CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE AMERICA'S FOREMOST DETECTIVE.

Clifton R. Wooldridge was born February 25, 1854, in Franklin county, Kentucky. He received a common school education, and then started out in the world to shift for himself. From 1868 to 1871, he held the position of shipping clerk and collector for the Washington Foundry in St. Louis, Missouri. Severing his connection with that company, he went to Washington, D. C., and was attached to the United States Signal Bureau from March 1, 1871, to December 5, 1872. He then took up the business of railroading, and for the following nine years occupied positions as fireman, brakeman, switchman, conductor and general yard master.

When the gold fever broke out in the Black Hills in 1879, Mr. Wooldridge along with many others went to that region to better his fortune. Six months later he joined the engineering corps of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad and assisted in locating the line from Canon City to Leadville, as well as several of the branches. The work was not only very difficult, but very dangerous, and at times, when he was assisting in locating the line through the Royal Gorge in the Grand Canon of the Arkansas, he was suspended from a rope, which ran from the peak of one cliff to the other, with his surveying instruments strapped to his back. This gorge is fifty feet wide at the bottom and seventy feet wide at the top, the walls of solid rock rising three thousand feet above the level of the river below. The work was slow and required a great deal of skill, but it was accomplished successfully.

Mr. Wooldridge went to Denver in 1880 and engaged in contracting and mining the following eighteen months. He then took a position as engineer and foreman of the Denver Daily Republican, where he remained until May 29, 1883. The following August he came to Chicago and took a position with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway. In 1886, he severed his connection with the railroad and founded the "Switchman's Journal." He conducted and edited the paper until May 26th, when he was burned out, together with the firm of Donohue & Henneberry at the corner of Congress street and Wabash avenue, as well as many other business houses in that locality, entailing a total loss of nearly $1,000,000. Thus the savings of many years were swept away, leaving him penniless and in debt. He again turned his attention to railroading and secured a position with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad and had accumulated enough money to pay the indebtedness which resulted from the fire, when the great strike was inaugurated on that road in February, 1888. The strike included the engineers, firemen and switchmen, and continued nearly a year. On October 5th of that year Mr. Wooldridge made application for a position on the Chicago police force, and having the highest endorsements, he was appointed and assigned to the Desplaines Street Station. It was soon discovered that Wooldridge as a police officer had no superiors and few equals. Neither politics, religion, creed, color, or nationality obstructed him in the performance of his police duties, and the fact was demonstrated and conceded times without number that he could not be bought, bribed, or intimidated. He selected for his motto, "Right wrongs no man; equal justice to all." His superior officers soon recognized the fact that no braver, more honest or efficient police officer ever wore a star or carried a club.

The mass of records on file in the police headquarters and in the office of the clerk of the municipal and criminal court demonstrate conclusively that he has made one of the most remarkable records of any police officer in the United States if not in the world. Mr. Wooldridge has seen twenty years of experience and training in active police work. Ten years of this time he was located in what is commonly known as the Levee district, a territory where criminals congregate and where crimes of all degrees are committed.

Born in Kentucky.

Mr. Wooldridge is therefore of Southern extraction. And in spite of the "big stick" which this terror of the grafters has carried for twenty years, he still "speaks softly," the gentle accent of the old South. But behind that soft speech there is a determined soul. The smooth-running accents of the South are in this case the velvet which hides the glove of iron.

The following are some of the deeds of valor, work and achievements he has accomplished:

AN UNPARALLELED RECORD.

20,000 arrests made by Detective Wooldridge.

He keeps a record of each arrest, time, place and disposition of the case.

14,000 arrests made for violation State and city misdemeanors.

6,000 arrests made on criminal charges.

10,500 of these prisoners paid fines.

2,400 of these prisoners were sent to jail or the house of correction.

200 of these were convicted and sent to the penitentiary.

1,000 get-rich-quick concerns were raided and broken up.

60 wagon loads of literature seized and destroyed.

A conservative estimate of the sum contributed annually by this highly civilized nation to "safe investment" and "get-rich-quick" concerns is $150,000,000.

300 poker, crap and gambling games raided and closed; $1,000,000 lost.

200 wine rooms closed up. These wine rooms were the downfall and ruination of hundreds of innocent girls.

185 wildcat insurance companies raided and closed.

2,500,000 bogus securities and 10 patrol wagon loads of books, papers and literature seized. These companies paid no losses, and there were, it is estimated, 1,000,000 persons who had taken out fire insurance policies in these wildcat companies.

