Imperial Valley press., 1907-08-24
THE ENGLISH POLICE
HOW SCOTLAND YARD OFFICIALS
 TRACE MISSING PEOPLE.


 Are Unraveled.
 Away along the embankment, close Co the houses of parliament, is a big, buslnesslike red brick building, the headquarters of those whose business lt Is to solve mysteries.
 Scotland Yard is the home of thrill ing occupations and has many tasks undreamed of by those who regard it merely as the directing office of the army of blue coated London consta- bles, and among those tasks is that of probing the mystery of lost persons-a mystery touched often by romance, of- ten by tragedy and occasionally sur rounded by a black Obscurity into which no human ingenuity can pierce. It is part of the work of Scotland Yard to endeavor to extract from the be- wildering human continent of London those individuals who have suddenly walked off the track of human knowl- edge, who in ordinary speech with friends and acquaintances in one hour have in the next, for no reason and without word, disappeared.
 Some of these mysteries never have been solved and never will be solved. but they are astonishingly few com pared to those which Scotland Yard unravels every week. Only one case here and there is heard of, because the work is in the ordinary routine of the yard and the force has no eye for TO- nance, rigidly restricting itself to prac- tical thoughts and practical work.
 Stretched over twenty square miles of London, with it's population of na- ton, are the nervous tentacles of Scot land Yard, ever alert for the work, responding in a moment to an impulse from that center of intelligence-the red brick, businesslke building on the embankment. Frequently throughout day and night the agents of Scotland Yard are securing London in the search for missing persons. The great or ganization works like machine.
 To give an idea of the work it will be best to take an instance of what happens in an individual case.
 A prosperous middle aged civil serv- ant living at Clapham is amazed and alarmed to find that his son. bank clerk, aged twenty-four, does not re- turn home one night after business. He is well behaved young fellow and has never before stayed away all night. In the morning his father hurries to the branch of the bank in KenSington where his son is employed and finds Io lof oA ol, hol fho night before in quite his usual manner, giving no indication that he was not going straight home. From the time he left the bank door he has not been seen. His accounts are in perfect order; he was young man on the way to pro motion.
 The bewildered father takes a cab to the nearest police station and relates his story to the inspector in charge. "Oh, dare say he'll be found In cou- pie of days" says the cheery inspect or. Well get on to it at once. What is his description"
 Thereupon the father gives a descrip- tion of his son, running, perhaps, some thing like this: Height, five feet eight inches; fair hair, slight fair mustache. gray eyes, slim build, wearing silk hat, morning coat, dark striped trousers and glace kid lace boots. The inspector enters this in a book, together with some details as to the disappearance. He hands the book to policeman clerk and turns to give another word of reinsurance to the father. Within minute the latter hears the tick tick, tick" of telegraph instrument in the hands of the policeman clerk. The de scription he has given is being tele- graphed to every police station in the London area and is also being sent to Scotland Yard. Thus within few minutes the police depots from one end of the metropolis to the other are on the qui vive for the slim, fair haired young man."
 But the process has only just begun. As soon as the father has left the pO- lice station the inspector calls out from another room two special inquiry off cers," who are expert searchers for missing persons and who have won derful knowledge of their district, with its doubtful resorts, low class clubs, boarding houses of shady character and other places where lost people drift. They hear the details. and they