Atlanta Georgian., 1914-02-19
BURNS STORIES
OF ADVEN TURE
THRILL CROWD
Noted SIeuth, in Lecture, Urges
Woman Suffrage-Says Nation
Is Becoming Better.

This thing of being great detec-
I'VE is simple after all. Several hun
d-ad Atlantans who had imagined
that one must be gifted with some
TRANCE power of diVination, and
rust possess a hypnotic eye that
drills right into guilty mems souls
and draws back out with every evil
,boueht and purpose hanging to it,
knew better Thursday.
Thev had heard the lecture of w.
! BURNS the night before in the Bap-
tist Tabernacle. Burns shattered
his rather attractive and awesome
fancy.
reeds to be a great detective, he said.
And he ought to know, being account
cd in many quarters about as able
sleuth as there is roaming at large
spreading terror and dlsmay among
inoffensive dynamiters, thrifty bribers
and bribe- takers, purchasers of seats
in Congress and the like
Makes Able Lecture.
You can be a detective just as
we'll as l." he said. And his sweeping
glance and gesture included every
one in the we'll filled auditorium.
new ambition thereupon was born
in a score of youthful breasts.
The detectives theme was "Citi-
zenship," a subject which he illumi-
mated most interestingly by tales of
his own experiences in uncovering
graft and corruption in a number of
the principal cities of the United
States.
He digressed frequently. but the
bvpaths of his lecture were no less
attractive than it's main course.
If there were those present who in
former years sneaked away from
their watchful parents to be held in
tingling excitement by the tales of
Nick Carter" "Old Sleuth," and con-
temporary literature of the sort, they
probably were the ones who were
leaning forward over the seats ahead
that they might not miss a word of
the thrilling recital they were getting
first hand from a participant.
Tells His Experiences.
In his picturesque and vigorous
language, into which crept occasion
ally the expressive parlance of the
professional detective, Burns told of
the cleanup given San Francisco as
the result of his exposures there; of
the uncovering of the graft in De-
troit's Council a sensation of which
the Michigan city has not yet ceased
talking: of the falling of Atlantic
Citys corrupt Councilmen, together
with the famous boss, Louie"
Kuehne. and of the exposure and
prosecution of the men concerned in
the effort to buy a seat in the Ma
tional Senate from West Virginia.
He declared, in spite of these in
stances of corruption, that munich
pal ana State administrations are
growing better, more honest and more
effective. For the corruption and
maladministration that still exist he
blamed, not the boss and the rest of
the professional politicians, but the
merchant and the banker and the
professional man, who refuse to con-
Germ themselves in what is going on
in city eno State affairs
Private Detectives Crooks"
In the course of one of his digres
sions he paid his compliments to
private detectives in general by say
ing that, "as a class, they are the
greatest lot of unwhipped thieves
and blackmailers that ever escaped
Justice"
Speaking of his own agency, he ad-
mtted: I'VE get hold of a few
crooks occasionally; that is unavoid-
able in any business. But when we
do, we are the first to find it out
and We prosecute them"
He declared that all of the VICES
and evils that infest the nation are
mostly traceable to municipal corrup-
ton.
The last seven years" he said
have witnessed the greatest reform
in this respect that America ever has
experienced The we'll governed city
now is not a rarity The citizens no
longer leave everything to the profess
sional politician
They are eliminating the bosses.
We need leaders, yes, but not bosses.
u has been rough weather for the
bosses. Those that are not in jail
are headed that way.
We are better to-day than we ever