The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1900-12-27
MORETTE

get what remarkable results you have
often accomplished for the Daily Tenn
pest in detecting and following up
clews to which the official detectives
were blind. But, frankly, were not
your conclusions usually the result of
lucky guesses, which would have re-
manned comparatively useless as evil
dence had they not been subsequently
proved correct by direct testimony"
LET me reply to your question by an
other, Sprague," answered Sturgis.
when you draw a check, does the pay.
ing teller at the bank require the tes-
timony of witnesses to your signature
before admitting its genuineness?"
mo: Of course not"
'Precisely He probably knows the
signature of Harvey NJ Sprague, the
depositor, better than he does the
face Of Sprague, the artist. And yet
the evidence here is purely circum-
stantial. l know of at least one re-
cent instance in which the officials of
a New York bank placed their i'm
plicit reliance upon circumstantial
evidence of this sort, in spite Of the
direct testimony Of the depositor,
who was willing to acknowledge the
genuineness Of check to which his
name had been forged"
II suppose you refer to the Forsyth
case" said Sprague; "but you must
remember that Col. Forsyth was
actuated by the desire to shield the
forger, who was his own scapegrace
son."
THAT is just the point" replied
Sturgis; another witness will be
biased by his interests or prejudices,
blinded by jealousy, love or hatred,
or handicapped by overzealousness,
stupidity, lack of memory, or what
not. Circumstantial evidence is al
ways impartial, truthful, absolute.
When the geologist reads the history
of the earth, as it is written in it's
crust: when kepler or Newton
formulates the immutable laws of the
universe as they are recorded in the
motions of the heavenly bodies, they
draw their conclusions from evidence
which is entirely circumstantial."
Eyes; but you forget that science
has often been mistaken in its con-
clusions," interrupted Sprague, $50
that it has constantly been necessary
to alter theories to fit newly acquired
or better understood facts"
"Granted," rejoined Sturgis, 'but
that is because the interpreters of the
evidence are fallible; not because the
evidence itself is incomplete. The
same cause will always produce the
same effect; the same chain of events
will invariably terminate in one and
the same catastrophe. The apparent
deviations from this law are due to
unrecognized differences in the pro-
ducing causes. to additional or miss
ing links in the chain of evidence.
Therefore / hold that a criminal,
however clever he may be, leaves be-
hind him a complete trace of his every
act, from which his crime may be re-
constructed with absolute certainty
by a competent detective
I'm short, Murder will out!" said
man who had been silent listener
to the conversation up to this point.
He spoke with quiet smile, which
barely escaped being polite sheer.
Sturgis' keen eyes met his inter-
locutor's as he replied gravely:
II should hardly care to make so
sweeping an affirmation. DR.. Muir
dock l have merely stated that the
history of every crime is indelibly
written in tangible evidence. The
writing is on the wall, but of course
blind man cannot see it, nor can
an illiterate man understand it.
Every event, however trivial, owes its
occurrence to natural cause, and
leaves its indelible impress upon ma
ture The Indian on the trail reads
with an experienced eye the story Of
his enemy's passage, as it has been
recorded in trodden turf and broken
twigs; while the bloodhound follows,
with unerring Judgment, still surer
though less tangible trail The lat
ter's quarry has left behind at every
step, an invisible, imponderable, and
yet unmiStakable part of itself. Per-
haps my meaning can be made clear
by an illustration. When a photog-
rapher in his dark room takes an ex-
posed plate from his camera, it is ap-
parently blank; but in reality there
is upon this plate the infinitely de-
tailed history of an event. which, in
proper hands, can be brought before
the least competent Of observers as
irrefutable evidence. Here. the actinic
rays of the sunlight are the authors
of the evidence; but every natural
force, in one way or another, con-
spires with the detective to run the
criminal to earth"
"Unless," suggested Murdoch, the
ability happens to be on the side of the
quarry; in which case, the conspiracy
of natures forces turns against the
hunter"
'Ah!" retorted the reporter, "the
game is not an equal one. The dice are
loaded. For while on the one hand
the detective, if he falls into an error,
has a lifetime in which to correct it,
any misstep on the part Of he criminal
is fatal. And who is infallihle?"~
Not the detective, at any rate" an
swered Murdoch, with suavc irony. 1T
has always seemed to me that the halo
which has been conferred upon him,
chiefly through the efforts of imagin-
ative writer's of sensational fiction, is
entirely unGeserved. 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 | include all
criminals acting under the impulse Of
any of the passions hatred, love, jeal-
ousy, anger. And then, While the de-