| after a general election.
The building is a gigantic parallelogram
| 16S feet long by 100 feet wide. with an in
ternal course sixty feet square. The low
er half is of this granite, buttressed, the
upper stories of brick with a high slate
roof and angle-corbeled turrets The
whole looks like a stronghold on the Rhine
| in the days of the robber barons.
The receiver occupies the basement
! floor the commissioner the one abova