There are many women in this city who are regularly employed as detectives and some of them have done most remarkable work, although it is generally considered that the vocation of the Vidocq is the one vocation above all others for which women are not fitted, and this because of the belief that women cannot keep secrets.

      Nevertheless, in the Custom House, the District Attorneys office, in all the large dry goods stores, and even in the Police Department, where man-hunting is reduced to the most perfect science, it is frequently absolutely necessary to call in the aid of some of the sharp, shrewd women who earn a livelihood running down criminals.

      The love of adventure of the gentler sex, the daring spirit of many females and the wide-spread desire to pry into the private histories of other people drive many women into this vocation. Women who are so employed usually object to having the fact that they are detectives made public, and many good cases which they have cleared up have been credited to men who did little more on the case than arrest the culprit after the women had done all the work necessary to place the crime where it belonged, and to locate the law-breaker.

      Inspector Byrnes positively objects to employing women for detective work, and never does so unless it is absolutely necessary. "I have no use for women as detectives," he says, "because women are no use as detectives."

      "But you sometimes depend upon them to help clear up intricate cases, do you not?" he was asked.

      "Certainly I do. There are many cases in which it is necessary, but they do not make good detectives as a rule because they cannot be depended upon not to talk about the case they may be on to people who should not know anything of it. The average male detective realizes above everything else that he must not tell some things to any one. If he does not appreciate this fact, he is not the man to be a detective. With the average female detective it is different. Her vanity is tickled when she finds a man whom she may admire wanting to know something about her personal life, and before she knows it she is telling him just what he wants to know and just what she should not tell him. But I know some women who can be depended upon, and they occasionally do some good work for this department."

      "Will you tell me who some of these women are and what good they are doing?"

      The Chief Inspector laughed and dug his thumb into the questioner's ribs and said: "If you were talking to a woman she would probably fall into the trap and tell you just what you want to know, but as I do not want you to know who they are or what they do, I will not tell you.

      From another source it was learned that the women who have succeeded best as detectives in the Police Department are women whom no one would even suspect to be in such a business. Many of them are women of some means and much refinement and education. They are detectives because they were born such and have a constant craving to exercise the faculty. They work for the love of the work rather than the pecuniary gain, and their hearts are so much in the work that they will brave any hardship to succeed when they are put on a case.

      With such women there is no fear that they will talk when they should not, and having this jewel as theirs they can favorably compete with the best of their contemporaries of the opposite sex. Patience and perseverance are much more strongly marked in women than in men, and when they are able to control their tongues they succeed as detectives.

      All the private detective agencies employ women, in many cases to do the meanest kind of work — that bordering on blackmail. Many of the women employed by the private agencies, however, are not of this class, but are women of excellent reputation who work on intricate cases and clear them up thoroughly and well.

      There are a great many women who believe they are endowed with faculties which particularly fit them to become Hawkshaws. Scarcely a day passes without one of these going to Police Headquarters and announcing that she must see Inspector Byrnes on important business. When they are ushered into his presence they tell of their great ability which they wish to exercise, either with or without pay, and they are astonished when told, as they always are by the inspector, that there is no opening for them.

— N. Y. Press.      

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