Widnes Examiner. — 1895-04-13 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

BLOODHOUNDS AS DETECTIVES.  The " Windsor Magazine" for April contains a very striking article on this question, in the course of which the writer, Mr. A. Croxton Smith, reminds us " six or seven years ago, when the scare occasioned by the terrible •Whitechapel murders was at its height, the mystic word 'bloodhound' was mooted with bated breath, many feeling that here was an agent that might succeed in detecting the criminal where all the skiled upholders of the law had failed, Others, who knew little about the subject, pooh-poohed the idea, characterising the modern representative of St. Hobert's breed as nothing but a magnificent show animal, a brute minus all those special faculties for which it was erstwhile famous. It is not difficult, however, to demonstrate the absurdity of this contention. The bloodhound is as capable of running anyone down to-day as ever he was, his scenting powers having in no way deteriorated, despite what detractors of the patrician of the show bench may have to say to the country. In plenty of cases, I am convinoed, bloodhounds would prove invaluable auxiliaries to the police in tracking crimin,ls, especially in rural districts where the scent would lie well. Mr. Edwin Brough, our greatest living authority on the breed, has proved this beyond refutation, inost of his hounds being trained to hunt the clean boot with ease. Moreover, it is not long since they were instrumental in detecting poachers and similar wild fowl.' Forty or fifty years ago there were bloodhounds that could hunt the scent of a man twenty-four, or even thirty-six, hours old, and since then breeders have vastly improved the characteristics which denote scent, the long, narrow, peaked head and immense flews always associated with this faculty having been developed to an extent never known I before. Mr. Brough has letters from two men having charge of hounds attached to penitentiaries in Texas, containing wonderful accounts of the capture of convicts, although the rogues had in some instances a start of a day and a half. In one case a man was run down forty miles from home." " When we come to speak of the use of bloodhounds in town, we are treading on more delicate ground, several difficulties at once confronting us. It may seem strange, but it is none the less true, that we have to deal with rather nervous animals, but this defect could probably be overcome if only those of b-lder disposition were selected and accustomed from earliest puppyhood to the sights and sounds incidental to town life. A more serious obstacle would be experienced in finding the line of the right man, half-a-dozen people possibly having gone away in the same direction. Mr. Brough believes that in time a hound could be taught to follow a foot-scent on stone, but the difficulty I have referred to would mast likely render his services abortive unless the crime were committed during the quiet hours of the night,and he were brought to the spot promptly. When the Whitechapel murders were about, Mr. Brough,at the in‘vitation of Sir Charles Warren, sent his champion Baraby,' and ' Burg Ito 'to Lopdon,and successful trials were carried on in Hyde Park, but soon after the crowded streets were reached the couple became at fault. No opportunity of using them in the East End was afforded, the fiendish ghoul having ceased his practices during the eight or nine weeks they were in town."