OPENING FINISHING POT. greatest exactness. Each shape has a thick wooden cover faced with sheet-iron, and intersected by grooves, into which fit the strips of iron forming the subdivisions in the shape below. These shapes when filled are placed in one of the hydraulic presses which extend in a long line from one end of the room to the other, and are subjected to a force of three hundred and twentyfive tons, which brings the two parts of the shape together, and drives the blocks into which the upper portion is cut down upon the lumps in the pan below, making the tobacco as flat as a pancake, and giving it the form of the plug of commerce. But when the pressure is removed, and the cakes are taken out, it is found that the side next the wood is a little ragged at the edges; so every piece is turned and put under press again, that these edges may be made as smooth as the others. Every time the moulds are used they are carefully oiled to prevent sticking, none but the best olive-oil being used for this purpose. This process over, the plugs are taken to a second row of presses, where, after having been fitted together on sheets of tin as precisely as a lady joins her patchwork, and placed so that between every two sheets of tobacco comes a sheet of tin, they are a third time pressed. And now the cause of all the great precision taken heretofore in the measurement of lumps and shapes becomes apparent. These tins are exactly the shape and size of the bottoms of the cases in which the tobacco is put up for market, and a given number of any given size will cover one of them; therefore, when the plugs come to be packed in the cases in which they are shipped from the factory, they fit in their places as nicely as do the parts of a Florentine mosaic. The timber used for these cases is button-wood, or sycamore, and is imported from Canada. Vast quantities of it are consumed in this way, from twenty-five to thirty thousand feet being used weekly in this factory alone. After packing, the cases are placed for the final compressure in a third row of presses, where, for protection against the immense force employed (a force which would else bend the cases outward in the middle and crush them into fragments), they are fitted into what are termed billies. A billy consists of a case formed of four thick pieces of wood, turned with great care in a lathe, and bound about with stout iron bands, which hold them in place, and keep the packing cases intact. The application of the hydraulic press to this work is of comparatively recent date. Previous to its introduction the power was obtained by means of the old-fashioned screw-press, at much greater expense and with less satisfactory results than by the present method. Each case is grooved for the insertion of the revenue stamp, a precaution necessary to prevent the abrasion thereof; and the government guards against a second use of the same stamp by requiring the manufacturer to sink the heads on the stamp (which are surrounded for this purpose by a line of perforations similar to those on a card of postage stamps) into the wood by means of a steel die, thus effectually preventing the removal of the stamp in an unmutilated condition. Marked with the name of the manufacturer and the brand of tobacco, and duly fortified with the revenue stamp-for the government still lays a heavy hand on this staple, though the taxes have been much reduced of late-the work is done, and the cases are ready for shipment. ess. The manufacture of smoking tobacco is a much less intricate and troublesome procThe tobacco as it comes from the plantation is dried to the utmost, and passed through a mill in which a revolving cylinder armed with small projections grates it into tiny particles. It is then by the same machine sifted through a series of sieves similar to those of a wheat fan, that which is left on the upper and coarser sieves being passed and repassed through the mill until sufficiently fine for use. For this it is unnecessary to stem the leaves, the refuse stems being themselves used in the manufacture of the inferior grades, and the sweepings of the stemming-room are devoted to a like purpose. These last are first carefully examined, to make sure that nothing is left in them to break the mill, no nails or stones to injure the machinery. A man on his hands and knees was picking over a pile of sweepings the day we visited the factory, seeming as intent on his task as the searcher for pearls in the oyster pits of Ceylon. The inferior grades of lugs, etc., can be used only for smoking. Indeed, no leaf is worthless for the manufacture of one or another of the innumerable brands somewhere between the golden chaff with which the millionaire fills his costly meerschaum and the black mixture which Paddy smokes in his clay pipe as he drives his dray-there is place and use for it all. Smoking tobacco is generally put up in bags holding from two ounces to one pound each, a pound being the limit allowed by government for any single package. The packing is done by means of hollow iron cylinders, over which the bags fit closely and are tightly drawn. Into these the tobacco is poured, and by working a treadle a wooden mallet is forced into the cylinder, compressing the | to Paris, the Stock Exchange to New York, mass into the smallest possible compass. This operation is repeated until the bags are full, when the cylinders are withdrawn, leaving the closely packed tobacco in the bag. The number of bags required for this business may be imagined from the fact that in the single factory visited by the writer