MRS. SHERLOCK HOLMES

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 229, 27 September 1930, Page 10 (Supplement)

MRS. SHERLOCK HOLMES

FEMALE SLEUTH DEVELOPING . B WOMEN'S CRIME PROPENSITIES LESS VIOLENCE . AND MORE FINESSE. (By T. D. IRWIN.) Notwithstanding the seeming disadvantages to which they are subject, women continue to swell the ranks of the detective fraternity more and more each year. Where once a police department or detective agency was No Woman's Land, to-day every bureau recognises the necessity of retaining a number of female operators in its staff. Many agencies report considerable recent increases of this sort in their forces. One international detective agency now uses double the nuinoer of women operators it employed five years ago. Another prominent detective bureau today has a staff of which one-fifth are female. Other reputable agencies vary, but the majority show a substantial feminine increase in the last few years. Already there are women at the heads of a number of detective bureaux throughout the United States, these organisations employing chiefly female operators and have a clientele composed in the main of women. "The propensities of women to-day are inclining more than ever towards crime as a profession," declares Mary E. Hamilton, head of the Women's Bureau in New York's Police Department. "The woman criminal is being exploited by her male partner, commissioned to the most difficult and often the most dangerous tasks. Since it takes a woman to understand a woman, there is need vital need —for capable women . detectives. And I am glad to see that women are awakening to the opportunities in this most interesting though frequently hazardous profession." Factors in Use of Women. The growing importance of female sleuths also may be attributed to causes other than the fact that women operators can better cope with the growing number of criminals of their own sex. It has been found that women have been able to get to the bottom of a situation without creating suspicion where a male detective has failed, for they raiely look their part. Also contributing to the increased use of women as detectives is the greater freedom of the sex, their accessibility to more places than formerly. Many women in business, moreover, prefer to deal confidentially with women detectives, when they are in need of assistance; and hero is where the female department of a detective agency comes into play. Frequently the woman running her own bureau finds herself in the position of "community mother," with her clients bringing her all their troubles, minor and major. Domestic problems, especially, often have a female sleuth involved in tlieir settlement. One of the best known of the female divorce investigators died recently in New York city. Mrs. Hulda Almerem started her career as a detective at the ago of sixteen in the office of District Attorney Backus, and when she secured her license in 1909, she was perhaps the first official woman detective iu the United States. Her auxiliaries were mainly of her own sex; her methods, those of the old-fashioned fiction sleuth. At her death she left a trunkful of wigs, disguise clothing, paint and such devices to which she habitually resorted. Crime, both in the United States and in Europe, to-day is marked by less violence and more white collar banditry than it used to be. To foil these confidence crooks and swindlers, the gentler sex has many times proven better investigators than men. Impetus in World War. The woman operator is usually kept in the background, for her great value lies in having her identity unsuspected by the underworld. Slio is employed in almost every type of case, and on innumerable different angles. She may be used as "come-on" agent or decoy; as the other half of a couple to avert suspicion from the male detective; or as a hotel detective. She is stationed quite generally now in department stores to trace unexplained losses or to watch for women shoplifters in sections where men would be out of place. A number of women have been trained to become fingerprint experts. They enter a hotel room or apartment posing perhaps as maids, to secure the needed prints. In locating missing persons, particularly girls, the female investigator has no equal. She is rarely employed, however, in shadowing, for the simple reason, a woman standing in a public spot for hours is apt to attract undesirable attention. The vogue for female detectives received its greatest impetus during the World War, when women Secret Service agents accomplished commendable work in trapping spies. It was' seen, perhaps for the first time, that women could be of incalculable value in almost any line of investigation —for there is a feminine angle in practically every problem confronted. Qualities most to be desired in female operators, according to managers of detective agencies, are tact, patience, imagination, keen observation, and the ability to secure information without giving any in return. Freedom from home°ties and a knowledge of the world, are essential requisites.—(Anglo-Ameri-can N.S. Copyright.) 1