THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Saturday, February 20, 1909. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12469, 20 February 1909, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Saturday, February 20, 1909. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

London Detectives, The- professional detective, states a writer in' "The Times," who does an amount of publicly unrecorded work to make the. path of the criminal a hard and dangerous onej suffers because the public is ignorant of the methods and principles on which 1 lie proceeds, and the , writer thinks that if that ignorance could be removed, the detectice of fiction "with his heavy stride and . creaky J boots, stolid indifference to obvious facts and inference, his official jealousy and official red tape," would cease to' be the public's only conception of a member of the Criminal Investigation Department. The writer gives , a most interesting account of the' selection of those men from the rank-and-file of constables, arid their methods of work. ,As the total nuniber of detectives is 600 in a force of 17,000; the authorities can afford to make the most careful selection. Each man selected is first tested by being put on patrol duty under experienced men for a few months, heis shows; the requisite qualities, he" is piit : through a'cburse of probationary training, lasting many months, and •then has to pass a/stiff. examination. Among the prevalent ideas destroyed by the writer* is the one that the "detective occupies a position of "comparative; independence, roaming about at his sweet will in search of criminals; As a matter of fact every minute of the detective's time is accounted for f everything he does goes into his diary, and at . all times he is under the pyes . of inspectors. s United States Presidents. It is provided by. the Constitution of; the -United States that no person except a natural-born citizen shall beeligible for the office of President,, nor shall any person be eligible who has not attained the age of 35 years. The President-elect, Mr W. Howard. Taft, wiirbe the 26th holder of that high office. Of the 25 who have already'hold it,, from George Washingtori^ to Theodore' Roosevelt,: 14 have been of English paternal ancestry, five Scotch-Irish, three Scotch, two Dutch, and one Welsh. Their respective names are as under :— English (14): "George "Washington; John Adams, James Madison, . John Quincey Adams, 'William^Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Milliard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, James Abram Garfield, Groyer Cleveland, and Benjamin . Harrison. Mr Taft is of English and Puritan descent, ': Scotorlrish (five); Andrew Jackson, James Knox. Polk, James, .Buchanan, Chester Aian Arthur, William McKinley. Scotch (three): James Monroe,. Ulysses Simpson Grant, Rutherford Birchard Hayes. Dutch (two): Martin ' Van Buren, Theodore . Roosevelt. Welsh (one): Thomas Jefferson. All tEe Presidents whose religious" views are known have been Protestants: The men of English origin were, mostly Episcopalians ; hut the two Adamses >w&re Congregationalists ; Fillmore, a Unitarian-; Lincoln, Garfield, Cleveland, and B. Harrison, Presbyterians ; and" Andrew Johnson , a Methodist. "Of the five ScotoIrish, Jackson, Polk, and Buchanan were Presbyterians ; Arthur an Episcopalian, and McKinley a- Methodist. Of the three Scotch Presidents, Monroe was ariSEpiscopaliaii, Grant and Hayes, Methodists. The two Dutch Presidents , blonged to the Reformed Dutch Chtfrch. Jefferson's religionwas doubtfully described- as Liberal ; Garfield belonged to the Church of the -Disciples. Of these 25 Presidents. the following were elected for two terms : — Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Lincoln, Grant, Cleveland and McKinley. Three of the 25 were assassinated— Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. These three Presidencies TVfere short terms, what remained of them being filled by the Vice-Presidents — Andrew Johnson, Arthur and' Roosevelt. Of these Mr Roosevelt alone was President. General W-.H. Harrison was President for a month only, and was succeeded by "Mr Tyler, the VicePresident. It is noteworthy that a large' proportion of the United States Presidents . have had. experience in war. Washington } Monroe, and Jackson were soldiers in the RevolUr tio'nary war. Jackson, W. H. Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, and Buchanan in/ the war with Great Britain,' iBl2-I4; Lincoln in the Black Hawk war of 1838; Taylor, Pierce, and Grant in the Mexican campaign; / Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, ' B. Harrison, and McKinley in the Civil war; and Roosevelt in the war with Spain. The youngest elected President;.; was General Grant; but Mr Roosevelt, having been elected VicePresideniij /_was the youngest to become ;Presidentj on the assissination of Mr jMcKinley. Three of the American Presidents died on Independence Day, J.nly <t-^rJohn Adams and; Jefferson on July 4, 1826,- and Monroe on July 4, 1831. Lastly, 'in the matter of education, it is not a little that no fewer than nine Presidents received no "College education, and tJiat among these were;- Washington, . Jackson, Lincoln , Cleveland; and McKinley. It is perhaps not/less noticeable that asc .many as 18^— rather more than two out of three—were lawyers. Mr Taft will be the 19th lawyer President.