Thus, the reader will observe that there are just a few more
real detectives still left in the business-if you can find
them. Incidentally, they, one and all, take off their hats
to Scotland Yard. They will tell you that the Englishman may
be slow (fancy an American inspector of police wearing gray
suede gloves and brewing himself a dish of tea in his office
at four o'clock), but that once he goes after a crook he is
bound to get him--it is merely a question of time. I may add
that in the opinion of the heads of the big agencies the
percentage of ability in the New York Detective Bureau is
high--one of them going so far as to claim that fifty per
cent of the men have real detective ability--that is to say
"brains." That is rather a higher average than one finds
among clergymen and lawyers, yet it may be so.




CHAPTER VII

Women in the Courts


AS WITNESSES

Women appear in the criminal courts constantly as witnesses,
although less frequently as complainants and defendants. As
complainants are always witnesses, and as defendants may,
and in point of fact generally do become so, whatever