They had sustained fire losses and were not indemnified. The conservative estimated loss by these wildcat insurance companies is $10,000,000.

$200,000 of lost and stolen property was recovered and returned to the owners by Detective Wooldridge.

129 slot machines seized and broken up; valued at $10,000.

130 policy shops raided and closed: $100,000 would be a conservative estimate of the amount lost by the players.

125 matrimonial agencies raided and broken up.

4,500,000 matrimonial letters seized and destroyed.

1,500,000 matrimonial agencies' stock letters seized and destroyed.

1,400,000 matrimonial stock photographs seized and destroyed.

500,000 photographs sent to the matrimonial agencies by men and women who were seeking their affinities seized and destroyed.

40 wagon loads of matrimonial literature seized and destroyed.

110 turf frauds raided and closed: $8,000,000 lost by the public.

$20,000 bribe was offered Wooldridge by the turf swindlers to let them run, but he refused to take it.

105 panel houses raided and closed.

$1,500,000 was stolen annually from 1889 to October, 1896. At that time there were 64 uniformed officers stationed in front of the panel houses. Detectives Wooldridge and Schubert were assigned to break them, which was accomplished in three weeks' time.

100 bucketshops raided and closed; $5,000,000 lost through them.

July 31, 1900, Detective Wooldridge, in charge of 50 officers, arrested 415 men and landed them in the Harrison Street Police Station, and dismantled the following bucketshops:

10 and 12 Pacific avenue, 25 Sherman street, 14 Pacific avenue, 10 Pacific avenue, 210 Opera House Block, 7 Exchange court, 19 Lyric Building, and 37 Dearborn street. It was one of the largest and most sensational raids ever made in Chicago, and will be long remembered.

73 opium joints raided and closed; $100,000 spent, and hundreds of persons were wrecked and ruined by the use of opium.

75 girls under age rescued from a house of ill fame and a life of shame, and returned to their parents or guardians, or sent to the Juvenile School or the House of Good Shepherd.

50 home-buying swindles raided and closed; $6,000,000 lost.

48 palmists and fortune tellers raided and closed; $500,000 lost.

45 spurious employment agencies raided and closed; $200,000 lost.

40 bogus charity swindles raided and closed; $300,000 lost.

38 blind pools in grain and stock raided and closed; $500,000 lost.

35 bogus mail order houses raided and closed; $3,000,000 lost.

34 sure-thing gambling devices raided and closed; $2,500,000 lost.

33 fraudulent and guarantee companies raided and closed; $900,000 lost.

30 fraudulent book concerns raided and closed; $1,000,000 lost.

28 panel-house keepers were indicted and convicted.

15 owners of the property were indicted and convicted.

This broke the panel-house keepers' backbone and they never recovered to resume business again.

Emma Ford, sentenced to the penitentiary April 5, 1902, for five years. Pearl Smith, her sister, sentenced to the penitentiary June 19, 1893, for five years. Mary White, May 20, 1893, for two years. Flossie Moore, March 27, 1893, for five years. Seventy-five thousand dollars is said to have been stolen by her in eighteen months.

$8,000 bribe was offered Detective Wooldridge to let Flossie Moore slip through his fingers.

$3,000 bribe was offered by the same woman for the address of Sadie Jorden, who was an eye witness of the robbery of E. S. Johnson, a retired merchant, aged 74 years.

28 wire tappers were raided and closed. These men secured the quotations from the Board of Trade and pool rooms, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were secured from the speculators who were victimized; $200,000 lost.

27 dishonest collecting agencies raided and closed; $200,000 lost.

25 swindling brokers raided and closed; $800,000 lost.

23 lotteries raided and closed; $1,700,000 lost.

$100 per month bribe to run his lottery was offered Detective Wooldridge, April 21, 1900, by J. J. Jacobs, 217 Dearborn street, who conducted the Montana Loan & Investment Co. He was arrested and fined $1,500 by Judge Chetlain, June 21, 1903.

22 promoters raided and closed; $1,000,000 lost.

22 salted mines and well companies raided and closed; $2,000,000 lost.

20 city lot swindles raided and closed; $1,000,000 lost.

20 spurious medicine concerns raided and closed; $300,000 lost.

$30,000 worth of poison and bogus medicines seized October 29, 1904, as follows:

$12,000 worth of spurious medicines seized by Detective Wooldridge from Edward Kuehmsted, 6323 Ingleside avenue.

$5,000 worth of spurious drugs seized from J. S. Dean, 6121 Ellis avenue.