their manufacture furnishes a support for fifteen poor families, besides which a large number are made by persons who merely do the work as a source of pocketmoney. The manufacture of tobacco is the principal industry of Richmond, outstripping even iron in the revenue which it produces. The largest income listed last year in the State of Virginia was that of a Richmond tobacconist, and what the Bourse is THE OLDEST AND THE YOUNGEST HAND. that the Tobacco Exchange is to Richmond. Physicians and moralists may prescribe and lecture against the use of the weed, but in vain, for all over the world, ever since Newton's pipe drove his servant-maid into hysterics, when, coming upon him unawares, she thought his head on fire, and Johnson's snuff-besprinkled ruffles disgusted his lady friends, its consumption has been steadily increasing, and among all nations it is now the favorite nerve stimulant. LOTTERY. "Much meat doth gluttony procure, BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE A SOBER life, far-lit with promised joy; The promised joy, the dreaded ill, draw nigh; Its fortunate fate full trusting to fulfill. The darkening dread of dismal destiny In riftless shadows wraps the outcast Jollity. Now strikes the hour! each draws, and holds, his breath. Behold! the rainbow hope is snatched away: A thunder-bolt strikes Joy's fond aspirant dead; But breaks his chains who had looked forward to death. So shifts Life's lottery from day to day. Yet Justice governs all: who lives in dread Of nothing mates with who on phantom joys is fed. DETECTIVE PINKERTON. BY GENERAL R. B. MARCY, U.S. A. HE rapid and progressive expansion of and apprehension of malefactors within the last decade has doubtless been commensurate with, and a necessary sequent of, the great augmentation of the criminal record in this country. Twenty years ago such a personage as a professional police detective was rarely met with or heard of out of Paris or London; but now nearly every town of magnitude in the United States has its corps of police experts, who find continued calls upon their services, and receive ample compensation therefor. that time, through the force of his own indomitable energy and tenacity of purpose, and despite the persistent opposition he encountered from corporate police organizations, he continued to inspire and retain the confidence of his patrons, and to extend the scope of his operations, until he attained the most exalted position in his profession. I first encountered the major at Cincinnati in 1861, when he was attached to General M'Clellan's command, in charge of the secret service force with the Army of Western Virginia, in which capacity he continued with the general (to whom he became devotedly attached) until he was relieved from 1862, when, notwithstanding he was urgently solicited by Secretary Stanton to remain with M'Clellan's successor, he could not be prevailed upon to do so, and from that time to this has devoted his exclusive attention to business on his own account. He is now, I should say, about fifty years of age, has a well-developed physique, nearly five feet ten inches in height, with an erect, compact, and muscular frame, and rather a grave and dignified demeanor, which, with the usually plain and somewhat clerical cut of his coat, surmounted by a white "choker," gives him more the appearance of a country parson than of a man thoroughly cognizant of all the arts, wiles, and iniquities of a demoralized age. This branch of police enterprise was first inaugurated in Paris, and has probably been more elaborated and systemized there than any where else, as the marvelous achieve-the command of the Army of the Potomac, in ments of Vidocq and his successors at the head of the French police bureau fully attest. Of course many corporation police agents who have received appointments through political influences possess but few if any of the qualifications essential to an astute craftsman. Indeed, unless one has been endowed by nature with certain peculiar faculties which neither education nor experience can impart, he will not be likely to become proficient in this vocation. He must intuitively, as it were, possess the ability to read at a glance the complex workings of the human mind in all its phases, and the skill to decipher the infinite variety of emotional permutations of the facial muscles, which often reveal secrets that are understood only by the initiated, and afford a key to the incentive as well as the effect of action. Besides these, courage, energy, and activity, as well as discretion and patience, are equally indispensable. But as these requisites are rarely found united in one individual, experts in this profession are scarce. His sedate, unpretentious, and taciturn, but always polite and courteous, deportment when in the presence of strangers tends to convey the impression that he is stolid and unsocial; but this is not so, for with his friends he is one of the most genial and companionable men I know; besides, he has a Among those who have figured conspicu- natural exuberance of vivacious wit and ously in this country, probably the most sparkling humor, combined with a keen skillful, persevering, and successful organ- sense of the ludicrous, and as a raconteur izer and leader of individual detective enter- of amusing incident or racy anecdote he is prise has been Major Allau Pinkerton, whose unsurpassed. His principal office is at Chiexploit in safely conducting President Lin-cago, where he has made his head-quarters; coln through the sanguinary rebel gauntlet at Baltimore previous to