Fifty Years A Detective; 35 Real Detective Stories Hitherto unpublished facts connected with some of Mr. Furlong's greatest cases--Other interesting incidents of his long and strenuous career which really began on September 14, 1862, when he was detailed from this company, (Go. G., 1st Pennsylvania Rifles, better known as the Pennsylvania Bucktails) for special service
St. Louis: C. E. Barnett, 1912. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Format is approximately 5.5 inches by 7.75 inches. [2], 352, [2] pages. Contents listed at the end. Pictorial front cover. Illustrations. Name of previous owner in ink on fep. Cover has some wear, soiling, and corner/edge rubbing. Front and rear boards had some weakness, restrengthened with glue. The title page states Thomas Furlong was "Late Chief of the Secret Service of the Missouri Pacific Railway, known as the Gould System; the Allegheny Valley Railway of Pennsylvania, and first Chief of Police of Oil City, Pa. Thomas Furlong (1844-1918) was a Civil War Union veteran, detective, chief of police, and founder of the Furlong Secret Service Company. Mr. Furlong was well known as Chief of the Secret Service of the Missouri Pacific Railway, and his book contains thirty-five detective stories, stories of real detective work done by the author. Furlong writes: "I am today, I believe, the oldest detective, in point of continuous service, in this or any other country. During my long career I have handled many important cases, of which the reading public knows nothing about---for the reason that the men, or corporations, by whom I was employed, did not hire me for the purpose of furnishing newspapers with the material with which to amuse or entertain their readers. Within these pages I tell how the work was done, and how the clues were found and put together. On the other hand, many cases referred to in this book have received much newspaper publicity, but in these articles the writers were not permitted to tell all the facts— how the work was really accomplished. These facts are made public for the first time." More