$2,500 worth of spurious drugs seized from Burtis B. McCann, 6113 Madison avenue.

$500 worth of spurious drugs seized from J. N. Levy, 356 Dearborn street.

$2,000 worth of spurious medicines seized from W. G. Nay, 1452 Fulton street.

17 women arrested for having young girls under age in a house of prostitution.

16 fraudulent theater agencies raided and closed; $100,000 lost.

15 procurists of young girls for houses of ill fame and prostitution arrested and fined.

$8,000 bribe offered Detective Wooldridge, September 27, 1895, by Mary Hastings, who kept a house of prostitution at 128 Custom House place. She went to Toledo, O., and secured six girls under age and brought them in the house of prostitution.

One of the girls escaped in her night clothes by tying a sheet to the window. There were six in number, as follows:

Lizzie Lehrman, May Casey, Ida Martin, Gertie Harris, Kittie McCarty and Lizzie Winzel.

After Mary Hastings was arrested and she found out that she could not bribe Wooldridge she gave bonds and fled. Some months later she was again arrested, and the case dragged along for two years.

The witnesses were bought up and shipped out of the state. The case was stricken off, with leave to reinstate. It is said it cost her $20,000.

Four notorious negro women, footpads and highway robbers, arrested by Detective Wooldridge, whose stealings are estimated by the police to have been over $200,000. The following are the names of the women arrested:

5 mushroom banks raided and closed; $500,000 lost.

Detective Wooldridge has been under fire over forty times, and it is said that he bears a charmed life, and fears nothing. He has met with many hair-breadth escapes in his efforts to apprehend criminals who, by means of revolver and other concealed weapons, tried to fight their way to liberty.

He has impersonated almost every kind of character. He has in his crime hunting associated with members of the "400" and fraternized with hobos. He has dined with the elite and smoked in the opium dens; he has done everything that one expects a detective of fiction to do, and which the real detective seldom does.

Wooldridge, the incorruptible! That describes him. The keenest, shrewdest, most indefatigable man that ever wore a detective's star, the equal of Lecocq and far the superior of the fictitious Sherlock Holmes, the man who has time and again achieved the seemingly impossible with the most tremendous odds against him, the man who might, had such been his desire, be wealthy, be a "foremost citizen" as tainted money goes, has earned the title given him in these headlines. And if ever any one man earned this title it is Clifton R. Wooldridge.

It is refreshing to the citizenship of America, rich and poor alike, to contemplate the career of this wonderful man. It fills men with respect for the law, with confidence in the administration of the law, to know that there are such men as Wooldridge at the helm of justice.

The writer of this article has enjoyed intimate personal association with the great detective, both in the capacity of a newspaper reporter, magazine writer and anti-graft worker. The ins and outs of the nature of the greatest secret service worker in Chicago, Clifton R. Wooldridge, have been to me an open book. And when I call him Wooldridge, the incorruptible, I know whereof I speak.

I have seen him when all the "influences" (and they are the same "influences" which have been denounced all over the country of late) were brought to bear upon him, when even his own chiefs were inclined to be frightened, but no "influence" from any source, howsoever high, has ever availed to swerve him one inch from the path of duty.

Cannot Be Bribed.

He has been offered bribes innumerable; but in each and every instance the would-be briber has learned a very unpleasant lesson. For this man, who might be worth almost anything he wished, is by no means affluent. But he has kept his name untarnished and his spirit high through good fortune and through bad, through evil repute and good.

Wooldridge does not know the meaning of a lie. A lie is something so foreign to his nature that he has trouble in comprehending how others can see profit in falsifying. It has been his cardinal principle through life that liars always come to a bad end finally. And he has seen his healthy estimate of life vindicated, both in the high circles of frenzied finance and in the low levels of sneak-thievery.

Tremendous Amount of Work Done.

But the most remarkable thing to me about Wooldridge is the work he has done. Consider for a moment the record which heads this article. Could anything shout forth the tremendous energy of the man in any plainer terms? There are men in the same line of work with Wooldridge, who have been in the service for the same length of time, who have not made one arrest where he has made thousands.

Twenty thousand arrests in twenty years of service, a thousand arrests every year, on an average. A thousand get-rich-quick concerns, victimizing more than a million people, raided and put out of business; thirteen thousand one hundred convictions; hundreds upon hundreds of wine rooms, gambling houses, bucketshops, opium joints, houses of ill fame, turf frauds, bogus charity swindles, policy shops, matrimonial agencies, fraudulent guarantee companies, spurious medicine concerns, thieving theater agencies and mushroom banks brought to the bar of justice and made to expiate their crimes.

