Saturday, October 09, 2010

Allan Pinkerton Detective


What a find! At a garage sale this morning I bought a 1880 edition of Professional Thieves and the Detective by Allan Pinkerton - founder of the famous Pinkerton's Detective Agency. The logo of the open eye and the motto 'We Never Sleep' is pretty much rubbed off and the book is in very rough shape.

Nevertheless - I am THRILLED!

Here's a sample of the writing. This is the first sentence of the opening paragraph Chapter VII.
"Several days subsequent to the occurrence of the events related in the preceding chapter, while Root was passing from the lath-mill, in which, for a short time, he had been employed, attending to and feeding a rapacious circular saw, and going toward his home, the wearisome labors of the day well ended, he encountered Big Bill, sitting on a lumber pile, alone, his face buried despondently in his hands, and once more shaking painfully with the ague."

Isn't that ... something!

3 comments:

Maryannwrites said...

Juanita, I am so excited with you. I love old books and it is such a thrill to find something like this. Enjoyed the sample of his writing. I do like that style, but we certainly can't write that way now. LOL

Arnold Wolf said...

Wow, what a find! That is really a great book and such a wonderful piece of history for those in our line of work. Congrats, and thanks for sharing!

Juanita Rose Violini said...

Thanks. I'm pretty excited about it. The engraving are cool too and will post some of those soon.

If anyone has any research questions about Pinkerton's let me know and I'll see what I can find in the book.