his first inauguration is a matter of historical record. Of the major's early antecedents I know but little, save that he was born in Scotland, came to this country alone and penniless when a boy, and for some time afterward earned a meagre but honest livelihood by sawing wood at the not very remunerative wages of fifty cents a day. but he has auxiliary stations at New York and Philadelphia, in charge of competent and trustworthy superintendents. The entire establishment is denominated "Pinkerton's National Detective Agency." Some conception may be formed of the magnitude of his operations from the fact that at one time when I visited him he employed, in his Chicago branch alone, thirtytwo clerks, and his income was then upward His aspirations, however, soon soared of $40,000 per annum; and this was not, as I above the "buck and saw," which he dis- am aware, an exceptional period, for the difposed of at an early date, resolving thence- ferent railroad and express companies have, forth to follow some more lucrative occupa- as I have been informed, paid him large retion, and shortly afterward he found em-taining fees and stipends, which, with what he has received for developing extensive tion concerning the Confederate army, etc., robberies, and other important professional and while there they encountered a woman services, must continually have swollen the who had been arrested as a suspicious charaggregate of his receipts to a high figure. acter at Washington, and ordered out of our lines. This woman pretended to recognize the men, reported them as Federal spies, and upon her testimony they were arrested, tried, convicted, and hung. I must confess that for some time after I was introduced to Major Pinkerton I was rather inclined to avoid him, for the reason that I imagined all men of his calling, if not unscrupulous knaves who would hesitate at nothing to accomplish their purposes, were by no means desirable associates for gentlemen. But after having been officially thrown in contact with him, my ideas changed materially, as I found him during ten years' acquaintance one of the most upright, reliable, and true men I ever knew. In the course of conversation one day I remarked to him that I took it for granted the most of his subordinates were selected from the most debased classes of society. "Not at all,” replied he; "on the contrary, I have seldom taken into my service a man whom I did not believe to be thoroughly honest and reliable. Moreover, I do not indorse the old adage of 'Set a rogue to catch a rogue,' for my experience has shown me that an honest man who possesses the other requisites makes a more efficient detective operator than a villain." He took occasion to remark at the same time "that most persons were of opinion that men of his profession must necessarily be not only callous and unsympathizing at heart, but totally insensible to those more refining and purifying impulses which ameliorate and reduce the salient asperities of the human character. This," he added, "may be partially true in my own case, as I always endeavor to divest myself of all feeling of commiseration for criminals until they are apprehended and brought to trial; but then the sympathetic element in my nature preponderates, and irresistibly impels me to hope for lenity and mercy. For I am firmly convinced there are but very few men who ever become so degraded and befouled by crime that a white spot can not be found in their natures, and although its lustre may have become so tarnished and discolored by depravity as to be nearly obliterated, yet I invariably am disposed to search for it, and, when found, 'rub it up,' in order that its effulgence may reflect upon the conscience and bring forth better fruit." The major now has in his corps several men and women who have served him for many years, and the uniformly kind and liberal treatment they have met with at his hands has insured the most zealous discharge of their duties, as well as a lively interest in the success of his undertakings. As an evidence of this I remark that about the time the Army of the Potomac left Washington for the Peninsula, Pinkerton dispatched three of his men to Richmond for the purpose of obtaining informaVOL. XLVII.-No. 281.-46 These men had families living in Illinois solely dependent for support upon what they received from Pinkerton, who, as soon as he obtained reliable tidings of their execution, applied to the authorities for pensions to the widows; but this, unfortunately, could not, under the laws, be granted, notwithstanding the men had suffered martyrdom in the service of their country, and the major, who was under no legal or moral obligations to do so, in the goodness of his heart continued for several years afterward to pay the widows from his own pocket the same amounts their deceased husbands had received, and ultimately purchased and gratuitously donated to them comfortable farms. Such high-souled magnanimity could not fail to attach his employés to his interests, and this has doubtless largely contributed to his success. There is not sufficient space in a communication of this character to narrate many of the achievements in the eventful career of this wonderfully successful expert, as the entire calendar would fill volumes. I propose merely to present succinctly a few illustrative incidents that either came under my own knowledge or were communicated to me through what I conceived to be reliable sources, giving the latter as I received them, believing them to be strictly veracious, and disclaiming any further responsibility