Evening star., 1907-08-24
Late Bob" Pinkerton Laid This Down
as Rule.
INCIDENTS AT RACK TRACK
How the Noted Sleuth Believed in
Two Reformed Crooks Against
Circumstantial Evidence.

| Special Correspondence Of The Star
| NEW YORK August 23. 1907.
| Il don't want a detective on my stan who
| JUMPS to Observation-Disclosures are
( things to be cautiously crawled to-" was a
| saying to which the late Bob Pinkerton
the famous head of the most noted of pri-
| vate sleuthing agencies. frequently gave
! expression. And. like most sauare-jawed
| men Of his type. he practiced what he
/ preached
! On gala racing afternoon at Sheepshead
! Bay last summer l was standing alongside
| Pinkerton at the main entrance TO the
! track. 1t was ever a fascinating study to
| watch this man with the remarkable mem
| ory in the act Of sitting the goats from the
sheep at a race track gate. 1t is question
! able If anv man ever lived who had such a
| phenomenal recollection of physiognomies
as this son of old Allan Piukerton.
| A well-dressed. grizzled man of fifty. with
! rather close-cropped gray hair strolled up
! to the gate. pretending to read a dope
| chart. but really keeping furtive eye on
| Pinkerton.
| Pinkerton. engaged in conversation with
| one of his men. didn't see the grzzled chap
! until the latter was right at the turnstle
Then he SUDDENLY raised his eyes, and
could see the quick fire of memory burning
in tharl like a sudden fame.
| Hello. joe he said to the grizzled man.
| nOtulnS OUT MS ndnu
| Hello. Bob. said the man with the
| close cropped gray hair.
wait a minute-iust a word said Pm
kerton then; and he stepped outside the
gate. and drew the grayish man aside
They conversed in a low tone for mo-
ment or so. and then the man who'd had
the furtive eye out for Plnkerton at the
gate entered the tratk.
Now this elderly man with the close
cropped hair famous counterfeter
| who had only-be released from New
York prison, after seven years confinement.
three days before. Pinkerton hadn't clap
ped an eye on him Tor nearly twelve years.
The detective, too. had only come into con-
tact with the counterfeiter about ha a
dozen times in his life And yet he had
| recognized the man at glance when he
attempted to pass through the gate. That,
| however, is not all of the little story.
A few minutes before the running of the
| fourth race that afternoon John Cava-
naugh. the man in charge of the Jockey
Club betting ring, rushed up TO Plnkerton
IN the gambling she'd happened TO De
| stroling with the top sleuth at the time.
| for / was engaged then in getting the ma
| terial from him for some Pinkerton stories
and Cavanaugh, ordinarily one of the
| most self-contained of men. was vlS1bly IN
| a state of keen excitement.
Bob said Cavanaugh to the detective.
''the -e's a whole heap of phony money be-
ing scatt ared all over the r.ng this after
| noon All of the layers have been bitten.
| The moneys swell bogus twenty-here'S
a copy of it." and eavanaugh handed the
detective a very tidy-looking $50 note
i,piece of currency so thoroughly well exc
cuted by its manufacturers that it re-
quired very keen eve to distinguish 1t
from the genuine-and bookmakers In
rush can't put the acid test, so to speak
to all of the paper money that fits in
their direction.
1 ~ The Wrong Conclusion.
n Pinkerton and cavanaugh talked over
for brief space that tinundation Of bad
money in the ring. s.Jas .,
IL "Wel1.",i ventured~ to remark TO Finker
1ton, when Cavanaugh had rushed back
l'fo his ring headquarters. that fellow
that you let in at the gate-the counter
feiter just through with doing MS bit
| has got busy again pretty quickly. hasn't
he?"
| You don't think he's the one who's
doing this bad money floating here today,
| do your" said Pinkerton.
l mumbled something as to that being a
sufficiently natural conclusion.
| "Oh. natural enough said Pinkerton
| hut dead wrong Absolutely dead wrong
| That fellow has nothing to do with this
phony. money job today"
| Seeking to get at the mental processes
underlying the typical sieuth's powers Of
i ratiocinatiOn, / inquired. What makes
you think that fellow isn't working
| Because" replied Pinkerton. 'he told
me. during that little talk had With him
! outside the gate. that he was through
4 with the crooked stuff.
! That seemed astonishing enough. Here
| was perhaps the most distinguished de-
tectiye in the world calmly stating. in the
face of the fact that big bundle of coun-
terfeit money was circulating around the
ring, his cool belief that a man whom he
| knew to be a counterfeiter. and then in the
betting ring, had nothing whatever to do
with the Job. And Why? Because the man
had told him a while before that he was
| through with crookedneSs!
Before the afternoons racing was over
| P;nkerton had four men corralled in the
race track calaboose. They were the cir
man with the coSe-cropped gray har was
| not one of them. He had had nothing
whatever to do with the job. as Pinkerton
had divtned-divined. too, in the teeth of
what seemed-to such a iayman as l. at any
rate-the perfectly obvious conclusion.
Incidents of such a sort were virtually
| everyday affairs with Pinkerton at the
various race tracks which he watched over
| with his big staff of assistants.
The Reformed "Dip."
One spring afternoon, at the Gravesend
| track, three years ago. a man with a rec
ord as a swell NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. who
| had quit the criminal bunch two years be-
fore for good and all-and 1t is the rare
| thing by the way, for a top-notch leather
| worker to get back 10 the straight path
| trudged up to the entrance gate with a
| woman companion. Pinkerton took the
| man aside for a moment.
| You're dead sure of yourself, JIM he
| said to- the man who had been an accom-
| piished pickpocket.
| well, you ought to be able to read me-"
| replied the ex-dfp. and Pinkerton scruti-
nized him carefully, gazing keenly into the
| mans eyes. and said:
"All right. In you go. 1 think you're
| going to stick.
| Pinkerton was never the man to put SO
much as a straw In the path of a former
| criminal in whose reformation he believed
| and his only way of becoming convinced of
/ a crooks actual reformation was by looking
! the man over and putting him to the test
| of that keen grayeyed gaze of his.
Well. couple of hours later one of the
! leading bookmakers in the ring was
| .frisked'' for a wad of $500. The layer
had had the $1,000 roll, all in 800 bills. IN
l one of the rear pockets of his trousers, and,
while seated on his high chair one of the
classy dips had swung along and re-
| leved him of il. Pinkerton got word of 1t
| along toward the running of the fifth race.
| He strolled through the betting ring till
| he came up with the reformed pickpockct
| with whom he'd had the few words at the
| gate.
| aiO tln, and roll