The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-05-12
SLEUTHS OF TENDER YEARS
Juvenile Detectives in the Chicago
Police Department.
Many of Them Drawn From the Va
rious Messenger Services - Hard
work with Small Pay-HoteI BELL
boys N Valuable Part of the Force.

poys u Valuable inrt OF the Forcc.
The latest wrinkle in the Chicago police
department Is the employment of boy de-
tectives. Lads of sixteen years and under
are being trained to shadow criminals. to
get their secrets by posing as Innocent by
stanuers. and. II necessary. to 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. 1t 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 a job on the force paying
Ssi-sS month. The boys are wrapped up
in the scheme. and some have asked tho
Desplaines 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 good detective. AS soon as he
gets anything that looks like that sort
of a reputation he has lost hts 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-
fence they have had in getting about the
city and in keeping their own counsel is
counted upon as a valuable factor. They
are not to wear uniforms. The old GUS
tom of shadowing a man by sending
messenger boy In the full panoply of his
office out after him was discovered long
ago by the men who were Swallowed. and
now it is almost as risky to send out a
messenger boy trailer as it would be to
put an officer in uniform on the track of
suspected mar. The boy detectives will
wear their ordinary clothes and will have
no stars or weapons. To trust a boy with
revolver and then to tell him that he
has police powers would be to turn the
streets into informal shooting galleries,
ans. this the astute police officers are not
yet ready to do.
The best boy detective in the city, tha
police say, is 4 boy named Tom Harding.
He used to be an A. d. T. messenger, and
lives in Ashland Boulevard. Mime. Car
penter. who was in trouble with the police
about Bertha Neske, her servant some
time ago, employed Harding TO shadow
Harry Sellberg. 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 comp1imented by the police upon
his good work. Since that time he 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
of hotel bellboys. These boys are espec-
tally desirable II they have been employ
ed in first-ciass 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 lot and say nothing.
The last station in the city at which onS
would expect to find boy detectives is
Austin. This station has the record of
being the quietest 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 Haymarket riot. who is
in command. knows of the employment
of boys and does not forbid 1t. In Austin
and in Lieutenant Schmose's station in
Oak Park a better grade OF youthful
sleuths is found than is present at tho
stations nearer the river. Some school,
boys have given assistance to the ASSOC
citation that tried to close the Anstia
blind pigs, as well as to the Hyde Par,S
Protective Association that drove ilIega.
sellers of lilupr from that part of town.
Tine pay received by the boy detectives
is not OF a nature to make other boys VINO
have fairly remunerative positions leave
them and become detectives. The boy who
is addicted to the dime novel classic OF
the Eddie Parks. the Newsboy Detec-
tive. stripe Is prone to think that when
a boy detective makes a great capture or
obtains a good piece of information his
superior officer at once writes check for
the amount of which he has to use at
least three figures. Such an impression
is not entirely within the facts. The high
est price known to be paid to a Chicago
boy detective employed through the police
department was SOS. That was not given
because the boy discovered a bold gang
of robbers at work in a downtown bank
or because he stayed the knife of MUIR
derer lust as 1t 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
S25 for no siishh romantic accomplishment
He went out and spent two days looking
for the favOrite hunting dog of a AIichi-
gan Avenue millionaire. and when he
found it he was given the money.
Some of the boys are known as dog
catchers, and although they are re-
alert when IL comes TO catching
dogs, they are not regarded as exception
ally capable boys unless they have moro
TO their credit than a few recovered dogs.
Their pay for more difficult work is not as
good as it is for the dog catching. and
So or 50 is as much as most of them re-
ceiye.
Some Of their pay comes in street car
tickets and passes 10 the theatres secured
by the officers and given to their helpers
The city has nothing to do with the hir-
Ing of the boys or the payment for their
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