The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-04-24

I Joined the police force. His was a mar
row escape.
do not understand me as condemn
| ing the bona fide detective agencies.
Some OF them are, no doubt, good
schools for the young detective; al
though, as 2 rule, they prefer old and
| experienced men in their ranks.
'SupDosing the young man to have
gotten his first start, either in the po-
| lice or in a first-clasS private agency,
! he must then make UP his mind that
hard work and plenty of it lies before
him. That is where the requisite OF
patience comes in. It's logged as does
it with the detective. No matter how
bright the young man is, no matter
what sort of genius he has for picking
up ciews and doing the fine work of the
profession, if his nature is one of those
eGsiiy daunted by temporary setbacks.
then he had better get out of the de-
tective work at once The easy things
don't count-the jobs which any mere
ly clever man may accomplish without
excessive labor. 1t is the hard case
which wins the lasting reward, and
shows the sterling qualities of the
young detective.
You must excuse me bringing UP my
own career, but, you see, / know it beS-;
and can more readily select proofs and
evidences of what am striving to tell
you from events in which / took per-
scDal part. On dozens of different occa-
sions, when baked in a given direction,
l have forced myself TO go back over
the ground again and yet again, until
finally, after many such endeavors, 1
reached the goal / was in search of.
Professional criminals are resourceful
beings. They have to be, indeed; or else
they could not thrive, even for a brief
space of time. Naturally, they manage
to throw plenty of obstacles in the way
of the pursuing detective. He must ex-
pect these obstacles; and if he cannot
surmount them. he must find means
OF getting around them.
SOLVING A PUZZLE IN MURDER.
"As an example. let me give you one
of the many embarrassing murder
cases which l have successfully coped
with On Nov. .. 1885, Antonio Soloa.
a Chinaman, whose real name was
CHING Ong, was brutality murdered ut
the corner of Wooster and Spring
streets, New York. The murder had
Deen done with the restaurant keepers
own knife; and the most protracted
search of the place revealed no cIews
as to- the murderers de rtity.
Soloa, or Ching Ons had liz Cd many
years in Cuba, where ne excha :tged mis-
Chlnese patronymic for a Spanish one.
and learned to speak not only Spanish.
but also little French and Italian. In
New York he set up a tiny basement
restaurant, and throve in a modest
way.
1T was an exceptionally puzzlipg
case. At first l fancied that the push
cart pedlar DAILY, who first discovered
the dead body, might have been the
murderer But one Coughlin, a resi-
dent OF Wooster street, had seen DAILY
from the time he entered the street to
the time he ran wildly up the China
mans stairs with the news that An
tonic Soloa had been killed. Coughlin's
evidence cleared DAILY. I was dsap-
pointed, but l started off on a new
tack. The mutilations which bad hon
inflicted upon the body were suggestive
of the barbarous east. Al once - lie,
occurred TO me that the ugly work had
been done by highbinders. The pecu-
liar quiet with which the crime had
been carried out also pointed towards
a concerted plot of the dead mans
treacherous fellow Mongols. I went
around among the different Chinese
haunts, and had all the trains leaving
town watched for suspicious China
men. But try as I would I could not
fasten the guilt upon any of Soloa's
countrymen. Many of them came to I
his restaurant; but not a single China
man had been seen in the neighborhood /
on the day of the killing.
Next l sought zealously among So I
loa's Cuban customers, but here. for /
a time at least. my efforts were equally I
fruitless. l did not despair. Once more :
began at the beSinning-mad Il thor !
Ough research of the little underground (
restaurant and instituted minute in :
luiries as to the identity of every per- /
son who had passed along Wooster and .
Spring streets on the day of the MUIR
der
AT last I made a discovery. Some
children playing at the next corner had I
seen a boy pass by the restaurant door
at about the time. according to medical
evidence, of the killing. l went after
that boy with all my energies. All the /
shops in the neighborhood. all the fac
tories and most of the private houses
were inquired at, until, in the long run,