Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1909-01-09

uN} tt b4C faolADE VIII klHkG . DiAo-
take If be jumps at conclusions. Let
him try to find out who are the detec-
tives employed by the bureau and he
! VIII begin to understand that the word
secret is not false label Nobody
outside Of WiIkie, Moran and possibly
one or two others knows the names Of
these men. what they do or even how
many Of them there are. They go
about as ordinary citizens, never dis
closing their connection with the de-
partment. except to police officials, dis
trict attorneys or others who may help
them. AS they are shifted around the
country and passed from department
to department, the criminal element Is
thus left in the dark as to the identity
of the men with whom they have to
cope. There are thirty seven branch
secret service Offices throughout the
nation and probably couple Of hum
dred men employed Not only coun-
terfeiting cases, but violations Of the
internal revenue laws, OF the antitrust
laws, Of the land laws, Of the postof-
fee regulations and Of the thousand
and one details of governmental rules,
may come in for investigation at their
hands. Rather they might have done
SO before congress interfered. Now
the service is handicapped, and there
is Joy among the crooks In conse-
quence.
The secret service man of fact and
the secret service man of fiction are
about as much alike as real estate
agents description IS like the dirt he
sells you The detective of romance
is wonderfully made, with brain like
a machine and personality that TO
the average American boy looms big
ger than that of the president. The
real detective But why shatter an
ideal? I never knew anybody the
worse for believing In Santa Claus,
and the popular conception of the aver
age sleuth not only delights the jul
not juvenileAbu possibly scares some
would be criminals into being decent.
Sleuths' Strenuous Lives.
Fairy tales aside, there are spots In
the lives of most secret service men
that are sufficiently exciting for mel
Ierdrammer" 1t Is a wise one among
them who knows what his next as
signment will be, whether to run down
a gang Of counterfeiters, look for
moonshiners in the Carolina noun
tains, trace land steals among the cat
tlemen or lumbermen Of the west or
break into world politics by spying on
a foreign government or shadowing
the spies Of foreign government here.
One of Chief Wilkes notable achieve
ments was in breaking up the spy sys-
tenn maintained by the Spanish gov
eminent in America during the late
war No; the life of Uncle Sans de-
tectives Is not without adventure and
movement. For example, one OF their
many duties is to guard the president
Of the United States and accompany
him every time he sets foot outside
the White House. With the cross
country gallops and tramps through
billiards. and transforms INDUCED in
by the present chief executive, this Is
not the mildest of occupations. The
strain on those detailed for the leg
racking duty will probably ease down
after March 4. Now their lives seem
like one long dream of looping the
loops and humping the bumps.
In their ordinary work of detecting
crime the secret service men are divid-
ed into two classes, shadows" and
''ropers." A shadow follows suspect
in all his comings and goings. 1t is
not an easy task for the reason that
the Swallowed one must never have the
faintest hint that any one is on his
trail Roping is still more difficult.
Here the detective becomes boon
companion Of the criminals, learns
their secrets and collects sufficient evil
dence to convict them. In doing this
he must have no scrap about his per-
son that would reveal his identity.
The old idea of DISCUSSES has largely
passed out Indeed, it never had ex-
istence among real detectives outside
the lids Of novels. Change of garb
and the perfection with which a de-
tective lives up to the character as
sumed furnish all the disguise neces-
sary. That Is the beauty OF service
made up of members unknown to the
criminal element. Few OF Chief VIII
kie's men were originally detectives.
Many of them came from the claims
departments of railroads and express
companies. They are from all walks
Of life-indeed. chosen after the most
rigid scrutiny into their characters and
fitness for the work One of the most
famous Of their number is William J.
Burns. concerned in the land fraud
investigations and now in the San
Francisco graft inquiry. Burns Is not
now In the secret service. having re-
signed to help Heney fight Schmitz and
Ruef
Vast, Complicated System.
Mr.. Wilkie assigns these men much
as he assigned reporters when on the
city desk of a newspaper. The prfn-
ciple is the same, although the sys-