Knots Untied; Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American DetectivesMcWatters, George S.
General
Knots Untied; Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American Detectives
McWatters, George S.
Detectives
But we remarked that Officer McWatters must understand all this, and
yet pursues his constant course of charities. Not for the wisdom (or
the lack of it, as the case may be) which prompts or permits him to do
the thousand acts of benevolence for which he is noted, is it that he
commands so much of our admiration, but for that tireless sympathy and
wondrous vitality of benevolence (so to characterize it) which ever
bestir him, notwithstanding his clear understanding that he will, and
can alone, only mitigate effects, and not cure causes; that he is
"carrying coals to Newcastle" all the while, or is putting one brick on
a pile, only to see a dozen fall therefrom; and this, though he repeats
it day after day.
As we have before remarked, Officer McWatters is not a rich man, save
in his own good nature and the affection of his multitudinous friends;
and _his_ charities mean something to his purse, drawing from it
constantly whatever he can find time or opportunity to place there;
for, if the writer is correctly informed, Officer McWatters has never
received a cent for his multifarious labors in connection with any of
the several organized charities to which he is attached. As a member of
the Metropolitan Police he received his salary, rendering therefor his
full duty; and this was all he had to support himself and family upon;
and that was constantly depleted by his benevolence, as we have
remarked before. In view of these facts, Officer McWatters is elevated,
in our esteem, to the rank of the Howards, and the other marked
philanthropists of the world.
MCWATTERS AND THE SOLDIERS.
During the late civil war, as we have said, Officer McWatters took a
deep and patriotic interest in the conflict. This was manifested in
many ways, particularly towards the soldiers and their families; and he
has not forgotten them since. Whatever the reader may think of a man
who in this age allows himself to go deliberately into a contest, the
avowed purpose of which is to maim and kill his fellow-men, for any
cause; or what he may think of that order of society which compels a
man to enlist in a cause of cruelty and blood (as hosts of men were
driven into the rebel ranks at the point of the bayonet, or by
conscription, or want of something else to do, however remonstrating),
ought to have but little bearing upon the case of the veteran soldier
now.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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