Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1911-12-13
Observation-Disclosures. .s..l.ei.s3.S.3..S..s..3.
!. THE DETECTIVE. i.
i (Springfield Republican. j
Observation-Disclosures. .S..S..S..3..S..ses3..s..S

eeA'SN uOe'aSIloh, ue las Deen CuhTS-
ed with taking and self-advertising,
he has been accused Of corruption.
The Mcnamara confession not only
jastifies to the last word his early
statements in the present case, but
throws an added 'brilliance upon his
past achievements. 1t is not extraya-
CANT to call him the greatest detect
I've that America has produced. VAL
liable work has been done before this.
In unearthing conspiracies as we'll as
IN pursuing single criminals, but
none Of our distinguished detectives
IN the past have made 80 notable a
record, by measn that command such
respect. His place, OF course, is not
with the hypercerebral detectives of
fiction like Dupin, Lecocq, and sher-
lock Holmes. He belongs rather with
the noted Scotland Yard men or with
the great Canadian detective Murray.
VINO ran down the dynamiters of the
Welland Canal.
The detective Of fiction is a morbid
recluse who has only to read the
newspapers in order to solve the mys
terry of crime. All the hard, vulgar
work he leaves to the police, poor
dullards, doomed to perpetual humil-
iation at his superior acumen. The
detective in real life, on the contrary,
mas been depicted as mere scaven-
ger, corrupt, incompetent, helpless
except when aided by secret relations
with the criminal class. Many sleuths
like Vidocq have been affiliated with
criminals. Burns, like INSPECTOR
Murray, shows how the profession
may be dignified by hard, honest
work. When put on case he nei-
ther retired to his study to think it
over in dressing gown nor waited
for stool pigeons to come bringing
him word, but has promptly packed
his bag and set out like good news
paper correspondent or commercial
traveller to mix with people and get
next to whatever there was to
know. The ordinary obvious clues
have been good enough for him, and
his success has usually come from
his Following them out to the bitter
end in spite Of difficulty. He has
shown much sagacity, but Of a COM
nonsense sort, and his deductions
never SAVIOR Of the uncanny His
qualifications, in short, are the quail
fications of a good, energetic business
man, with unusual insight into psy-
chology, and thorough professional
training to reinforce natural talent.
In Burns we see the detective of
real life at his best, and it is no dis
paragement Of his prowess to hope
that his brilliant feats will not in
crease the new vogue of the realistic
detective in fiction. The detective
story is not the highest type Of fic-
ton, but it has it's points and it's
pedigree. Perfected by Poe, modern
lied by Conan Doyle, it comes to us.
through Voltairc, from the Orient,
where EhilOsophic calm has develop
ed to remarkable degree the talent
for sitting still and specializing about
,nings instead of going to find them
out. 1t is often the more artistic
way. Innovators have tried to use in
fiction the laboratory method Of de-
tecting falsehood by delicate instru-
ments, but only succeeded in spelling
the story. The detective of fiction
has no use for the dictagraph-he
might as we'll be an eavesdropp eI. .
The third degree has no place in the
tale OF "ratiocination," as Poe gran
diloquently called it.
The whole thing is an ingenious
game, play of the fancy, an exer-
else Of the wits. Though it deals
with crime, the detective story pro-
per Is as innocuous as problem in
algebra or chess It's vogue may have
passed; mediocre writer's employing
the tricks Of Poe, Gaboriau, Wilkie
Collins, and Conan Doyle, have chez n
ened it. In the latter days, in "Thc
Man Who Was Thursday and "Ar-
sene Lupin,' it has reached the final
stage Of burlesque. Perhaps it will
be revived, perhaps not. But in any
case, the advocates of realism need
not flatter themselves that the meth
DDS which succeed in real life must
succeed equally we'll in fiction. 1t
was precisely because he was unreal
that the omniscient analyst was so
deservedly popular in fiction; he was
purely an artistic creation. Mr.. Burns
and his kind have quite enough ce-
lebrity In real life without encroach-
Ing on romance. Their place in lit