DETECTIVES AS THEY ARE

Evening Star, Issue 18668, 24 June 1924, Page 3

DETECTIVES AS THEY ARE

There is a popular impression that a, detective is a tall, spare man, with eyes which, it' they do not boro into the very soul of a criminal, always have a dreamy, far-away look. It may bo a shame to shatter this illusion (writes P. N. It. Hill in the ‘ Daily Mail ’), but the fact is that a detective is the most ordinary looking of mortals. He is of no particular typo; you meet his counterpart a dozen times in a short walk in any city. Generally the more successful he is the more commonplace he looks —that is one of the secrets of his success. No one takes him for what, ho is. 1 have known all kinds of detectives—fat. and thin, jolly and morose, bearded and clean-shaven, sallow and rubicund, greybeards and striplings, men of polished education and courtly manner, and men with little or no learning—but very, very wise in knowledge of the ways af men. The detective hero of the story-teller is always a man with marvellous powers of intuition and deduction, who, with little or no effort, can point the finger at the miilty parly. In fiction, when the creator of all the puppets of the story knows who commits the crime, and how it is done, before even the first word is written, this is quite possible, but in fact it is a very different proposition. When ihe services of a genuine detective are required it is because things have to bo found out. It is oulv solid hard work that will get a prisoner into the dock, and then only incontrovertible facts offered in irrefutable evidence will secure his conviction.