The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-05-12
BRILLIANT WORK OF A FAMOUS
FRENCH DETECTIVE

The old saying that truth is strangel
than fiction is brought to mind by the
following story, taken from recenl
English paper:
With the death of the famous French
| detective. NJ Gustave Mace. we are re-
| minded of one of the most brilliant feats
in the records of criminal investigation
We are sometimes told that the police
expert, as he figured in the elaborate ro-
| mances of another generation, was a
myth, whose imaginary achievements
| would be impossible in real life. The case
| which established NJ .Mace's reputation
| when he was still very young man will
| always remain a memorable instance TO
the contrary. Nothing in the novels OF
Gaboriau is more exciting and remark
able than the real story of how the muir
der in the rue MaZarian was traced home
point by point to an extraordinary care
full and desperate perpetrator.
An old-fashioned well, sixty feet deep,
| in the courtyard of a house in the rue
| Princesse had for some time been often
sive to the inhabitants Something had
happened to the water, and it was
thought the basin needed cleaning out
Ultimately, through the grating of a
cellar window opened on the shaft some
i, thing was dimly seen floating on the sur
face, and when fshed out proved to be
a parcel containing human leg.
AT this point NJ Mace, then beginning
his career, was called in. So far there
was no clue of any sort to work upon.
The young detective examined the well
again. He now found a smaller parcel
of black calico, made up and stitched in
a peculiar way, and not only did this
>contain a second leg. but there was still
attached TO 1t sock containing the mi
tial "B between two crosses
This was the whole of the direct evil
dence from which the investigation of
the case started. The rest was reasoning,
acuteness and skilled method that as we
follow NJ Mace's own narrative of his
achievement as he himself has told it,
in the most popular of his many volumes.
we are reminded of what Anthony Troll
lope once wrote about the constructive
art of Wilkie Collins. Not the shutting
of a window, not the blowing of "a nose,
but has a rigid bearing upon the unrav-
cling of the plot
In the first case, the detective easily
convinced himself that the black calico
found continuing the second leg had been
made UP by tailor. The next thing was
to find out whether any suspicious char
acter plying that trade had ever lived in
it soon appeared that to any visitor IA
miliar with the street door it might al
ways be opened from the outside Setting
fhe memory of the old concierge running
garrulously, there came out at last the
renliniscence of lively little Nine Dard,
the seamstress. who had gone on the
variety stage She used to work for tail
ors, and one of them was always bringing
white waistcoats TO be made up, and
spiliing water on the stairs
That was the Illuminating moment in
the history of a crime. Mile Dard told all
she knew about the man who used to
bring the white waistcoats His name
was Pierre Voirbo. When his habits were
investigated it turned out that he was
constantly in the company Of old Desire
Bodasse, who lived in a misery way up
on his money, and for his station had a
great deal of it. Bodasse-"B. 1t was
the initial on the sock. Investigation
now revealed at once that the miser had
not been seen at his lodgings. and it was
presently clear that he had been muir
dered.
There was no longer any rational doubt
of the guilt of Voirbo, but it was exces-
sively difficult to bring the evidence home
TO him, as he was soon aware that he
was watched, and showed consummate
and easy cunning. The chain of
proof was riveted when In one of two
casks in the cellar of his lodgings. there
was found immersed a tin canister con-
tanning the Italian bonds which had dis
from the murdered mans strong
box
The power of striking light through the
very darkness Of criminal mystery has
not often been displayed in a more fas- /!
chatting way. and, for all the triumphs /
which led him TO the head of the French I
department. NJ. Mace never sur ,
passed the first achievement which es-
tablished his fame