The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-06
Copyright. 1912. by Curtis Brown

Copyright 1912. by Curtis Browna
 Londcn.-.I can tell you this" said Big Bine Pinkerton. raising heavy forefnger to emphasize his words, "that the whole tribe of American erooks-big and little-will breathe easier when they hear that that man has quit the detective business Cor good"
 Superintendent Frank Froest of Scot land Yard, the man in question, smiled benignly. His name 1whca is pronounced to rhyme with rghost1 is almost as well known, of course, in. The United States as it Is in this country where he is regarded as the greatest living detective.
 We sat, Froest, W. A. Pinkerton and the writer of these lines. in the big of flee at Scotland Yard, which Froest has occupied for the past seven years as su- rerintendent Of the criminal investisa- ton department of his majestys police, but which soon will know him no more AS head of the e, I. D." as it is called he has been eommander-in-chief of the most famous army of rogue catehers in the world. which he joined 34 years ago in the capacity Of an ordinary cop a boy in the west country he read Ga boriau and about Allan Pinkerton and made up his mind te be a detective, aLd now ''Froest of the Yard is renowned all over Europe, as we'll as in Seath
 
 bagged big game of the criminal variety and at the Cape whence he went tI bring Dr. Jameson 10 England after the raid.
 Possibly you already have seen a hare announcements that the captor of 5abez Bafour, of Tom Q Brien. tue king oi American hunco men of his day; of VII liam Lord Moors. the Tennessee next-pf-t kin swindler, and more other interna- tional rogue than can be kept in any memory but his own, is about to retire and some of the more familiar anecdotes about him may have been recalled It has been the writer's luck, however. tc hear Froests story from his own rs- luctant lips-whieh would infinitely rath CT have been related some of the choice stories which he tells with q verve worthy of Depew-toaether with illun- mating comments and what the hieh- brows call an 'appreciatiOne from Froest's famous contemporary and close friend. Big Bill' Pinkerton. who has been over here for a month or more and with whom ] found Froest closeted or my second visit 10 the superintendent famous den at the Yard.
 If you ask me. it was just bit thrill ing to .sit there in the heart of the great police system whose tentacles stretch out to the ends of the earth. and listen to those two master sleuths, who have worked together on both sides of the herring pond, recalling the details of crimes and the personalities of their Ter retrators-these last almost affectionate- ly Our surroundings. too, were study in themselves Everywhere there were telephones, speaking tubes and electric hells, while on the walls Vanity Fair cartoons of celebrities beamed down so offset the effect of TWO guns-one a Smith & Wesson and the other a Colt and of big bowie-knife with six notcfes in, na nfll el nf HF 9 murder--which things Froest took from three of the baddest men that ever quilted the United States in a hurry for these shores, and which now repose on his mantelpiece.
 The superintendent is most famous as the man who tracked Jahez Balfour of 'Liberator'' fame. to the Argentine. and after nearly a years hard work finally succeeded in turing him on board Brit ish vessel and there arrestng him, but perhaps his biggest "coupsa apart from this have been made against American crooks and bad men who, as William Pinkerton observed will not bewail his passing. No man outside the Urlted States knows the American brand oi criminal better. or has been up against him oftener F'roest has fought the Yankee thug hand to hand and brain against brain, and generally he has abeaten him. For this reason, if no other, you are sure to have heard of him. but however you have pictured him, you are pretty sure 10 have been wrong.
 Ycu may have seen with your minds eye the Sherlock Holmes type of sleuth. or the typical Scotland Yard man satirzed by Holiness creator the like of M Lecoq or Hawkshaw or even poor Jacques Futrelle's "Thinkng Ma chine" but you are not likely to have pictured Frankie" Froest tho last word in dandyism. He is 2 very Beau Brummel of sleuths, whose silk hat tfor he has sperted a topper" and the ae- edmpanying Prince Albert since he be came head of the "C. l. D'D is ironel to absolute perfectioni whose white vest slip" glossy patent feathers and suele "spats'' make the kings look sloppy when as frequently happens his maies- tv and the superintendent are on view simultaneously and who is said to he