The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1900-04-14
By Philip g. Hubert. Jr.

1t sometimes seems TO me as III Ma
ture had keen sense of humor, and
loved now and again TO play little jokes
upon her victims. We are apt TO think
of Nature as stern, majestic, unrelent-
ing, pitiless. But as she really so?
Animals have no sense of humor, so it
Is said, although have seen n dog play
tricks upon cat that set whole room
full of people in roar Of laughter.
These, however, were clowns farces,
while Nature plays serious jokes. For
instance, is it not an exquisite joke TO
implant in the bosom or the brain of
man born to play the melancholy
Dane the notion that he is really fitted
to do the comic policeman and convulse
the audience by sitting down in his
wife's pumpkin pies? That used to be
the height of the comic mans comic
achievements when i was boy. 1haye
seen even Warren do it at the Boston
Museum | don't want TO say how many
years ago. Nature gives man the
physical and mental outfit for an un-'
dertaker, and at the same time drop.
OF poison which impels him to play the
clown. This is her little joke. 1T is a
despicabc trick both upon the man
and upon the community called upon
TO witness his misfortunes. / speaks
somewhat feclingly because / am only
too sure that Nature played little joke
upon me when she filled me with the
idea that / was born to be detective,
whereas, as matter OF fact-but that
is my story.
] was still very young man, as are
most men when the detective fever
seizes them, at the time 1 entered the
employ OF the Morning Gazette as re-
porter. had no advertised and ac-
Knowledged speciality. l felt myself q
journalist, and everything pertaining
to journalism was my field. Neverthe-
less, il there was one thing / hoped and
perhaps prayed for, it was that some
tremendous crime might come to light.
through my exertions. When the police
OF New York, or perhaps of the coun-
try, or even OF the continent, or Of two
or three continents, acknowledged
themselves beaten and bafiled, / should
proceed TO delve and think until the
criminal was landed in Jail solely
through my delving and thinking.
Such things had happened.
There was a reporter named Bangs
on a Philadelphia paper who had
achieved fame and fortune by tracking
a supposed murderer for three months,
night and day; that he nearly succeed
ed in getting the wrong man hanged
was his-the reporter's-misfortu
and not his fault. His newspaper ac-
knowledged his enterprise and reward
ed II. lie got IL into his head that
certain man, who happened to be per-
fectly innocent, was n criminal, and
having formulated a brilliant theory
he worked IL out so well, he piled his
damning evidence so high and found so
many facts to fit his theory, and IL they
didn't fit made them fit, that, as say,
he came near hanging his victim, and
thereby won the admiration OF the
whole newspaper profession OF his
town. This splendid achievement led,
OF course, TO emulation. For long
time all the Philadelphia reporters
went about with the idea that every
stranger they met was deep-dyed viii
lain, and worked upon the theory that
oil men were guilty until they had been
proved innocent.
Another noted case occurs 10 me:
that OF n rcportcr-this time from Bos.
ton--who stood one day az the ticket
window OF railway station buying
a ticket for the suburb where he lived,
when another person asked for ticket
for Quebec in so peculiar n voice that
the reporters detective instinct began
to work. The mans band shook so as
he held IL out to receive the ticket that
the big diamond on has little finger
CLEANED oil the more. Between his feet
he Rugged fat yalise. Everything
pointed to the dcfalcation OF at least
million-neryous man, ticket for Can
ada. hg diamond, fat yalise. The train
was TO start in six minutes The re-
porter wrote hurried note 20 his chief
telling MIN TINT IL a bir bank defalca-