The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-02-26

Of duty were founded ON self interest
and inclination rather than ON reason
will not here enter.
Wnen that decision was once made,
gave no further thought 10 the rights
or wrongs Of the matter, buf. dismissing
every such consideration from my mind,
concentrated all my energies upon the
task Of finding Captain Shannon.
And first decided TO pay visit 20
Southend, TO see if the little brown cut
ter was still there, and. if not, TO discover
what had become Of il.
AS one walks down the High street
from the station the pier lies directly in
front, running cut IA miles 10 sea on
its myriad slender feet like giant GEN.
tipped. To the right are the shSJy shrub
berries and sunny grass crowned cliffs of
New Southend, and TO the left, with
lips stopped 10 the waters edge. the OLD
town struggles away seward. "A long line
Of picturesque, irregular buildings,
some cheerful red, others warm yellow,
and few cool gray, reminding one
not little Of some quaint French or
Belgian port blinking in the morning
sunshine.
And, oh, such skies. such olond pomp
and pageanrry, and above all such sun
rises and sunsetsl Such dance and spar
| kle of moving water when the tide is
! in, and, more beautiful still, when the
tide is out, su"h play of light aud shad-
ow, such wond scful wealth Of color on
| the marshy fats-here patch Of royal
firrrro
gray or pearly pink, with little shining
pools changing from blue TO silver and
silver to blue with the passing Of every
cloudl
Southend is pretty spot at any time,
but after a month spent on a sickhed in
stuffy London side street the view
from the pier hill seemed to me excep-
tionally beautiful.
AS stood there, drinking my fill of
the sweet, strong, brackish air and
basking in the sunshine, / was conscious
Of being scrutinized quietly, but very
keenIy by a man who was lounging near
the Royal hotel
There was nothing in his appearance
or dress-white flannel trousers and
shirt, cricketing blazer and straw hat
to distinguish him from the hundreds
of holiday makers in like attire who are
to be seen in and about Southend dur.
ing the season, but recognized him at
once and with some alarm as one of
the cleverest officers of the detective
force, and one, moreover, who had been
specially told off to effect the capture of
Mullen.
In detective stories as in pantomimes
no doubt for the same reason-the po-
liceman is too often held up to scorn
and ridicule as an incompetent bungler,
who is more dangerous to the hearts of
susceptible servant girls than to law
breakers and more given to deeds of
prowess in connection with the contents
of the pantry than in protecting the
lives or properties of her majesty's sub
jects The hero of the detective story is
very often brilliant amateur, of whom
the police are secretly jealous, Dotwith-
standing the fact that whenever they
have difficult case they come, hat in
hand, to seek his assistance. This, after
little light banter for the benefit of
the Boswell who is to chronicle his mar
velous doings-and in the course of
which, by the bye, the fact that the pc.
lice are about 10 arrest the wrong man
Is not unfrequently elicited-he conde-
sends to give, the understanding be.
tween him and them being that he shall
do the work and they take the credit.
Why the amateur detective should be
the victim Of modesty which is not
always characteristic of the amateur in
other professions does not transpire, but
the arrangement is extremely convenient
to the policeman and to the author, the
latter probably adopting it lest inquisi-
tive readers should ask why, if there are
such brilliant amateur detectives as au-
thors would have us to believe, we never
hear of them in real life.
Now, should be the last man in the
world to cheaper the work of my fell
low craftsmen. / hold that there is no
more unmistakable mark of mean
mind than is evinced in the desire to
extol oneself at the expense of others,
but none the less l must enter my pro-
test against what cannot but consider
an unwarrantable imputation upon a
very deserving body of men.
Detectives and policeman, taken as
whole, are by no means the bunglers and
boobies that they are made out to be in
the pantomimes and in the pages of de-
tective stories. do not say that they
are all born geniuses in the detection of
crime, for genius is no commoner among
detectives than it is among bakers, bank
ers, clergymen, novelists, barristers or
cooks But what do say is that the
rank and file of them are painstaking
and intelligent men, who do their duty
to the public conscientiously and eff
ciently, and to dub them all buffers be-
cause now and then detective is caught
mapping is as unjust as to pronounce
all clergymen fools because a silly ser.
mon is sometimes preached from a pull
pit
had managed to get ahead of the
police in the investigation I was con-
Quoting, not because of the shining abil-
w xph IA oh 4