The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-25
THE REAL GOLD SLEUTH."
a Quiet Little Man Was He Who
Wrote Stories Bows Loved.

/
Especial Dispatch Chicago Times-H erald.)
New 1ork-"Old Sieuth" is dead.
The man who had delighted, entranced
and mystified three generations of boys
has gone the way of all flesh, and no
more detective stories, thrilling and
terrible, will come from his prolific
pen.
"Old Sleuth" was Harland P. HaIsey.
He lived in Brooklyn in a handsome
house, the price Of which was earned
by his stories. He had a pleasant fam
lily and an unceasing desire for work
Add to this the most remarkable i'm
agination that ever evolved a dramatic
situation, and odd Sleuth" is described
as to generalitieS.
In appearance he was exactly the OPP
posite of what one would expect This
is not unusual. Boys who knew him and
We're told that he wrote Terrible Sam;
or, the Mystery of the Bucket of
Blood, snorted in derision. Nobody
that looked like Mr.. Halsey could have
written that blood-curdling story.
In their way of figuring, the author
must have worn a SLOUGH hat, mask
an overcoat with the collar always up,
and, above all, he must have piercing
-
But all the same, the quiet old gentle
man of Brooklyn who lived in the shad-
oW of a church, was the real, Simon
pure Old SIeuth.
Death came to "Old Sleuth" quietly
and unexpectedly. He was chatting
with his wife one evening and await
ing the call to dinner. Without warn
ing he fell forward into his wife's arms
and in an instant, with a few gasps,
W. vi
the cause of the sudden call.
In early life he dabbled in business
little and then drifted into newspaper
work. His success was Indifferent, how
ever, and he was on the point of leav-
ing the east and taking up a new life
in the west, when one day the ingre-
dents for a weird detective story came
to him and he issued his first book 1t
was called "Old Sleuth, y; the Mystery
of Bay Ridge"
1t was an instantaneous success with
the class that read this kind of litera-
ture, and Mr.. Halsey saw a great white
light. He Immediately wrote another,
keeping the name 'Old Sleuth' to the
fore. And from this sprung the "Old
Sleuth Library" Publishers saw money
in the stories and the Idcky author had
no trouble from that day in keeping
the wolf away
IiIo OllOIIS llSlO dI III ItGNGI lIIGll, Ills
supply of DISCUSSES never failed, his
plots grew thicker and thicker, his
readers grew more and more excited,
and all the time the dollars rolled into
the pocket of the creator of the only
detective who was omnipotent, omni-
present, infallible and absolutely I'M
llillable.
And who has not read "Old Sleuth %
Men, women and children of all ages,
"a
such widespread literature. Never such
a faithful clientele. The low price of
the books placed them within the zach
of the very persons most likely to buy
them, and from the day The Mystery
of Bay Ridge" was sprung up to this
time, there has been no drop in the
demand for "OId Seuth's" stories.
How many of them Mr.. Halsey wrote
cannot be told. Certainly they are to
be counted by the hundred, and even
now, with their shreW and clever orig
inator dead, the demand will not cease.
Somebody will take up the work ne has
dropped, and messenger boys will still
be able to double up their books in
pocket size and read them while they
are dashing wildly along the streets
on errands of no particular import
ance.
"Old Sleuth" wrote with a pen He
abhorred machines, and never could be
induced to try one. This, too in the
face of the fact that his handwriting
looked as if a spider had crawled on the
paper after an immersion in the ink
pot. 1t was no trick at all for Mr.
Halsey to compose two books a week,
under pressure, his publishers always
prodding him and suggesting stories
based on currents crimes or mysteries
And no matter what the crime or how
deep the mystery, "Old Sleuth" always
solved it so thoroughly that it made
man's-or boys-hair raise to see how
easy it all was for an expert; for "Old
Sleuth" was an expert. Nothing step
ped him; no river was too deep for him,
no current too swift, no crag too peril
Gus, no dungeon too dark.
He surmounted every possible obsta-
Gle and also every impossible one. He
performed more miracles and broke
more records than anybody else. in
truth or fiction, and he was the same
wise man, indestructible, unassailable
and invulnerable, in the last book as
he was when he showed what a simple
incident the great Bay Ridge mystery
really was.