The times., 1901-05-12
SLEUTHS OF TENDER YEARS
Juvenile Detectives i'm the Chicago
Police Department.
Many of Them Drawn From the Va
riOus Messenger Services Hard
Work with Small Poy-HoteI Bell
boys n Valuable Part OF the Force

riOus Messenger Services Hard
work With Small Poy-HoteI Bell
boys n Valuable Part OF the Force.
The latest wrinkle in the Chicago police
department IS the employment OF boy de-
tectives- Lads OF sixteen years and under
are being trained 20 shadow criminals. to
get their secrets by posing as innocent by
stanuers. and. II necessary. 10 attempt to
make arrests when no regular officer can
be found
The Desplaines Street police station is
the first TO shelter the youthful sieuths,
and at Chicago Avenue and Harrison
Street boys are already under orders from
city detectives to do what work they can
toward the detection of crime.
This phase OF police business opens up
fields of labor for the many boys who
still industriously pursue the dime novel
hero In his fights for virtue and against
vice. II is not likely to meet with the en-
thusiastic approval OF mothers, who may
desire that their sons grow up with high
er ideals than those crystallized BY ap-
pointment TO job on the force paying
Ss5-s5 a month. The boys are wrapped up
in the scheme. and some have asked tho
Despiaines Street station officers for tho
hardest kind of work
Their labor Is one that gets no reward
in fame. The nature of the task requires
that the utmost secrecy be preserved. and
there is no chance for a boy TO become
known as a good detective. AS soon as he
gets anything that looks like that sort
of a reputation he has lost his power for
good, as the thieves have channels Of in
formation in every police station and will
be kept posted about the skill OF the boy
workers.
The boys are drawn mostly from the
different messenger services. The exper-
ience they have had in getting about the
city and in keeping their own counsel IS
counted upon as valuable factor. They
are not to wear uniforms. The old Gus
tom Of shadowing a man by sending a
messenger boy In the full panoply of his
Office out after him was discovered long
ago by the men who were shadowed. and
now it is almost as risky to send out q
messenger boy trailer as it would be 20
put an officer in uniform on the track Of
a suspected man. The boy detectives viii
wear their ordinary clothes and viii have
no stars or weapons. To trust a boy with
a revolver and then to tell him that he
has police powers would be 10 turn the
streets into informal shooting galleries.
and this the astute police officers are not
yet ready to do
The best boy detective in the city. ths
police say, is a boy named Tom Harding.
He used to be an A. d. T. messenger, and
lives in Ashland Boulevard. Nine Car
penter who was in trouble with the poles
about Bertha Neske, her servant, some
time ago, employed Harding TO shadow
Harry Seilberg, whom she thought acted
IN league with her servant TO steal her
property. Harding turned in reports that
were models OF neatness and reliability
and was complimented by the police upon
his good work Since that time ne has
been hired at intervals to do detective
work for the officers, and neither he nor
any of the other boy spoilers has ever
revealed confidence or made a serious
mistake.
Besides the messengers there is desira-
bic detective timber in the younger class
tally desirable il they have been employ
ed in first-elass hotels. Then they have
a certain knowledge of the identity Of
men who some time may have to be shad-
owed, and they have, in addition to that
quality. the desirable gift of being able
to see a lot and say nothing
The last station in the city at which ora
would expect to find boy detectives IS
Austin. This station has the record Of
being the guietest precinct in the service,
and the officers themselves find little to
do Sergeant McNally. however. has
found that boys can get Information that
he cannot get. and Lieutenant Stanton.
a survivor of the Haymari<et riot who is
in command. knows of the employment
Of boys and does not forbid il. In Austin
and in Lieutenant SchmoEe's station in
Oak Park a better grade Of youthful
sleuths is found than is present at tho
stations nearer the river. Some schOO,-
boys have given assistance 10 the asso-
citation that tried TO close the Austia
blind pigs, as well as TO the Hyde Par-S
Protective Association that drove ilIega.
sellers of LIQUOR from that part of town.
The pay received by the boy detectives
Is not OF nature to make other boys whc
have fairly remuneratiVe positions leave
them and become detectives The boy wh0
IS addicted 10 the dime novel classic OF
the Eddie Parks. the Newsboy Detec-
tive. stripe is prone 20 think that when
4 boy detective makes a great capture or
obtains good piece OF information hS
superior officer at once writes check for
the amount of which he has TO use at
least three figures. Such an impression
S not entirely within the facts. The high
EST price known to be paid 20 a Chicago
boy detective employed through the police
department. was <25. That was not given
because the boy discovered a bold gang
u robbers at work In a downtown bank
1r because he stayed the knife of a mur-
ierer lust as it was about TO descend
such featS are to be found in the novels
more often than they are encountered in
chicago police business The boy got the
20 for no such romantic accomplishment.
he went out and spent two days looking
'or the favOrite hunting dog of a AIichi-
found it he was given the money.
Some of the boys are known as dog
,atcherS. and although they are re-
alert when il comes to catching
logs, they are not regarded as exception
.lly capable boys unless they have mora
o their credit than few recovered dogs.
Their pay for more difficult work is not as
good as it is for the dog catching and
> or s. is as much as most of them re-
.eive.
Some of their pay comes in street car
= l. sararI e H. Il
" the officers and given TO their helpers,
Phe city has nothing to do with the hir-
ug of the boys or the payment for their
erviCes.-ChicagO Tribune