That is the record of the almost inconceivable work done by Clifton R. Wooldridge on the Chicago police force. The figures are almost appalling in their greatness. It is hard for the mind to comprehend how any one man could have achieved all this vast amount of labor, even if he worked twenty-four hours a day all the time. And yet it is the bare record of the "big" work done by Wooldridge, aside from his routine.

Life History of Wooldridge.

Detective Wooldridge from March, 1898, until April 5, 1907, was attached to the office of the General Superintendent of Police and worked out of his office. During that time over 1,200 letters and complaints were referred to him for investigation and action.

April 5, 1907, Detective Wooldridge was relieved of this work and transferred, and crusade and extermination of the get-rich-quick concerns ceased.

September 20, 1889, Detective Wooldridge was placed in charge of twenty-five picked detectives, who were placed in charge of the suppression of hand-books and other gambling in Chicago. He remained in charge of this detail for three years.

On December 13, 1890, at the residence of Charles Partdridge, Michigan avenue and Thirty-second street, while three desperate burglars were trying to effect an entrance into the house, Detective Wooldridge espied them and in his attempt to arrest them was fired upon by the trio. One shot passed through his cap, clipping off a lock of his hair and grazing his scalp. The next shot struck him squarely in the buckle of his belt, which saved his life.

Numberless Hair-Breadth Escapes.

August 20, 1891, he met with another narrow escape at Thirtieth and Dearborn streets, while attempting to arrest Nathan Judd, a crazed and desperate colored man. Judd threw a brick at him, striking him over his left temple, and inflicting a wound two inches long.

Judd was shot through the thigh, and afterwards was sent to the house of correction for one year.

Detective Wooldridge, alone in a drenching rainstorm at 4 o'clock on the morning of June 23, 1892, at Michigan avenue and Madison street, intercepted three horsethieves and hold-up men in a buggy trying to make their escape.

At the point of a revolver he commanded them to halt. As they approached him no attention was paid to him, or to what he was saying. Seizing the bridle of the horse, he was dragged nearly a block before the horse was checked. A twenty-pound horse weight was hurled at him by one of the robbers, which just missed his head. Another one of the robbers leaped upon the horse and rained blow after blow upon his head with the buggy whip.

Detective Wooldridge shot this man in the leg; he jumped off the horse and made good his escape while Wooldridge was engaged in a desperate hand to hand encounter with the other two robbers. Wooldridge knocked both senseless with the butt of his revolver. They were taken to the police station and gave their names as John Crosby and John McGinis. Both were found guilty a month later and sent to the penitentiary by Judge Baker.

Saves Women and Children in Fire.

March 4, 1892, Detective Wooldridge by his prompt and courageous actions, and the immediate risk of his own life, succeeded in rescuing from the Waverly Hotel (which was on fire), at 262 and 264 S. Clark street, two ladies who were overcome by smoke on the second floor of the burning building: also a lady and two children, aged two years and five months, respectively, from the fourth floor.

This act was performed by tying a silk handkerchief around his mouth, and on his hands and knees crawling up the winding stairs to the fourth floor, where he found Mrs. E. C. Dwyer unconscious. Placing the two children in a bed quilt, he threw it over his shoulder, and seizing Mrs. E. C. Dwyer by the hand, dragged her down the stairs to a place of safety, where medical assistance was called.

Sept. 21, 1902, Detective Wooldridge was placed in charge of the Get-Rich-Quick concerns with which Chicago was infested. He also had charge of the suppression of gambling at parks and other places of amusement, the inspection and supervision of picture exhibitions in penny arcades and museums, and the inspection and supervision of illustrated postal cards sold throughout the city for the purpose of preventing the exhibition, sale and circulation of vulgar and obscene pictures, the work of gathering evidence against and the suppression of dealers in "sure thing" gambling devices, viz., loaded dice, marked cards, roulette wheels, spindle faro layouts, card hold-outs, nickel slot machines and many other devices.

Oct. 25, 1893, Detective Wooldridge had a narrow escape while trying to arrest Charles Sales, a desperate colored man, for committing a robbery at State and Harrison streets. Sales whipped out his gun and fired four shots at Wooldridge at short range; two of the shots passing harmlessly through his coat. Sales was arrested and given one year in the house of correction.

Rides to Station on Prisoner's Back.

