REAL DETECTIVE TALES

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 5294, 4 June 1904, Page 15

REAL DETECTIVE TALES

: Several cases in tho English Courts one day last inontl. bore striking testimony : to tho cleverness and presence of mind of the London ■' slice. Tho fact that two men: suddenly stopped talking aw . he 5 passed them ir. Culvert road, Battersea, * roused the'suspicions of Constable 670 Y. Ho concealed himself. and watched their mo-- emeuts. • After inspecting several 1 houses, bo says, one of the’couple ienter. > cd the doorway.of a wardrobe dealer’s shop! The re was tho jund of splintering glass, and then the yansteblo pounced •■oa-' th* man in the doorway, John Smilhoxs, and, : following a struggle, captured.. ldm. •<The other man csca icd. On tho charge of am tempted burglary Smithors was remand*!' ed. Tho nmnly stride of a woll-drcssod young ‘’woman" in Clcrkenwell caused Sergeant Butler ,to taka particular cotiro of. nor. Ultimately ho ventured ta jostle the '‘woman's” elaborately trimmed hat, disturbing a wig and revealing underneath closely cropped hair. The : scqi.-l ’.'ns the arrest of George Walter, a vo.et, for beii ; diwssed as a female and loitering with latent tR commit a felonv. Wai tors was rent for trial. For moot of I-iturJay on ring Detectives Williams and Pullen wevo unobtrusively, following. 1 a parly of io r—one man and .three women —first or. a, tram from Eingsland. : roan, ami Ikon on visits to various shop* in Stoke ’Cewi-igton. According to the 1 oflirers, two c! the women would ooofe: Sion ally stand fa 'the doorway of si.opa, handling gods exposed for. sale them. In the crowded' High street tho waicbmif lost the four, lint at length picked, there, up again. One woman was then carrying isomo 18 pairs of boots in an apron.; Tt© two detectives stepped up and ai,rented tbo quartet. As -they paused tho tap oJ Wilmor-gardont oho woman is alleged (a have shouted rout, whereupon .some SO por. ons rushed up,. mobbed the . officeri, rescued two of Jhe prisoners, and ' scatter* : ed he boots ter and wide. Three paiio of hoots. two • omou, nnd one man wee the total haul 1 hat was produced in tho Worship street Police Court., On Ho cha-ge of i.iin; suspected persons in unlawful po.-pem*. n of the boots the three prisoners were- remanded. In the catw where Frederick Langham. tobacconist, is accused of s etting his house in tte Camberwell re id on fire, Die premise* were insured, and there were ows* lodgers in the building—it transpired that the promptitude of Constabler itobiueoa 281 t prevented a disaster.. »110 pokes- , man burst the door 0008. end, seeing a flame corning from a bole in a. go snip* and a part of tl.o wooden eei.rog mirnm.T, . he baMtnerau- c&api;*® ivith n:r. tnrh cheon to prevent toe -Vf extinguished the fire on rhe ceiimg with a sicV which ho lound behind rlo counter. -What- were nil-sred to be four, fur'her outbre-ks were aiso «xtvw«>vhc* with the aid of other ■person*. A sa-m-ws-■ ful faming rui ' -was canuTci'Mj ar - ccrbam by a dr -ctiT? a peti hi\, ..---5 ir* fpp Police-Court tlat be did not uidrrri&ad "pool.'’ and db* not know what *‘&helU oat' J wm.