Part 52

Sharp saw nothing not flat and silly in this, and he agreed to it of course, for well he knew that all the stockholders would be glad to get more money into the treasury to develop the mine with. They would, of course, all tell Flat that they had paid up, and so confirm Sharp's word. Flat quietly visited two or three of the heaviest stock holders, and informed them how they were cheated, and they became as anxious as his employer to have the scamp caught; and after two days, Flat called again upon Sharp, taking a couple of modest friends along with him, of whom he could manage to make witnesses in an emergency. Sharp was all ready, greeted him cordially, pointed out to him carefully, and with much apparent pride, the names of the stockholders who had paid up their assessments, and explained to him that certain checks he had put against their names meant that they had paid, and showed how much each had paid.

Flat was a little thick-headed, but saw "straight" at last. "I declare," said Flat, "that are's famous," taking hold of the book; "neow do tell me what your expenses is in runnin' this here company? What d'they charge you for this here nice book, to begin with?" (The book was gotten up with considerable care as to appearances.)

Sharp thought it a stupid question, but humored Flat, and told him that it was worth twenty-five dollars; but that he had an eye to economy for the company, and "jewed" down the price to eighteen dollars.

"Wa'al," said Flat, "that's cheaper an' I can git one anywheres else; guess I'll take it; talk of gittin' up a company myself;" and he appropriated the book, to Sharp's amazement.

He had all he wanted; evidence enough as to who had been swindled, and how much, etc. The matter was all brought down to a point, and Sharp was arrested by one of Flat's friends, while Flat bore away the book to a safe place. Suffice it, that Sharp was so securely caught that he did not go home to his pleasant residence in New Jersey that day so early as usual, or not until every dollar he had swindled from his victims was secured, and in the way of getting back to their hands. This was "Catching a Flat" with a vengeance for Mr. Sharp.

But this is only an illustrative case of the best and most honorable class of the detective's work, and one of the comparatively "genteel" cases too. His field of labor is usually more thorny, and his work at times not only very perplexing, on account of the subtle characters he has to deal with, but very laborious in view of the much travelling, nights and days, which many jobs occasion. The tracking out of bank robbers, searching for the hiding-places of their stolen treasures, and various like things, will suggest the great amount of real, hard, physical labor the detective sometimes has to perform. Only he can do it. He cannot delegate his powers to any great extent. If he employs others, it is only as aids, not as substitutes. He is expected to know everything in the ways of business regular and business irregular. If he would succeed as a detective of bank robbers, especially, he must not only know all the rogues of that class, but he must understand what class of "workmen" they are; for these industrious, hard-working bank-robbers all have different ways of doing their work; possess different degrees of skill; and when the robbery of a bank is reported to a detective, his first inquiry is directed to the manner in which the "work" was done.

Some workmen of this class have very little skill of a mechanical kind. They do their work bunglingly, and never attempt very difficult jobs. Others are very skillful; are ready to undertake anything. The most skillful bank-robbers, of twenty or twenty-five years ago, would only be bunglers now. The thousand new devices for safe-locks, security of vaults, and so forth, would entirely confound them. But as genius makes progress in the arts of security, the bank-robbers keep pace. Their profession increases in dignity among themselves in proportion to the new and great difficulties which they surmount. They are of different classes, of different degrees of merit in their vocation, and the detective must know at once by their "chips" to what class belonged the scamps who robbed this or that bank; for if he did not know he would be liable to get on the wrong track, and so the scamps would gain all the time they need for putting themselves in perfect security. And the detective must know the character and relative "standing" of the members of other divisions of the "cross" classes, as they are designated in the technical phrase of the profession.

So the detective's calling is one which demands not only much cunning, but much general and accurate knowledge of human character, and not a little acquaintance with all sorts of business. He may be illiterate, as many an excellent detective is, for he has perhaps climbed up from unfortunate and poor early surroundings by force of his natural abilities, and not by any adventitious aid of the schools. If he cannot solve problems of the higher mathematics, he can unravel mysteries which would confound a Newton or a Laplace; and to keep pace with the "enlightened progress" of bank-robbers, counterfeiters, and so forth, the detective must not only be alert, but clear-headed. He must be honest, too, punctiliously so in a business sense; for he must keep within certain limits, observe certain rules of honor in his dealings with thieves and outlaws, otherwise he would often find himself lacking in one case evidence which he wants in another; or having one scoundrel in his power, could never use him as state's evidence to criminate another, his confederate, and a more dangerous person than he; for there is certainly "honor among thieves," as among other business men. There must be a certain degree of it, else business itself would die out or go into anarchy. Honor enough to preserve the integrity of his business every thief has. The detective could not afford to have less than the thief. He is a sort of prince, in the thieves' opinion. He is the only man for whom they have any real respect.

