Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1901-10-18

!
! yet unmistakable part of itself, Per
] haps my meaning can be made clear
! by an illustration. When photog-
! rapher in his dark room takes an ex-
f., posed plate from his camera it is ap-
parently a blank; but in reality there
is upon this plate the. minutelv de
tailed history Of an event. which. !:
proper hands, can be brought before
the least competent Of obscryc~: as
irrefutable evidence. Here. the actinic
rays of the sunlight are the authors
; Of the evidences: but every Hatura
force, in one way or another, con-
spires with the detective to run the
criminal to EARTH
"Cnicss," suggested Nure'c=,;, the
ability happens to he on the side of the
| quarry; in which case. the conspiracy
Of natures forces turns against the
hunter
"Ah!" retorted the reporter, ''tht
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 lifetime in which to correct it.
any misstep on the part OF the criminal
is fatal. And who is infalib]e?'
Not the detective, at any rate" an
swered Murdock, with suavc irony. ut
has always seemed to me that the halo
which has been conferred upon him,
! chiefly through the efforts of imagin-
alive 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 I 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, whenever
there is any possibility of so doing.
You can cite, / 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 shrill voice
of an elderly man of clerical aspect.
conscience is the surest detective,
after ALL
'Conscience!" retorted Murdoch,
: calmly; ''the word is a 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 a 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 a 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 knowledge"
Murdoch smiled grimly as he replied:
go to the morgue of any large city,
where the unrecognized dead are ex-
posed for identification. Aside from the
morbid crowd which is drawn to such a
. place by uncanny curiosity. you will
find that each corpse is aGxiously
aimed by numbers of people. each Of
HON is seeking a missing friend or
.vIative. 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 con tinued:
| "No; murder will not out-at least
not when the criminal is what l might
call professional, 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 a 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 reput ation is based sole
~ 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.
j.