The New York herald., 1922-02-19

depart from my narrative here for few
months to talk frankly about the ordinary
methods of detective. There is very lit
tie of the bizarre about his work. Deduc-
tion is as often misleading as it is produc-
tive of results. You know your field. You
are supposed to know the history of crimes
similar to the one on which you are Noper-
ating. If 1t is counterfeiting case you
look up the oldtimers who happen to be
out of prison. Having accounted for them
and learned that none of them is guilty, you
naturally come to the conclusion that you
are dealing with newcomer.
You look and listen and wait You run
out all leads and tips. Maybe you strike
the right one; maybe you don't. In the
great majority of cases persistency wins
rather than inspiration. Sooner or later
you stumble over your man or some one
tells you something that leads you to the
capture. There's not much more romance
in crime for the detective than there is for
the crook. It's the reader who reaps the
romance and, to be wholly candid, it is
generally the writer who provides it,
We hung around the Pacific coast for a
month or 30. AS have indicated, all the
information we amassed might have been
written on the back of a postage stamp.
Possibly we would have stayed longer had
not we received word that the same queer
half dollars were appearing in New York
and Boston. Our unidentified friend was
leading us back and forth across the con-
tinent.
He was not inundating the East with
the coins, but every day or so we would
be called upon by some bank and handed
a few more of them. 1 won't tire you with
the routine Of that search for this new
conner. There was much scampering up
and down the coast and thousand and
one theories and tips-ali of the latter
quite false. We accounted for all known
counterfeiters. Some were in Jail and the
others were able to produce clean bill Of
health. .
Every 80 often the detective business
reaches a pass where you decide to grab
your hat and coat, tell the boss to do his
own detecting and then go out and get
Job where your work lies on the desk in
front of you and not In the clouds above
you. You are saved by two things; you
know that police work is the only thing
you know how to do and, secondly, that
sooner or later you are going to land your
criminal.
Assay Offices, where silver bullion was
sold, were able to account for all the metal
they had received and disposed of. None
had gone into illegitimate use. Dealers in
old gold and silver presented harder
proposition. They couldn't account for all
the silver they had sold, but, on the other
hand, they had sold very little coin silver.
No, the silver this man was using had
come fronA another source.
We sort of showed the case aside. Other
and more pressing business had come to us.
We kept watch, of course, and maintained
a few men on the case. But the coinage
seemed to have fallen off. Fewer of the
spurious half dollars were appearing Very
we'll we'd wait. Sooner or later, you know;
sooner or later
One day early in June 1907. man who
lived in Suffern, N. Y, telephoned us to
the effect that there had been a sudden
gush of imitation half dollars up his way
He was a grocer and, according to his tele-
phone conversation, had received five or
six of these bad coins.
How do you know they're bad?" we
asked him.
"well," he replied, I'm not altogether
certain they are. There's something queer
about them. Don't know just, what it is
They ring all, right and look as good as