The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1909-02-03

NAO0AA9 SACA SVAAONSAOA WILL kAC OC.
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 ana probably a 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-
hce regulations and Of the thousand
md M details Of governmental rules,
lmay 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 a real estate
agents description Is like the dirt he
sells you. The detective Of romance
Is wonderfully made, with a brain like
a machine and a personality that to
the average American boy looms big
ger than that Of the president. The
real detective But why shatter an
ideal1 I never knew anybody the
worse for believing in Santa Claus,
and the popular conception Of the aver
age sleuth not only delights the ju-
venile heart-and some hearts that are
not juvenile-but 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 incl
lerdrammer." 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 a 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
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 n long dream Of looping the
loops and humping the bumps.
In their ordinary work Of detecting
crime the secret service lei are divid-
ed into two classes, shadows and
'ropers." A shadow follows a suspect
in all his comings and goings. 1t is
not an easy task for the reason that
the Swallowed m must never have the
faintest hint that any n is on his
trail. Rcping is still more difficult.
Here the detective becomes a 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 lever had ex-
istence among real detectives outside
the lids Of novels. Change Of garb
and the perfection with which q de-
tective lives up to the character as
sumed furnish all the disguise neces-
sary. That is the beauty Of a service
made up of members unknown to the
criminal element. Few of Chief Will
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
AdIlOuS VI tuClT uuIuUCT Is Wlll1dh y.
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
az he assigned reporters when on the
city desk of a newspaper. The prin-
ciple is the same, although the sys-
tenn is infinitely more vast and COM
plicated. The men work under the d.
rect supervision Of the various depart
ments to which they are assigned or
under the subordinate secret service
bureau in whose territory they hap
pen to be placed, although the Wash
ington bureau keeps track of them all.
In this way the head Of the system has
a more thorough inside view Of the
workings Of the entire nation than
any other m man outside Of the pres