Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-01-05

tAko II ne jumps at CONCLUSIONS. Let
him try to find out who are the detec-
tiyes employed by the bureau and he \
will begin to understand that the word
secret is mot a false label. Nobody
outside Of Wilkie, 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
bred 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 couse-
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 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
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 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
them who knows what his next as
signment will be. whether to run down
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
q 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 cross
country gallops and tramps through
billiards. and transforms INDUCED in
10y 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 T. 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.'' shadow follows u 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 a boon
companion of the criminals, learns
their secrets and collects sufficient evi
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 CARL
and the perfection with which de
tective lives up to the character as
sumed furnish all the. disguise neces
sary. That rs the beauty Of service
made up of members unknown to the
criminal element Few Of Chief vii
lIie's men were originally detectives
Many Of them came from the claim:
, departments of railroads and expires.
companies. They are from all walk.
, Of life-indeed, chosen after the mos
rigid scrutiny into their characters ant
fitness for the work. One of the mos
famous of their number Is William
Burns. concerned In the land fraut
| investigations and now in the SaI
: Francisco graft inquiry. Burns is no
now in the secret service, having re
; signed to help Heney fight Schmitz ant
, Ruef.
Vast, Complicated System.
Mr.. Wilkie assigns these men mucl
= 1 l,o MIR IN