June 6, 1894, Detective Wooldridge arrested Eugene Buchanan for committing a highway robbery at Polk and Clark streets. A few days prior he had held up and robbed Philip Schneider and kicked out one of his eyes. Buchanan was met in the alley between Clark street and Pacific avenue, where he resisted arrest and fought like a demon, using his hands, club and head. In the scuffle he ran his head between Wooldridge's legs and tried to throw him, but Wooldridge was to quick for him and fastened his legs around Buchanan's neck like a clam. Buchanan could not free himself. Wooldridge pulled his gun and placing it in the ear of Buchanan compelled him to carry him to the Harrison street police station on his shoulder. It was one of the most novel sights ever witnessed, and will be long remembered by those who saw it.

Buchanan was convicted and sent to the penitentiary for three years. Upon his release he applied to Wooldridge to assist him in securing a position. Wooldridge took him to his home, fed him and secured employment for him with Nelson Morris & Co., where he remained three years. He afterwards committed a highway robbery in Washington Park and is now serving an indefinite term in the penitentiary.

Hangs on Window Sill.

May 16, 1895, Detective Wooldridge, accompanied by Officers Kern, O'Connor and Cameron, located Matt Kelly at 411 State street, who was wanted for a criminal assault. Kelly was a hold-up man, ex-convict and a notorious safe-blower, who several years prior to this shot two officers in St. Louis, Mo. Kelly was found behind locked doors on the second-floor and refused to open the doors. Detective Wooldridge went to the adjoining flat, opened a window and crawled along the ledge until he had reached Kelly's room; with a revolver in his mouth he pushed up the sash and was faced by Kelly and his wife.

"Go back or I'll kill you," said Kelly as he pushed his revolver in Wooldridge's face.

Wooldridge had meanwhile secured a good hold on the sill of the window, but was not in a position to defend himself. The Kelly woman tried her best to shove him off; she succeeded in loosening one of his hands, and for an instant Detective Wooldridge thought he would have to fall. With an almost superhuman effort Wooldridge broke in the window and covering Kelly with his own revolver ordered him to throw up his hands, which he did. He was taken to the police station and heavily fined.

A Plot to Kill Detective Wooldridge.

A dozen of the highwaymen and robbers on whom Wooldridge was waging a relentless warfare gathered together on the morning of July 4, 1895, and formed a plot to kill Wooldridge and get him out of the way. They concluded that the night of July 4, when everyone was firing off revolvers and celebrating, would afford the best opportunity. They imagined it would be an easy thing to shoot him from one of the windows or from a housetop while he was on duty patrolling his post, and no one would know where the shot came from, as there was shooting from every direction.

An oath of secrecy was taken by all present, and lots drawn to see who was to do the deed. In all probability their plan would have been carried out had it not been for a colored woman, who was watching them and heard the whole plot, and who went with the information to the Harrison Street Police Station.

Captain Koch and Lieutenant Laughlin were notified and upon investigation found the report to be true. They took immediate steps to protect Wooldridge by placing three additional officers in full uniform with him, and also placing six men in citizen's clothes on his post. Every man they met was searched for a gun; every crook, vagrant and thief that they could lay their hands on was placed under lock and key in the station, and by 11 o'clock that night there was no square in the city quieter than the one this officer patrolled, and in two weeks' time "Coon Hollow" and the whole neighborhood for half a mile in every direction had undergone the most remarkable change known to police history, and this change was apparent for a long time thereafter.

February 11, 1896, Detective Wooldridge, while trying to arrest a panel-house keeper and three colored hold-up men at 412 Dearborn street, was fired upon by one of the trio, Kid White, the shot striking the bar of his watch chain, which was attached to the lower button of his vest. When the bar was struck the bullet was diverted from entering Wooldridge's stomach, and it glanced off and passed through his overcoat.

Detective Wooldridge Roughly Handled.

In 1896 Wooldridge's fiercest fight came when he arrested George Kinnucan in his saloon at 435 Clark street. A dozen roughs, henchmen of Kinnucan, who were in the saloon at the time, came to the saloonkeeper's rescue. The officer was knocked down, his billy taken from him and himself beaten unconscious with it, and his face and head kicked into one mass of bruises. Through it all he managed to hang on to his revolver. This alone saved him. He finally managed to shoot Kinnucan through the hand and forearm, and a moment later a uniformed man burst in and evened up the battle. Six of the toughs were arrested, and Wooldridge was left alone by them for a long time.

Fine Work in a Thieves' Resort.

