The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-07-08
Also Ears Open, Are the Prime Requi-
sites for the ideal Detective
Says Head Of Lon
don Police.
SCOTLAND YARD WORK
Wireless Telesraphy and Finger Print
System Are Most Notable De
.veIopments In the
Science.

by Ed L. Keen. London Correspond
ent of the United Press.
LONDON. July 81. 1.-THE prime
requisites for the ideal detective are
to keep his eyes and ears opcE and bis
mouth shut
Sir Melville Macnaghten may not
have been thinking of himself when
ne made this remark the other day
on his retirementSas head OF the Grim
inal investigation department OF The
Metropolitan polica, or. as this instsui.
ton is properly known, Scotland Yaid.
But the description fits him.
For twenty-five years he had been
In the department, the first fifteen aa
chief constable and the last ten as as
sistant police commissioner In charge
OF criminal Investigation, and during
this quarter of a century service he
brought Scotland Yard to a degree of
efficiency in the detection of crime. as
most Britishers firmly believe. sec
ond to no similar institution In the
world.
These qualities seem very simple. .
he explained, "but 1t is astonishing
how few persons possess them. They
may be developed. but they cannot be
acquired. They constitute the real
detective instinct. with which a
man must be born If he is to become
expert In the solution OF crime riddles
and the apprehension of the guilty.
You can't make detective any more
than you can make an artist, unless
he has the necessary ability in him.
Nor is this ability limited to any par
ticular class or station in life. Ore OF
the finest detectives ever knew was
farm hand
Sir Melville was sort OF a farmer
himself before he took to sleuthius
Graduating from Eton he went ous 10
Bengal where his father had big es.
tate. He managed rhis property witt,
signal success for some twelve years,
during which time he attracted the IA.
vorable notice of Sir James Munro, at
that time in India, who upon becoming
police commissioner In London select
ed him for the post of chief constable.
Under Macnaghtens MANAGEMENT
Scotland Yard has been revolutionized
in method and character of its person.
mel. British policemen are of much
better class nowadays than they used
to be-" he said. Some OF the old
hands could hardly write their names
but / am not sure that this made them
any less valuable for police purposes
| in those days They were rougher
lot. and for the times and environ.
ment in which they lived were perhaps
| fitted. The men against whom they
We're pitted belonged largely to the
| lower and more ignorant classes FIRE.
quenters OF saloons and dives, and tie
detectives necessarily had to pick Up
a great deal of their information in
these quarters. The present-day Brit.
ish policeman and detective is rarely a
drinker, and to some extent this is
really handicap, for your modern
criminal still haunts the dives, al.
though not 80 much as formerly. TIE
men who are now on the force are
all well-educated and of exceptionally
fine type, certainly better equipped to
cope with the more Intelligent goth
century criminal"
Wireless telegraphy and the finger.
print system of Identification Sir Mel.
/ vile considers the most notable de-
velopments in the science of criminal
detection during his experience.
| Thanks to these two agencies, the
former scoring it's most sensational
triumph in the capture OF DR.. Crippen
! the proportion of criminals who es.
cape justice has been tremendously
reduced. In the past ten years, while
Macnaghten was at the head OF Scot.
land Yard there have been less than a
half dozen crimes of any note In Eng.
/ land that have remained unsolved. He
gives all the credit for the develop
ment of the finger-print system as EN-.
| ployed by Scotland Yard to the pres.
ent chief police commissioner, Sir Ed
ward Henry 1t is a simplication of
the French Bertillon method which he
considers much too intricate to
achieve the best results Macnaghten
was the first man personally to utilize
this system in England. He discovered
on a cash box the finger prints Of two
brothers, who had murdered a shop
keeper and his wife. and as result
the Iaen were hanged
Following out his observation re.
garding the necessity Of the ideal de,
tective "keepin ghis mouth shut Mac