With the detective the thief usually "keeps faith," if he plights him his "word and honor as a gentleman!" (Strange words to fell from a thief's mouth, but after all a most appropriate source; for a true man has no need to indorse his yea or nay with an oath of honor.) The detective is a power among the thieves; his are the laws they obey. They fear only him. He is a necessity, then, for protecting society against the frauds, [s]peculations, and robberies of these irregular business men. He governs the cities, and protects them, so far as controlling the rapacity of the irregular robbers is concerned. But few people resident of a city like New York, and but few strangers coming to the city, consider or ever know how continually they are under the protection of the invisible detective; invisible to them, but "seen and known of all men" in the irregular vocations of business.

The detective is ever about in public places, exercising his calling for the protection of the thousands who know him not. For example, strangers from the country visiting New York generally attend the theatres, more or less, especially if they are very puritanic at home, and some such play as the Black Crook is ruling at Niblo's, for instance. Of course the country gentlemen, whether deacons, or what not, in their respective rural districts, must see the "sensations." What else do they come to New York for, to be sure? On business? Yes, the detective who knows them all, and can tell at sight from what parts of the country they individually come, knows that they visit New York "on business;" for he sees them at the theatres, and often gets sight of them going into places where very wise people do not go, but where wisdom of a certain sort is to be obtained nevertheless; and so he knows that they come to the city only on business. But he keeps an eye out for them constantly.

They go to Niblo's, perchance, to see some spectacular play, like the "White Fawn," or the "Black Crook," to which we have referred before. They go in great crowds. They have their "Sunday clothes" on, watch chains in sight, pocket-books insecurely guarded, etc., and they sit out the hours and listen to the play, and are delighted, and go quietly out, away to their hotels, or among their friends, unconscious all the while that at the theatre they owed their security from pickpockets, and that class of skilled gentlemen, to a single, quiet man, whom they may not have deigned to cast a look upon as they passed through the vestibule into the body of the theatre; but he was there, having a care for them all. He is one of the chief men of his vocation in the land or the world. The thieves and pickpockets all know him, and respect him.

Standing near by the gateway in the railing which crosses the vestibule, is this gentleman to be seen. He is of rather more than medium height--a muscular, but not large man, has a face of regular cast of features, and a very fine intellectual brow. He is rather more than a good-looking man; a handsome man, indeed; and a gentleman of courteous manners. He is always well dressed, but never over-dressed; he exercises excellent taste in this respect. He is the only man in New York, perhaps, who could perfectly fill the place he occupies in that vestibule now as the guardian of the thousands who pass through that little gate. He seems not to be observing anything in particular; but you may hear him as you pass through the gate, perhaps, speak to some one in the crowd moving on with you; and turning about, you observe that a fine-looking gentleman has stepped aside to speak with the accomplished public guardian, Wm. George Elder (for that is his name), and the gentleman whom he has quietly called to him is an accomplished pickpocket. The detective is informing him that he must not go in now; some other night, perhaps, he may. That pickpocket has, perhaps, been long away from the city, for years, at Boston, or New Orleans, and thought the detective had forgotten him. But the detective has an excellent memory, and he never forgets his "friends," he says; and this pickpocket he had, years ago, enrolled among the best of his friends, because he had taken his advice, and left the city, with the promise never to return; and the detective gently reminds him of his promise and his "honor;" and the pickpocket, all smiles, and graciousness,--for he is a very gentleman in his line of business,--bows himself off.

One after another the detective arrests the pickpockets quietly, and sends them away. None of them whom he has ever seen escapes him, however much disguised. But there may be some new ones, some lately arrived from London (the fruitful mother and skillful educator of this enterprising class of our fellow-men), or from somewhere else, whom the detective has never seen, and who have passed in. But pickpockets have a brotherhood of their own, and the stranger pickpockets find their way to the resident ones at once; so to keep watch on a strange one who may possibly have entered, the detective, perhaps, allows one or two of the resident gentlemen to go in, and makes them responsible for whatever watches or pocket-books may be lost there on the given night.

The pickpockets so admitted plight him their word that they will not "work" there that night, and they keep it; and if some other pickpocket, still a stranger to the detective, carries on his business there, the resident pickpockets are sorely grieved, for they feel that their honor has been trifled with and imperilled, and they are sure to hunt out the stranger gentlemen, and make him disgorge, on the principle of the honor and respect which one member of their fraternity is bound to show to another. A higher law rules among these people than among the regular or legalized pickpockets in the business world generally. Thus, by wise stratagem, the detective causes one villain to keep another "honest," or inoffensive at least.

This particular officer is not always at that given post on play nights; but he may be often seen there, and he is a splendid specimen of the _genus_ detective. It would be difficult to find in any business vocation a more thoroughly effective and true man than he; but he honors the calling, and not the calling him. Without him and his fellow-detectives the civilization of New York could not be maintained, and throughout the country a sort of anarchy would bear sway. Vigilance committees would be needed in all our cities, and be made up of inexperienced citizens, who, not knowing what to do, would make confusion more confounded, and run riot themselves at last. But the skilled "vigilance committee," the educated detectives, keep things in order.

