The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-06-10
GREAT DETECTIVES.

The ordinary opinion of detectives is
about as Inaccurate as the views the
social world generally takes of the aver
age lives of actors and actresses, who
constitute an important section of in
dustrious and welI-behaved humanity.
Romantic boys and girls, not unfre-
quentiy their elders, picture detective
as a modern edition of a middle-age
pirate, with deep-set and piercing eyes,
with shaggy eyebrows, and with an
expression of conscious and unfathon-
able mystery.
The real detective is plain man, I'M
distinguishabIe from the common herd,
frequently with eyes of gray or Of gray
ish-blue, simple in his speech, and very
quiet and unpretentious in his de-
meanor By way of illustration, there
never was a less self-asserting or easy
going man in his appearance and in his
manner than James Bunyan Hume, for
many years the head of the detective
bureau of Wells, Fargo & Co, whose
death has been recently announced and
his life and character made the sub
ject of favorable comments in the Cali
fornia newspapers. This officer was al
most certain in his perceptions and in
his combinations, and yet for many
years spent all his leisure time in the
midst of his refined family and was
noted for his domestic traits and his
exemplary character. He valued his
life, as every man of common sense
ought to do, and yet, at a moments
notice, when necessity commanded, was
prepared to risk it. He caught "Black
Bart" the noted highwayman, who
spent most of his time as a man of
elegant leisure and of excellent habits
in San Francisco, and, during occa-
sional absences, companionless and
taciturn, replenished his exchequer, at
the expense of the express company.
This desperado, of the worst class, be-
trayed his identity by a laundry mark.
Hume also was the captor of Sonntag
and Evans, who robbed trains and kept
uproar for months. Once in Siskiyou
County, when the express box was
thrown from a stage and emptied of it's
treasure, he adopted the commonplace
expedient OF employing Bill Towendol- |
ly, an expert Indian tracker, who led |
the officers directly to Picayune Lake, |
a few miles distant, where one of the |
robbers was killed and the other taken.
Sheriff Harry n. Morse, then of Ala
media County, now the head of Detec-
tive Patrol in San Francisco, for many
years was distinguished for his per-
tinacity, courage, and success as a de-
-ective. His range of operations en-
oraced the entire State of California.
For months together he has patiently
and in disguise lived in the Sierra
Nevada or in the Coast Range, until,
when least expected, he landed his
quarry. Morse is a very quiet and un-
obtrusive man, with a love for litera- !
mental composition.
1t is doubtful whether there is more
perfect detective in history than was
Isaiah w. Lees, for forty years the
Captain of Detectives and afterwards
he Chief of the Police Department in
San Francisco. The ingenuity, the pa
thence, the unerring sagacity, and the
fearful adventures of Captain Lees, it
would take many volumes to record.
Still he was man of domestic habits,
with one of the finest private libraries
m California, and his favorite recrea-
ton was to discuss philosophical and
problems. No one ever
heard him talk shop except when on
actual business, and then he often i
amused himself by talking at inordinate
ength, and saying nothing. Woe to the
however, who let out the fag
end of secret in his presence! ;
The popular misconception of detec-
tfves, who, if genuine, are free from
the least suspicion of melodrama, NAV
be ranged with a great many other
follies, for which morbid imaginations
are responsible.