The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1896-05-21
SLEUTHS IN HIGH LIFE

worth of gems belonging to Mrs. L:
Townsend Burden, and d score or
more scarcely less important fobber-
les, the smart women who wear $780,
900 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
a more or less important part of the
gaieties of fashionable life, but just
now he is treated with consideration.
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
~ionaire, 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 civfllty.
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 ma In the central office
Of the regular police force. AT times
men belonging to agencies are hired to
do the work, but as Il 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
q memory retentive enough to recog-
nize one of the gentry in less than no
time.
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 n Patriarch's ball or
at an Assembly dance. In the first
place, it is impossible for many of the
detectives to discard the "s,euth'' look,
an earlmark which would frighten an
experienced crook into a hiding place
in a jiffy.
Then there are a number who would
be painfully i'll at ease in a dress suit
and surrounded by a bevy Of gorgeous
ly-gowned women ard fashionable
men. They would be so overpowered
that their professional usefulness
would amount to nothing. For these
reasons the dude detective is quite Il
superior person compared with the
ordinary sleuth.
In the old days of the central office,
when Byrnes was at the wheel, two
men, McCloskey and Crowley. We're
known as the society men. They We're
always fashionably dressed. aud
looked like Wall street men rolling on
the high wave of prosperity more than
anything else. They had both made
enviable records as thief-takers, and
had been sent to all parts Of the world
to bring back criminals apprehended
in foreign countries. But the advent
of R~ooseveltism 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 corSiderabl bic attention on the
part of the central office. for if a clev-
er crook We're allowed to slmuggle him.
eslf into an assembly of jewel-be-
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 ofiiciate at fashionable weddings, at
large %banquets. at dances and recep-
tons. He is always the first to ar
rive, 4 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 ap
pears he makes a mental note of it
and later asks some n he knows who
the lady or gentleman is.
Keeps Up With the Fashions.
He always fellows the fashions care
fully, so as to appear exactly Ike the
men in the smart set. If duty calls
him to an afternoon wedding he wear:
a long frock coat, gray rouse $. rat
ent leather shoes, q SpJig of lilies-of
~the-valley in his huttonhole. the fines
linen. a silk hat Of the correct beck
and spotless gloves. lie always re
ceiyes plenty OF attention, for many o
the Young bloods know him and TIM,
it real devilish to talk 70 a detective
and be on terms of intimacy with him
But it is at a Patriarch's ball or al
Assembly dance that the dude dctec