Fifty Years A Detective; 35 Real Detective Stories Hitherto unpublished facts connected with some of Mr.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." Reference is made on the title page to 'the Gould System'. This is understood to mean The Gould transcontinental system, which was a system of railroads assembled by George Jay Gould I and the Fuller Syndicate in the early 1900s. This was Gould's attempt to fulfill a goal of his late father, financier Jay Gould. Due to financial troubles following the Panic of 1907, the system was never completed as a fully transcontinental line. The system competed with systems similarly amalgamated and controlled by other railroad magnates including that of E. H. Harriman (who controlled the Union Pacific, Southern Pacific and B&O lines) and James J. Hill (who controlled Great Northern). Both Harriman and Hill were involved in the Northern Securities Company antitrust litigation during this time. Gould sought to avoid similar litigation by acquiring control of railroads that could be chained together at their endpoints to make a longer system; under Gould's plan, Missouri Pacific Railroad would become a holding company owning the other lines in the system. After the 1907 financial panic, there were rumors of a merger of the Harriman and Gould systems. But as many of the eastern roads controlled by Gould entered receivership after 1907 despite receiving investment funds from John D. Rockefeller, and Gould's ouster from Missouri Pacific leadership in 1915, the complete transcontinental plan fell apart. At its peak the system stretched from San Francisco to Pittsburgh, and comprised the following railroads:
Western Pacific Railway
Rio Grande Western Railway
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad
Missouri Pacific Railroad
Wabash Railroad
Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad
Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway
(150-mile (240 km) gap between Pittsburgh and Connellsville, Pennsylvania) The State Line and Southern Railroad was chartered in 1910 to bridge the gap, and later the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad was also intended to bridge the gap.
Western Maryland Railroad. Condition: Fair.
Keywords: Detective, John Collins, Fred Erfert, Lawrence Poyneer, Rohan Express Robbery, Wes Watts, Cotton Swindle, Train Wreck, Murder, Forgers, Bandits, Bill cased, Charlie Dalton, Outlaw, Labor Strikes, George Hersogg, Defaulter, Conspirators
[Book #82506]
Price: $85.00