In the same year of 1896, Detective Wooldridge, disguising himself as a cheap thief, entered a Clark street criminals' resort and fraternized with thieves, murderers and vagabonds of all kinds, in order to obtain information, leading Wooldridge into the most amazing school of crime ever witnessed by a Chicago police officer. He was accepted in good faith as a proper sneak thief by the brotherhood, and for his benefit the "manager" of the den put his "pupils" through their "lessons."

These lessons were in shoplifting, pocket picking, purse snatching and other forms of larceny requiring skill and deftness. When he had seen enough Wooldridge generously volunteered to "rush the growler" and went out—and called the patrol wagon. Twenty-three crooks were arrested this time. Each one of them swore he would have killed the detective had his makeup or conduct for an instant directed suspicion toward him.

Makes High Dive.

November 20, 1896, Detective Wooldridge made a high dive.

To offset his aerial stunt he took a high dive from the top of a building, landing on his head in a pile of refuse with such force as to go "in over his head" and stick there so tightly that it required the combined strength of two officers to pull him out by the legs.

It was near Twelfth and State streets while pursuing two women across a roof that his remarkable stunt took place. The women jumped from the roof into a pile of refuse. They landed on their feet. Wooldridge came after them. He landed on his head. As he landed he grasped a woman with either hand, and held them until the arrival of his brother officers effected his release and their capture.

But these are only humorous incidents, things to laugh over when the day's work is done. In the parlance of the detectives, they belong to "straight police work." As a direct antithesis to them is the story of the murder and the black cat, which is in real life a weirder and more startling affair than Poe's fantastic tale of the same subject. A black cat helped solve a murder in a way which puts a distinct strain on the credulity of the uninitiated.

Story Rivals Poe's "Black Cat."

A rich man had been murdered in a certain part of the city. He was in his library at the time of the crime. His family was in an adjoining room, yet none of them heard any noise, or knew what had been done until they found him lifeless on the floor. Investigation proved that he had been shot, but not with an ordinary weapon. The missile in his heart was a combination of bullet and dart, evidently propelled from a powerful air rifle or spring gun. But no clew was left by the perpetrator of the crime, and Wooldridge carried the strange missile in his pocket for several months before a single prospect of apprehending the murderer appeared. Then it was the black cat that did it. What strange coincidence or freak of fate it was that impelled the cat to literally lead the detective to a little pile of dirt in an alley that night Wooldridge never has attempted to explain. But lead him it did, and when he dug into the disturbed ground he found something entirely new in the gun line, the weapon that had discharged the fatal bullet in his pocket. Eventually he traced the gun to its inventor, and from there to the man who had purchased it, a young fellow named Johnson, and a supposed friend of the murdered man's family. The consequence was that this man proved to be the murderer. When arrested he at first denied his guilt, broke down under the sweatbox ordeal and confessed, and—killed himself in his cell next morning.

For mystery and good fortune in bringing an apparently untraceable criminal to justice this incident perhaps has never been equaled in Chicago's police records.

On Duty in Great Strike.

In 1900 Chicago's great building trade strike occurred in which 60,000 men were thrown out of employment. Many acts of violence were committed. Several men were killed and many maimed and injured.

Detective Wooldridge was placed in charge of thirty picked detectives from the detective bureau with orders to suppress these lawless acts and arrest the guilty offenders. Through his vigilance and untiring efforts law and order were soon restored, and he was highly complimented by Chief of Police Joseph Kipley and the public press.

Literally speaking, the darkest situation into which his experiences have led him was the tunnel by which inmates of Mattie Lee's famous resort at 150 Custom House place escaped when the place was raided. Mattie had decided that it was a nuisance to go to the station every time the police wanted to arrest her, so she had the tunnel dug.

After that when the police called on her Mattie greeted them with an empty house and a sweet smile, while underground the inmates were crawling on their hands and knees to safety. Wooldridge found the tunnel and, crawling in, "snaked out" six colored men and women whom he found in the darkness. Versatility is a requisite with the successful detective.

Remarkable Work as a Ragpicker.

May 28, 1905, perhaps, his appearance in the role of a ragpicker, which led to the arrest and conviction of two negro highwaymen, Henry Reed and Ed Lane, was his most daring and successful effort at disguise. Lane is at present serving a life sentence in Joliet for the murder of Robert Metcalfe.

The assault and robbery of a contractor named Anderson was the occasion for Wooldridge's assumption of the guise of ragpicker. Anderson had described Lane so accurately that the detective was sure of recognizing him once he put his eyes upon him, but in those days a detective to go into the black belt looking for a criminal was to spread a wide alarm over the whole district. Consequently he "made up." A pair of large, worn overalls, a coat three sizes too large, a bunch of papers between his shoulder blades to give him a hunch back, burnt cork, a curly wig, a bag and a piece of telegraph wire, and the erstwhile shrewd-looking detective was in ten minutes the typical negro ragpicker who shambles up and down alleys on the south side in hope of picking up enough for his day's bread.

