Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1909-08-20
DETECTIVE STORIES.
Little Things as Aids In Solving
Problems In Crime.
THE VALUE OF SMALL CLEWS

IN All wy Experience, Says Police
Sergeant Cuff, One of WiIke Col
Inns Creations, "a Have Never Yet
Met Such a Thing as Trifle."
If you ask some London publishers
they will tell you that no book sells so
well as a detective story and that peo-
pie still find a fascination in the
achievements of Edgar Allan Poe's
Dupin, Gaboriau's Lecocq and Tabaret
and the redoubtable Sergeant Cuff of
Wilkie Collins
These men were the fOrerunnerS of
Sherlock Holmes, and their feats of
criminal tracking were as remarka BILE
as those achieved by the famous char
acter created by Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle Perhaps the least known is
Cuff, who figures in "The Moonstone."
Cuff looked for claws in triies In
vestigating a smear on newly paint
ed door. he was told by the superin-
tendent who had the case in hand that
it was made by the petticoats of the
women servants. The superintendent
SAID petticoats were trif1eS
I'm all my experience along the
dirtiest ways of this dirty little world"
replied Cuff, 81 have never met such
a thing as a trifie yet. We must see
the petticOat that made the smear and
we must know for certain that the
paint was wet
N"ocq. the beau ideal of the French
detective. was wont to explain his de-
ductiOns to assistants, just as Sherlock
Holmes did to his friend Watson. In
the story of File No. 113" safe has
been robbed. There is a scratch on
the door of the safe which seems to
have been made by the key slipping
from the lock. But Lecocq explained
that the paint was hard and that the
scratch could not have been made by
the trembling hand of the thief letting
the key slip.
He therefore had an iron box made,
painted with green varnish, like the
safe. AS Lecocq inserted the key he
asked the assistant to endeavor to pre-
veht him using the key just as he was
about to insert it in the lock. The as
sistant did so, and the key held by
Lecocq, pulled aside from the lock,
slipped along the door and traced upon
1t diagonal scratch from top to bot
tom, the exact reproduction of the one
shown in photograph of the safe
Thus it was proved that two persons
were present at the robbery - one
wished to take the money and the
other to prevent its being taken.
In the play Sherlock Holmes, the
detective with the aid of an accom-
plice, raises an alarm of fire at the
house Of the LARA bees, during the ex-
citement of which he is able to inves-
tigate the mystery of the purloined
documents.
A somewhat similar incident occurs
in Edgar Allan Poes ''The Purloined
Letter" when Dupin, having obtained
entrance to the house Of a minister
of the state who had purloined let
ter of great Importance from a lady,
wished to take it from its hiding place
"a card rack over the mantelpiece-
and substitute a facsimile. While
Dupin was talking to the minister
there was a sudden report of a pistol
beneath the window, followed by fear
full screams and loud shouting. The
minister rushed to the window, and
while his attention was thus distracted
Dupin took the real letter and substi
tuted the false one which he had pre-
pared Needless to say, the diversion
had been created by Dupin's assist
ants.
Although "The Adventures of Sher-
lock Holmes somewhat overshadow
the stories of other detectives which
appeared in the Strand Magazine, one
should not forget to mention Martin
Hewitt, investigator, and Dick Don
ovan
Both these detectives worked alone
and were past masters in the art Of
solving robbery mysteries. murders
and the crimes of secret societies.
And the value of noting trifes, par
ticularly in detective work, is striking
ly illustrated in 'The Case of Mr. Fog
gait" The latter had been murdered
in his chamber, which was situated at
the top of the building in which Hew-
lit had an office Hewitt was the first
one on the scene The door was lock-
ed. and when be got inside the room
he found Foggatt lying across the ta-
BILE, shot dead. There was a sheer
drop of fifty feet outside the windows.
How had the murderer got in, and
how had he escaped?
On the sideboard were the freshly
bitten remains Of an apple. Hewitt
noticed that it had been bitten by
person who had lost two teeth, one
at the top and one below. He also
saw that the dead man had an excel
lent set of false teeth. with none
missing. He observed. too, that an ac-
tive young man could, by standing on
the window sill, draw himself on the
roof and thus escape. Thus Hewitt
comes to look for a tall. athletic look
ing young man with two teeth miss
ing. He finds him, obtains by a ruse
another apple which he has bitten.
compares the two and ultimately OBJ
tains the startling story Of the muir
der from the murderer himself after
the coroner's jury had returned YER
dict of accidental death" London
Tit-Bits.