Household words, No. 16, July 13, 1850 : $b A weekly journal
General
Household words, No. 16, July 13, 1850 : $b A weekly journal
English literature -- Periodicals
To each division of the Force is attached two officers, who are
denominated “detectives.” The staff, or head-quarters, consists of six
sergeants and two inspectors. Thus the Detective Police, of which we
hear so much, consists of only forty-two individuals, whose duty it is
to wear no uniform, and to perform the most difficult operations of
their craft. They have not only to counteract the machinations of every
sort of rascal whose only means of existence is avowed rascality, but to
clear up family mysteries, the investigation of which demands the utmost
delicacy and tact.
One instance will show the difference between a regular and a detective
policeman. Your wife discovers on retiring for the night, that her
toilette has been plundered; her drawers are void; except the ornaments
she now wears, her beauty is as unadorned as that of a quakeress: not a
thing is left; all the fond tokens you gave her when her prenuptial
lover, are gone; your own miniature, with its setting of gold and
brilliants; her late mother’s diamonds; the bracelets “dear papa”
presented on her last birth-day; the top of every bottle in the
dressing-case brought from Paris by Uncle John, at the risk of his life,
in February 1848, are off—but the glasses remain. Every valuable is
swept away with the most discriminating villainy; for no other thing in
the chamber has been touched; not a chair has been moved; the costly
pendule on the chimney-piece still ticks; the entire apartment is as
neat and trim as when it had received the last finishing sweep of the
housemaid’s duster. The entire establishment runs frantically up stairs
and down stairs; and finally congregates in my Lady’s Chamber. Nobody
knows anything whatever about it; yet everybody offers a suggestion,
although they have not an idea “who ever did it.” The housemaid bursts
into tears; the cook declares she thinks she is going into hysterics;
and at last you suggest sending for the Police; which is taken as a
suspicion of, and insult on the whole assembled household, and they
descend into the lower regions of the house in the sulks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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