While thus pursuing his way Wooldridge not only discovered the presence of Reed and Lane, but actually worked through the refuse in a garbage box upon which Lane was sitting quarreling with some confederates over the division of the previous night's spoils. He even went so far as to pick up an old coat which Lane had discarded. Thereupon Lane ordered him to get out of the alley or get his throat cut from ear to ear. Wooldridge went humbly out, and waited.

Hero of Some Fierce Fights.

Presently Lane and Reed appeared and went south on State street. Wooldridge followed, and at an opportune moment seized them both from behind. The fight that followed is historic. Only sheer luck and the threat to kill both antagonists on the spot if they did not cease resistance saved the detective's life. After knocking both men down with his billy he succeeded in holding them until a fellow officer came to his rescue. They were arrested and convicted June 25, 1905, and sent to the penitentiary for three years.

May 19, 1906, Detective Wooldridge raided the following places: H. C. Evins, 125 S. Clark street; George Deshone, 64 N. Clark street; E. Manning Stockton, Bar & Co., 56 Fifth avenue, seizing some $30,000 worth of gambling paraphernalia.

Disclosures of conditions which so seriously threatened the discipline of the United States army and navy that the secretaries of the two departments and even President Roosevelt himself were called upon to aid in their suppression.

It was charged that a coterie of Chicago men engaged in making and selling these devices had formed a "trust" and had for years robbed, swindled and corrupted the enlisted men of the army and navy through loaded dice, "hold-outs," magnetized roulette wheels and other crooked gambling apparatus.

Crooked Gambling Trust.

The "crooked" gambling "trust" in Chicago spread over the civilized world, had its clutches on nearly every United States battleship, army post and military prison; caused wholesale desertions, and in general corrupted the entire defensive institution of the nation.

Try to Corrupt Schoolboys.

Besides the corruption of the army, these companies are said to have aimed a blow at the foundation of the nation by offering, through a mail order plan, for six cents, loaded dice to schoolboys, provided they sent the names of likely gamblers among their playmates.

This plan had not reached its full growth when nipped. But the disruption of the army and navy had been under way for several years and had reached such gigantic proportions that the military service was in danger of complete disorganization.

Thousands of men were mulcted of their pay monthly. Desertions followed these wholesale robberies. The war department could not find the specific trouble. Post commanders and battleship commanders were instructed to investigate.

The army investigation, confirmed after the raid and arrests, showed that the whole army had been honeycombed with corruption by these companies. Express books and registered mail return cards showed that most of the goods were sold to soldiers and sailors.

Detective Wooldridge Secures Evidence in Novel Way.

In August, 1890, complaints had been made at the Stanton Avenue Police Station for several weeks concerning the establishment of a disorderly house at 306 Thirty-first street, but try as they would uniformed officers were helpless so far as securing evidence enough to convict was concerned. Wooldridge at that time a uniformed man, was put in plain clothes and detailed on the case. One of the great stumbling blocks in the way of the police had been the high basement under the house, which made it impossible for any one to look in the windows of the flat without the aid of the ladder. As the presence of a ladder would arouse suspicion, the problem of viewing the inside of the flat was a difficult one.

One thing the other men on the case had overlooked. This was the presence of a beam jutting out from the top of the building to which a rope, pulley, and barrel were attached, used as a means of lowering garbage and ashes from the second floor to the alley. Wooldridge saw the possibilities of the rope and barrel trick. Attaching to the rope a vinegar barrel with holes bored in it at convenient intervals, he awaited an opportune time, curled up in the barrel, and had himself drawn up to the level of the windows by two officers. The lowering and raising of the barrel being a customary thing in the building, excited no suspicion in the minds of those in the flat, and Wooldridge, with his sleuth's eye at one of the holes, saw what served to drive the place out of existence and secure the conviction of its keeper.

Acts as Vendor of Fighting "Chickens."

One of the last exploits of Detective Wooldridge before his completion of the twenty years of service, was the breaking up of the cock-fighting mains, which infested Chicago during the latter part of 1906 and the early part of 1907.

