The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-13

bic journal was S per year and in all let.
| tiers OF the kind above described, Y inclosed
q subscription blank.
The company also agreed. in case il
had any business at Shocks X-Roads. TO
employ Mr.. Hunks at s. per day and eX-
penses otherwise ne was allowed all that
he could earn on cases of his own work
ing up: right enjoyed by all members
which Y worked was the old common law
ruling that every citizen is clothed with
/ power TO make arrests in case a crime
is committed under his nose and there are
no officers convenient; yet, for all that
country people give more time and atten-
ton to law and politics than they do To
| their crops. and few are aware of this one
of the oldest and simplest of American
statutes.
YOUNG MEN MADE HAPPY.
The result. in ninety-nine out of every
hundred cases. was that after receiving
letter of this sort. the country youth would
send in his s.. receiving in return a most
gorgeous certificate or diploma of member
ship. covered with red and gold seals. and
an ornamental border outrivaling that on
government bond. and badge as big as a
dinner plate and ten times more imposing
than the cross of the Legion of Honor.
Such trumpery proved the ruination of
more than one good plowboy and farm
hand Equipped with such extraordinary
documents and credentials, Rube Hunks
would become unruly, shirk his farm
duties. and turn up his nose at honest toll.
spending his time ioafing and prying about
the neighborhood trying to work up cases
in which he might realize the coveted glory.
The journal of the Galvanized he would
keep, carefully hidden away in an old
trunk, showing ii now and then to some
friend and confidant, to whom he would eX
plain that blamed few white folks and no
niggers at alf' enjoyed the inestimable
of
course of time some of his dupes would
awaken TO the fact that they had been
''buncoed b'gosh," but the majority re-
manned blind and happy, and so the bust
ness proSpered.
The badge. the certificate and one copy
of The Sleuthhound all told cost less than
80 cents, as he had them made by the gross
out of the cheapest materials, so that OF
every S. he realized s465 clear profit. The
Sleuthhound was beyond all doubts a rip
shorter. liz contained pictures and descrip-
lions of criminals who had been dead for
five, ten and twenty years and rewards
for crooks who did not exist the rest be-
ing filled in with dime novel trash of the
flabbest and wateriest character. The
journal published once every month
in little printing establishment, which
room occupied half Of the small, seventh
scribed 1.-The palatial' Office quarters of
the Galvanized Detective Agency" The
final result was that, in few years time.
X made fortune Of two or three hundred
thousand dollars.
CITY BOYS AMBITIOUS. TOO.
Speaking recently of this curious desire
to become detectives, which now and then
detective said;
1T is all very we'll to make merry over
the country youths who. as a result of too
much dime-novel reading. are seized with
desire TO become Pinkertons and Holmeses,
but-and / tell you this in all seriousness
q iS ~ a
the country. Not a month passes that i
don't receive letters from parties begging
me to let them try their hand on this or
that case. WHICH is at the time receiving
considerable attention at the hands of the
newspapers, and you would be surprised if
/ were to tell you who they are from.
Not from country youths, tired of farm
drudgery, but from department clerks.
women, walters men of comfortable means
and occupying good positions. In all my
experience there has never been crime
committed in this city but 1 have been
flooded with letters from parties begging
me to let them work on the case. Offering
to work for nothing. giving me to under
stand that they had special talent in
that direction; that they had a theory, etc.
If the case happens to be a mysterious one.
requiring time for solution, the greater the
number OF applicants. ! knew X, OF ONO,
Oldest of all human weaknesses, namely,
the desire TO rise from obscurity and drudg-
cry TO fame, glory and comparative ease
cation
tx had many imitators. and there are
now half dozen or more of these So-cailed
detective agencies making money out or
the weakness of others. There is one in
Indianapolis that has caught any number
of suckers in and about Washington. es-
pecially over i'm Virginia and Western
Maryland. The proprietor of the Indian
apolis branch has made enough money TO
buy handsome winter home in Florida.
In addition to other trumpery. this Indian
.Dls. rsxvA nvf nf
fessional passport to the detective agencies
of the country. and requesting them to
extend to him the cOurteSies' OF their
place and business; and it now and then
happens that some Simple Simon drops in
on me with one of these letters, which /
imagine the indianapolis fellow got up for
detectves-as a sort Of joke on the men,
bers of our craft. Usually. when some such
fellow enters with one of these letters one
proprietor will proceed 10 have lot OF fun
at his expense, but | generally lose my
temper and treat the bearer with scant
courtesy 1t makes me mad to see such
fool L understand that some OF these
dupes have been operating in the District,
and if so, they are liable to get in trouble.
as the laws of the District recognize only
one or two reputable detective agencies.
I'm Chicago, however there is q man
dianapolis chap in the matter of making
detectives out of mud. / found this out
in rather curious way. Some weeks ago
a negro entered my Office seeking. as he
said, employment as a detective. | asked
him what experience or fitness he had for
the work, whereupon he informed me that
he was a graduate of the Chicago College
of Detectives, clinching his statement by
showing me his diploma, one of the most
gorgeous documents L ever beheid. He
also produced certificates from the college
of a character equally ornate, showing that
he had taken courses in shadowing, in
safe-blOwing cases, running down pick
pockets, etc. For each course he had, he
said paid s., I'm addition to SIS for his
diploma. He was. beyond doubt, fixed
for the business
TranshguratfOn.