A FEMALE DETECTIVE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3115, 2 July 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

A FEMALE DETECTIVE.

We have all read romances of foreign ladies moving in the best circles of society and yet acting as political spies for some autocratic Government ; but it is not generally known that a certain number of females are employed by the Scotland Yard authorities to track thieves of the lowest and moat dangerous type. It is difflcnlt to imagine anything more unwomanly than the specimen of the low class female detective I have recently met. Known in thn ponr neighbourhood where she resides as nurse, she is generally admired, nevertheless, for her boldness in entering the worst fever dens, and the parish doctor's have not failed to apply for her assistance when there is any desperate and dangerous ease of contagion. Thus she has gained the ear and become the boon companion of the roughest and most desperate characters when they are down with fever or when the '• missus " is about to add another aspirant to the criminal classes, and swell the number of that reckless), hopeless papulation which it requires all the ingenuity of our" powerful police to keep within the bounds of order. Small in stature, but possessing considerable muscular force and indomitable energy, this woman is equally dead to all female delicacy, nervousness, or fear. She will wear the garb of ii boy as readily as the dress of her own sex, and iu either costume is ever ready to settle auy dispute by an appeal to the " art of self-defence," which she has often practised with disastrous effect on her adversaries, whether male or female. On one occasion this female detective, dressed as a boy, had penetrated into a thieves' lodging-house, and was making herself at home in the common roomj when the ruffian, noticing the presence of a stranger, invited her to speak. This means she was to speak in the slang, and use the particular passwords of the thieves' refuge. Being unable to do so, her interlocutor prudently inquired whether anyone had seen he): enter, and ou being replied in the negative, coolly informed the detected detective that no one would see her go out. On hearing this threat, she had just: time to dash her hand through a pans of glass and spring a rattle, before receiving a blow from an iron bar. The police, who were anxiously watching outside, rushed in at the sound and rescued the woman before further injuries were inflicted. It is her boast now that this blow cost her fourteen small pieces of bone extracted from her head, much to the surprise of the doctor, whose admiration for the strength of her crown she seems to interpret as homage paid to her intellect. In all cases the authorities at Scotland Yard seemed to have entertained some suspicion as to her dangerous frame of mind ; for on one occasion, when she asked to be armed with a pistol, this request was only granted on the condition that she should never load the weapon herself. The operation was performed in the office, and the charge consisted of a few grains of gunpowder and a great quantity of compressed snuff ; but the female detective would not tolerate such tricking, and showed her sense of the proceeding by firing her pistol, not at a desperado, but in the face of a policeman, to the great scandal of the authorities. Despite her erratic temper, this woman has sometimes been employed on mot.t difficult missions. Some years ago, for instance, the police had traced a gang of false money makers to a particular street, but were totally unable to discover in which house they carried on their nefarious trade. What puzzled the police sergeant and his men was soon solved by the unsuspected woman, She simply strolled down the street, and seeing a little girl about to enter one of the houses, feigned illness, and asked to be taken in. The innocent child, seeing a woman in trouble, led her readily into the passage, where she might rest a moment, Having obtained entrance into the house by this stratagem, her attention was soon awakened by an ominous tapping noise, which the child explained came from her grandfather's workshop. In another moment the man himself made his appearance, holding a lable of molten metal m his hand. With the quick instinct of selfpreservation the coiner saw he was discovered, and yielding to a. sudden access of rage and fear, flung the molten metal at the detective. Fortunately, even this extraordinary woman was not free from the weakness usually ascribed to her sex. Though far from rich, she had spent twenty-four shillings in the purchase of a bonnet. It was upon this formidable erection of silk and flowers and other ornamentation that a portion of the boiling lead fell, and though the woman was horribly burnt, her life was saved by the poke bonnet of the period. First aware of the danger, the coiner, with three companions, made good his escape, but the police arrived in time to arrest eighteen other offenders. It was a Frenchman who threw the lead, and he has since been arrested on the Continent and condemned to the galleys for eighteen years. Unmoved by this desperate encounter, the female detective complacently remarked that as nearly all her hair was burnt up to the roots, and the little she wears is fixed on by artificial means, it is easier for her to dress up as a boy.