The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-29

off, points him out as he leaves the of- flee to side partner and lets the latter follow the suspect about all night from place to place until he finally puts him to bed. ..-.
 Tt would be illegal for one of us to stop suspected cashier from going into gambling house. wouldn't it? We'll, it would be equally out of our province to force suspected forger to come with us.
 Do you remember Carl Becker, the man who made those cunning imita- tions of French bank notes and who has just been released from Califor- mia prison? We spent most of 1884 tracing him about. But when we final ly located him in his workshop near Evergreens cemetery in Brooklyn one of us had to wait outside the door while the other hunted up the cop on post" $4
 What the manager of this agency said about the Verdue case in partieu- lar and the province of the private de- tective in general is confirmed by man. concerns of the city, "A private de- tective's night stick is his head,' is the usual way of putting it. Some mana gers even go so far as to say that phy- sical strength and courage are not at all an essential in the business. <
 The men who are on strike duty need determination, of course. But the tracl CTS of bank clerks, seachers for miss-f ing heirs and shadowers of suspected. husbands require only sufficient stam-S ina to withstand snowy nights in wind-E swept doosways, while the qualifica-s tions of a watcher of wedding presents or of a guard at Fifth avenue recep-s tfon resolve themselves into an alert eye, a soft voice and manner irresist-. |ible to maids and buffers.
 Vardue was not, strictly speaking, a professional detective. That is, he had not gons through the regular training required by most long g-established firms and was engaged in an outside business which took up most of his time during. the year, and thus belonged merely to the number of indifferently successful men who apply for temporary work as detectives while waiting for something else to turn up. ~~.
 These men call day after day at the agency and are either assigned to a case of slight importance or are sent out as the side partners of members of the permanent staff. Verdue was with one of the latter when he was killed.
 The permanent employees, on the oth- CT hand, are generally men who have been with the firm as office boys, tele- phone boys and copiers of reports since the age of seventeen or eighteen. They are generally the sons of clerks and artisans. They are emphatically not dime-novel readers. The latter supply Ia class of applicants who are a peren- nial source of trouble to agency mana gers. One managed recently to conceal his taste in literature sufficiently to get a trial He was assigned to watch a bus iness house in West Thirty-eighth street, the proprietor of which was sus- pected of being about to make away with some goods whose ownership was in dispute. S.
 About half an hour after the embryo sleuth went out the managers tele- phone bell rang violently. -ss
 'tIm -, squeaked the voice of the watched man, wrathfuIly. A man who says he's a detective from your office has just been in here. He told me that he'd been sent up here to watch me and that I'd better not try any funny work with him. Now, I'd like to know what the devil" etc. l. &
 The managers of a private detective agency should never be at a loss. This one rose to the situation. {:
 You're the victim either of a crazy milan or blackmai1er,' this manager answered. If he comes back again I'd suggest that you have him locked up."
 The sleuth never did come back who passed muster because the mana ger was short of men and needed some one to help him keep watch on pier from which bales of goods were nightly disappearing. z5E f
 AS employees on the pier were sus- pected the watchers secreted them selves on a neighboring pier. After sev- eral hours of staring through the dark ness the Irishman's s eyes grew tired and he got restless. .*<
 "It's a searchlight we ought to have" B. he finally whispered ..-
 Sure" whispered back the manager, thinking it was joke. ts
 Tive mind for everything" chuck led the would-be thief-stalker, pulling out bull's-eye and striking a match. That promptly ended his career as a sleuth.
 It doesn't take long to find out wheth- CT a young man is fitted for private de- tective work. In fact, all that is ex- pected is earnestness, sobriety and or- dinary common sense.
 T could teach the business to any one but born fool in six months" said an old hand last week. 'tWe have set of rules such as Never drink out of another mans flask or smoke one of his cigars and Never keep a memoran- dunn after reporting it. ssa @.@ aOf course in this, as in every other business, men have their specialties.