The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-24

suspicious manner, and dangerously near
an old gentleman whom they were trying
to mick" and one of them said to me
in undisguised Yankee tones, referring to
the old gentleman:
He's mark all right, but there amt
dough enough for all of US. Are you after
it, or are WEI"
1 merely replied, "Guess again. smiled
and moved on. The old gentleman made
his escape unwitingly in a cab.
There are few persons among the out
casts, from the Upper Worlds point of
view, that know about my books and
have talked with me concerning them, but
know of no good gun or tramp who
is personally acquainted with me that
connects me in any way with the things
that l have said in print in regard TO
him. Letters come to me every now and
then from tramps and guns who say
that they do or do not subscribe to state
ments which l have made, but L have
never met any of these correspondents.
To show how we'll some of them express
themselves, print here a letter that came
to me not so very long ago from Juneau,
Alaska. 1t reads as follows:
"Oct. 8, 1900-My Dear Sir: Conversant
as you are with the necessities of the
powers that prey, you will understand
my subscribing to this letter the syn
thetical name which has so often helped
police officer to evade the law with
blank warrant. 1 write merely to ex-
tend to you the congratulations of an
experienced observer on your story in one
of the recent magazines. It's title I for
get for the moment, but Howard Slifer
was, l remember, the name of the hero.
1t is, think the first authoritative criti-
cism of police system which has, for
the creating Of a local reputation, sacri-
dcad the lives and l{hartiac Of Yoapxr
persons-nost of them, I admit, eminent
ly deserving of such a fate, but never
theless, entitled to their freedom for the
time being. l was, at one time, my
self desperately Jeopardized by the gen
eral animus of a single police officer fol-
lowed by the desire of some other ig-
norant and lethargic detectives to make
a reputation, and the nexplicable willing
ness on the part of otherwise intelligent
efforts of the imagination supplied them
by the police department as the
history of the case. Had it not
been that I was very plentifully sup
piled with money l would have had to
succumb to the mass of plausible evil
dence and artificial Identification (by out
side citizens of impressionable character
whom the police talked into firm belief
that l was the culpri) AS 1t was sue
the ordinary criminal practitioner could
never have engaged-the expenditure of
several thousand dollars, and the secur-
ing of long-lost witnesses whom the police
and Pinkertons had given up. in demon
strating to a reluctant prosecutor that I
could not be the man they sought.
Before and since this personal expert
ence 1 have so frequently met with SINH
lar cases of such fiagrancy that it seems
that the newspapers, /. e.,
the saffron press, do not make a sensation
by reversing the present system of apoth-
eosizlng the extremely mediocre acumen
of a detective. A good gun asks moth
ing but an even break. but 1 wish in all
fairness that your story might be includ-
ed in the judges instructions to every
criminal jury Sincerely John Doe"
1t is a matter of wonder to a number of
persons that a man who does not belong
in a criminal life or profit by criminal
practices should be able to pose as the
genuine article" When with criminals I
make it my business TO talk and act as
the criminals do, and practice has made
me moderately sure of myself. 1t is i'm