Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-06
DAILY SHORT STORY
HOW BECAME A DETECTIVE.

lOrlSlnal.l
The way got into the detective busi-
| ness was this: One morning l took up
| Il paper and read that John MulhOlland,
a farmer living on the Arlington road,
had been found dead with IL bullet in
| his heart. There was no clew to the
murderer. j was out of a job at the
time and made up my mind that
would test my natural bent for detec-
| tive work by trying to unravel what
appeared to be an insoluble problem.
l went TO the house and found the doc
tors engaged in extracting the bullet
from the dead mans heart. L asked to
see it and was permitted TO do so. My
/ reason for wishing to examine it was
that / had always heard that every
minutia in detective cases was impor-
tant The truth is l was green and
didn't know how else to begin.
The bullet was of the usual conical
shape. l looked it all over and noticed
places where it had been rubbed or
scratched. There were three of these
marks. two near together, third on
the opposite side. 1t struck me that
there had been some projection in the
barrel of the pistol that had caused
these scratches. If could find the pis-
toll that would make similar scratches
on other bullets fired from ii l could
identify il as the weapon with which
MulhOlIand had been killed But no
weapon had been found near the body.
Stories about murderers leaving knives
sticking i'm their victims or dropping
pistols i'm their haste to get away are
inventions. Murderers do lot of
,s,.n 70 fInnn lx-nS. iNtrf
they're not so stupid as that.
I secured an interview with the muir
dered mans wife and asked her to tell
me about every one that had had any
connection with her husband during a
year or so past. He had had trouble
with the owner Of an adjoining farm
about the boundary. tramp had
been turned out of the barn a few days
before the murder and had gone of
muttering curses. \ farm hand had
been discharged. but an interval OF
three months had elapsed since the
discharge: besides. the man had made |
no demonstration at the time.
or the three my suspicious were for |
the tramp. / hadn't the means OF |
securing the country for him. so L
went tn the police and recommended |
them 10 do so. The tramp was hunted |
down and arrested He had no pistol |
on him. but ne had a pawn ticket. The
pawnbroker where il WAS issued pro-
duced n silver watch that II stood for
OF little value. After the police had
dropped the scent I went to the pawn
broker. hoping to elicit some cIew.
While we were chatting l stood lean
ing on n glass case containing pawned
articles Among them ! noticed a pis-
toll. 1t WAS n cheap. old fashioned arti-
Gle worth a few dollars. Something
moved me TO ask the broker who had
pawned II. He said that the man was
q negro I asked the broker to let me
look ut the weapon. and he handed IL
to me. Taking ii to a window where
the sun was shining in. I looked into
the barrel Near the muZzle I noticed
some spots OF rust. There were two
near together and one opposite.
Noting the caliber. i went out and
got some cartridges to fit the pistol
and, going into the back yard with 1t,
fired a bullet into a barrel Of water.
When / examined the lead I found
scratches on it exactly like those on
the bullet that killed Mulholland.
fired several more bullets, and every
one was marked exactly like the first.
Without saying a word to any one,
went to Mrs. Mulholland and asked
her II her husband had ever had any
trouble with negro. At FIRST she an