The story savors of the burlesque. Wooldridge obtained information as to the whereabouts of a cock-fight which was to be pulled off. Then he sought out and purchased a pair of decrepit old roosters, that would not fight an English sparrow, bundled them into a sack and started for scene of action. Arrived in what he knew to be the neighborhood of the fight, he declared that he had been sent to deliver some "fightin' chickuns." He was directed to an old, abandoned building. Here he was admitted and left the antique roosters. Then he said he was going for more birds. Instead he went for a patrol wagon. And that was the end of the chicken fight.

The trapping of the Wildcat Insurance companies furnishes one of the most dramatic chapters in the financial history of the United States, if not in the world. It involves millions of stolen dollars, brutal filching from the poor, heartless commercial brigandage and finally the running to earth and conviction of the ringleaders and promoters of the "WILDCAT INSURANCE COMPANIES" OF CHICAGO, by Detective Wooldridge.

The police and postal authorities worked together. Two thousand eight hundred letters were sent out asking for information and gathering evidence.

At the trial of Dr. S. W. Jacobs, on one of these cases, there were 200 witnesses present. Five of these witnesses were victims, and lived in tents. Three were living in wagons: One, Samuel James, of Westfield, Illinois, a carpenter, 64 years of age, had a wife and six children. He had built his house morning and evening.

Bribery Tactics of No Avail.

James accomplished the end of his heart's desire. It cost him $900 and his health, for he was in the clutches of consumption when the cottage was finally paid for. Fearing lest the fruit of his life-work should be swept away by fire, James took out an insurance policy in one of Dr. S. W. Jacobs' Wildcat Insurance companies. The house burned down and he was not indemnified. With his wife and six little children James was forced to take shelter in a chicken coop, where they were living when the broken-hearted father came to Chicago as a witness against Dr. S. W. Jacobs.

Twenty-five thousand dollars was tendered to an attorney to bribe Wooldridge in the case.

The breaking up of the drug ring, however, was a delicate task. It was strongly backed financially, and it was aided and abetted throughout the United States by political rings galore. Chicago was the headquarters.

A ten thousand dollar bribe was offered Detective Wooldridge, October 29, 1904, by the spurious medicine concerns to return their goods and stop the prosecution; this failed. Then false and malicious charges were filed with the Civil Service Commissioners against Wooldridge, which was taken up and the trial lasted nineteen sessions.

Detective Wooldridge was exonerated by the entire board of commissioners, and complimented by the press and public-spirited citizens.

Detective Wooldridge secured four indictments against the above four men, which was returned by the Cook county grand jury May 25, 1905. J. S. Dean turned state's evidence and assisted the prosecution.

J. H. Carson promoted and run eighteen different matrimonial agencies. He was arrested eighteen times. He offered Wooldridge a bribe of $100 per month not to arrest him. This failed and he brought suit in the Superior Court against Wooldridge for $5,000 damages, thinking this would stop him. The next day after filing the suit he was arrested again, and was finally driven out of Chicago.

From $10,000 to $20,000 has been offered at a time for his discharge or transfer by these get-rich-quick concerns. Every political pressure was brought to bear, but to no avail.

Ex-Chief of Police Francis O'Neill, in his annual report of 1905, states that Detective Wooldridge accomplished more work in breaking up the get-rich-quick concerns in Chicago, in the year 1904, than the whole Chicago police department had in its lifetime. He did equally as much work, if not more, in the years of 1905, 1906 and 1907.

The day is never too long nor the night too dark for Detective Wooldridge to find time to succor or save a young girl who has gone wrong or strayed from the path of rectitude.

Detective Wooldridge, without fear or favor, for many years inaugurated crusades and waged wars against the hosts of criminal enterprise. Whenever a man or concern could not show a "clear bill of health" he forced him to "disinfect, depart, or submit to the quarantine of the county jail."

By vigilance and hard work he succeeded in obtaining good results. Units, scores, and legions of fraudulent concerns have been exposed and driven out of existence. Owners of others, anticipating exposure, did not wait, but closed their places and fled. Many headquarters of contraband schemes have been raided and their promoters arrested, fined, and forced to cease operations. During that time retributive justice has been visited upon countless heads that were devoted to devising criminal schemes.

Detective Wooldridge permits no creed, color, religion or politics to interfere with him in his sworn duty. He wants and exacts the truth, and a square deal for himself, and accords the same to his fellow men. He has never been known to wilfully persecute any man or to lie or strain a point to convict him, neither will he suffer the same to be done by any man if he can prevent it.

Wooldridge's motto is equal justice to all—be sure you are right, then go ahead.

James P. Wilson.

What Are YOU Going to Do About It?