Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 202, 27 May 1891 — DETECTIVES. [ARTICLE]

DETECTIVES.

lii civilized countries traitors are hung and spies are shot,.and it has never been doubted that such is the proper procedure. • But here in Hawaii the naoral senses are so )>lunted, that spying is not considcred disgraceful; and a criminal who gives state's evidence is treated after he leaves the jail as an honorable man as if his crime and his treachery balanced eaeh other.

Tbat men who have such records now stand high in social and polilical life is a sad commentary on our moral status. If the great reform had failed the members of the ieague would have been trampling on eaeh other 4o be first to makē »statements and confessions. IV any respectable people, some of whom are still in public oflsce, thought best to protect themselves from the results of possible failureby spying for the government party In the Wilcox conspiracy, the participants began to make statements from the first organization, Those wno betrayed their companions are now highly esteemed, and very respectable. But we propose to treat of this subject hereafter and give sorae instructive historlcal sfcetches. No road seems to lead so surely to preferment and puhlie office as playing the spy for persons in power. A cringing, servile sneak is so humhle and useful tothe proffSFional intriguer who rule the country that thev reach a secure plaee in the hearts of their masters and the Fympathies of all their fsllow varlets. Wehea,rarumor that a certain attorney who has heretofore devoted his mind to the lēgal acquirement of the property of the natives is playing the detective in order to win the favor of another amateur detective who is in position to put him into the cabinet. There is a fund known as the seoret service fund that is largely ■UBed to pension ōff inconvenient adherents and to vp§fy hlaek mail trith. When any one has to be paid fbr secret services rendered, or <harity demands that eoine member of the party be paid something to keep him out of tbe disgrace of manual labor this fund is drawn on. We have dozesi of men about town with 110 of suppe rt who are thus in the governynent employ., } The modcrn Mafia and the M dry hoondert Sherman§" seems to give the government a good deal of unnecessary uneasiness. Several very tempting offers of positions on the secret service, and salaries out of the M fund," have been offered to numbers of that eociety who were not looking for that' kind of a job, while tho@e who have attempted to information have not been . to give n>ore than one ean get at their puhlie meetings, Recentlv the znanshal hae »ecured the ser vices of ajfrofessional detective who u suppoied to be in the secret eouu eii of that organisAtion; but the ;,v:" -• : ■

orily result will be that the member who thinks tn make znoney- by detecting will be expelled by a vote of want of confidence, and the government money will be wasted. V Is it not a public disgrace for the government to subsidize such a crowd of unsavory, malodorousspecimens of total depravity.