Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1900-05-30
any misstep on the part of the criminal

any misstep on the part of the criminal
is fatal. And who is infullible?"
"Not the detective, ut any rate" an
swered Murdoch, with suavc irony. at
has always seemed 10 me that the halo
which has been conferred upon him,
chiefly through the efforts of imagin-
ative writer's of sensational fiction. is
entirely undeserved. In the first place,
most of the crimes of which we hear
are committed either by men of low
order of intelligence or else by madmen,
in which latter category l include all
criminals acting under the impulse of
any of the passions-hatred, love, jeal-
ousy, anger. And then, willie the de-
tective takes good care that his sue
cesses shall be proclaimed from the
housetops, he is equally careful to
smother all accounts, or to suppress
every detail, of his failures, wherever
there is any possibility of so doing.
You can cite, I know, plenty of cases
in which, even after the lapse of years,
the crime has been discovered and the
criminal has been confronted with his
guilt, but"
"In my opinion" piped the shrjll voice
of an elderly man of clerical aspect,
conscience is the surest detective,
after ALL
"Conscience!" retorted Murdoch,
calmly; "the word is euphemism.
Man gives the name of conscience to
his fear of discovery and punishment.
There is no such thing as conscience in
the criminal who has absolute conf
dence in his power to escape detec-
ton"
"But where is the man who can have
that superb confidence in himself?"
asked Sprague.
His name is probably LEGION" an
swered Murdoch, quickly. HE is the
author of every crime whose history
remains forever unwritten."
"And are these really SO numerous.?"
LET us see how the case stands in
one single class of crime-say, for in
stance, murder. Whenever the solu-
ton of sensational murder mystery
is effected by the detectives, or by their
allies, the gentlemen of the press, like
our friend Mr.. Sturgis, we, the gullible
public, vociferously applaud the
achievements of these guardians of
the public safety, and forthwith pro-
coed to award them niche in the tenn
pie of Fame. So far, SO good. But
what of the dark mysteries which re-
main forever unsolved? What of the
numerous crimes of which no one ever
even knows?"
"Oh! come now, DOCTOR" laughed
Sprague, isn't it rather paradoXical to
base your argument on the assumption
of crimes of whose very existence you
admit you have no linowledge?"
Murdoch smiled grimly us he replied:
go to the morgue of any large city,
where the unrecognized dead are e&-
posed for Identification. Aside from the
morbid crowd which is drawn to such
place by uncanny curiosity, you will
find that each corpse is anNiously
scanned by numbers of people, each of
whom is seeking u missing friend or
relative. At the most each body can
furnish the key to only one mystery.
Then what of the scores, ay, the hun
dreds of others?"
After short pause, he continues:
NO; murder will not out-at least
not when the criminal is what might
call n professional, a man of genius in
his vocation, educated, intelligent, dis
passionate, scientific. Fortunately for
the reputation of the detective, anna
teur and professional, the genius in the
criminal line is necessarily of modest
and retiring disposition. He cannot
call the public attention to his ingenu-
ity and skill; he cannot puff his achieve
ments in the daily press. Not only are
his masterpieces unsigned, but they re-
main forever unheard of. The detec-
tive is known only by his successes;
the criminals reputation is based sole
ly upon his failures"
DR.. Murdoch delivered this parting
shot with the cool deliberateness which
was characteristic of the man. The in
solent irony of his words was empha-
sized by the calmness of his bearing.
II say, DOCTOR" laughed Sprague,
you have missed your vocation. You
should have adopted the profession of
scientific criminal yourself. You seem
to possess the theory of the science as
1t is, and little experience would no
doubt have made you an adept in the
| practice as we'll"
TTo ha continued