On the whole, I am of the opinion that the detective system, with all its crafts and hypocrisies, its "higher law," or law of "expediences," which is constantly breaking in upon common law and the statute law of the States against the compounding of felonies, etc., etc., is, notwithstanding all that may be said against it, one of the very best institutions or features of our corrupt civilization, whether we regard the physical powers or the spiritual powers that be in its midst. It is, at least, the silent, secret, and effective Avenger of the outraged Majesty of the Law when everything else fails, and must fail, to bring certain irregular members of society into order. And if there is any merit in sustaining our corrupt, abominable civilization as it is, then the detective's value cannot well be overrated. But there are social philosophers who hold that it is a sin to perpetuate things as they are, and who teach that society can never be reformed, and justice rule, protecting the rights of labor against the rapacity of greedy tyrants, etc., etc., until it shall have first become disintegrated in all its present parts, and be reconstructed; that out of the rotten particulars of which the general whole is now composed nothing worthy can be wrought; and that disintegration cannot come too soon, even if through all possible calamities. In the view of these men the detective system is but a power exercised in an unholy cause; a necessary part of an unnecessary system of wrong. Between the philosophers and the general public I leave the detective system, unwilling to assume to decide for others whether, on the whole, it _fell_ from "heaven" or sprang from "hell."

But while I would not undertake to determine for others the metaphysical (?) question above raised, I feel it proper to add for myself, that although most of my relations with the police during my whole period of office were pleasant enough, so far as my brother officers were concerned (some of whom, indeed, I hold in cordial esteem); yet the duties of my position were frequently obnoxious to my taste and--perhaps I will be pardoned for so expressing myself--to my better nature. My adoption of and continuance in the profession were not acts of choice, or volition, in the sense of what sundry more or less clear-headed theologians call "free agency"; but, rather, the practical expressions or verifications of "foreordination" perhaps, or in other words, the results of the "force of circumstances," in conflict with which I was powerless; and I felt relieved of a great burden when fate permitted me, at last, to forego my honors as a detective policeman.

Transcriber's Note

Page numbers are documented as links within the source code of the HTML.

Illustrations have been moved near the relevant section of the text.

"=" is used to mark bolded text and "^" is used to indicate that the letter following it is a superscript. [oe] and [OE] are used to represent the "oe" dipthong.

Inconsistencies have been retained in spelling, hyphenation, punctuation, and grammar, except where indicated in the list below:

- "th m" changed to "them" on Page iii - "23" changed to "21" on Page v - Quote removed after "GRAHAM," - Dot replaced with "--" on Page xiv - "REMOVES TO LONDON" heading added to Page 23 - "officer" changed to "Officer" on Page 52 - "succint" changed to "succinct" on Page 55 - "pressent" changed to "present" on Page 58 - "filty" changed to "filthy" on Page 67 - Quote removed before "In" on Page 81 - Quote removed after "mood." on Page 88 - Quote added after "Street." on Page 92 - Single quote moved from after "eyes." to after "Noir" on Page 118 - "severly" changed to "severely" on Page 127 - Quote added before "Don't" on Page 128 - Quote added before "but" on Page 132 - Quote added after "prize." on Page 146 - Period added after "G" on Page 186 - "busicess" changed to "business" on Page 202 - Period added after "such" on Page 208 - Period added after "NEWBERRY" in illustration caption near Page 215 - Quotes placed around "80" and "200" on Page 231 - "circuituous" changed to "circuitous" on Page 239 - Quote added before "I" on Page 260 - Comma removed after "We'll" on Page 268 - Quote added before "I" on Page 315 - "seige" changed to "siege" on Page 318 - "secretely" changed to "secretly" on Page 322 - Quote added before "and" on Page 323 - Quote added before "and" on Page 325 - Quote removed after "to." on Page 335 - Quote added before "He" on Page 336 - Period changed to a comma after "HARTFORD" on Page 341 - Quote removed after "Ellsworth." on Page 344 - Quote added after "lost." on Page 359 - "not not" changed to "not" on Page 375 - Quote removed before "and" on Page 383 - "ablility" changed to "ability" on Page 411 - Quote added before "take" on Page 411 - Comma removed after "few" on Page 417 - "acqaintance" changed to "acquaintance" on page 427 - Quote removed after "coachman" on Page 450 - "rag man's" changed to "rag-man's" on Page 450 - Quote added after "here." on Page 456 - Quote removed after "Ah," on Page 478 - Quote added before "but" on Page 478 - Quote removed after "he," on Page 483 - "desposit" changed to "deposit" on Page 508 - "circumtances" changed to "circumstances" on Page 561 - "son-in law" changed to "son-in-law" on Page 563 - "stealthly-looking" changed to "stealthy-looking" on Page 581 - Quote added before "Do" on Page 582 - "thorougly" changed to "thoroughly" on Page 587 - "RUPUTATIONS" changed to "REPUTATIONS" on Page 589 - "unfreqnently" changed to "unfrequently" on Page 619 - "busines-way" changed to "business-way" on Page 651 - Comma changed to a period after "detectives" on Page 653 - "dectective" changed to "detective" on Page 660