should they not prove literally authentic in all their details. These will, I dare say, suffice to exhibit the man's great executive ability, quick apprehension, and rare genius in unraveling, analyzing, and working up the most complex, puzzling, and mysterious detective problems from exceedingly meagre data. The speedy discovery and apprehension by Pinkerton of the audacious perpetrators of a robbery of an Adams Express car upon the New Haven Railroad some years since, and the immediate recovery of the greater part of the large amount of money taken by them-and this after the New York city police had exhausted all its powers ineffectually—is known to the public. His swift pursuit and apprehension of the notorious band of highwaymen and assassins who for years held the people of Southern Indiana in terror, and who, among other atrocities, in broad daylight ran off an express car and locomotive from a station upon the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, are also well known. At one period during the execution of this last perilous service, learning that Pinkerton's emissaries had been unleashed, and through their keen scent were then close upon their heels, and that unless they could be thrown off the trail their capture would be inevitable, the robbers offered an agent of the express company at Cincinnati a large sum ($90,000, if I am not mistaken) to discharge Pinkerton from the case in hand. But, strange as it may appear, the bribe was not accepted, and the chase continued until several of the outlaws were caught and promptly lynched by the infuriated populace who had suffered from their diabolical outrages. Two of them who escaped into Canada were tracked, apprehended, and brought back by Pinkerton, under the provisions of the extradition treaty; and he came very near losing his life from one of their confederates snapping a loaded pistol at his head while crossing the river at Detroit on his return. to the cashier's friend, requesting him at the same time to return with him as a witness and view the ghastly spectacle. He seemed greatly agitated at this proposal, and earnestly begged to be excused, upon the ground that such frightful scenes invariably wrought most deleterious effects upon his nervous system; whereupon he returned to the bank alone, examined the vaults, and found nothing missing, but in a fire-place he discovered a mass of burned papers, among which was one that had been a note of hand drawn by the man he mistrusted in favor of the bank for a considerable amount, and although it was charred to a cinder, yet the ink upon it retained a shade of color distinct from the paper, and still exhibited sufficient traces of the chirography, including the autographic signature, to establish its identity with the original document. This he carefully spread out upon a sheet of white paper, and securely sealed a tumbler over it. Another circumstance that tended to augment the force of his convictions was the singular fact that from the time of the murder this man had never been known to enter the bank or make visits to his neighbors. Indeed, he seemed to have lost all desire for society, and became melancholy and misanthropic, secluding himself in his house during the day, and wandering about his grounds alone at night. These, with other suspicious circumstances, which were narrated in detail to the major, induced him to believe that the president's conjectures were not altogether groundless. Nevertheless, this evidence was of such adventitious character that it would not be regarded by a jury as sufficient to convict him of the crime of murder. Additional corroboratory evi Just before the outbreak of the rebellion, Pinkerton, while traveling through the Southern States in the exercise of the mysteries of his vocation, stopped for the night at a hotel in a well-known town, where, after supper, he was called upon by a man who introduced himself as the president of a bank in the place, and requested a private audience, knowing his reputation as a detective. When they were alone, the object of the visit was disclosed, from which it appeared that about a year previous the bank he represented had been entered in the night, and the cashier, who slept therein, murdered; and although every effort had been promptly made by the authorities to discover the author of the deed, yet up to that time not the slightest clew to the mys-dence would be indispensable for a successtery had been obtained. The president admitted that from the first his own suspicions had rested upon one of the most prominent and wealthy citizens of the place, but his convictions were based upon evidence so entirely circumstantial and indirect that he dare not assume the responsibility of officially reporting it to the authorities. The man he alluded to was supposed to have been a warm friend of the cashier. Their social relations were most intimate, and a day seldom passed during which they were not frequently together in the bank. As before stated, the cashier had been in the habit of sleeping in the bank, and usually opened his doors at an early hour; but the morning after the murder, to the surprise of the president, the doors remained fastened so late that, fearing all was not right, he had the lock forced, when, to his horror, the corpse of the murdered man was discovered upon the floor. After taking a hurried glance at the surroundings in the bank, he locked the door, and immediately reported the facts ful prosecution of the case. After some further consultation upon the subject, Pinkerton told the president he would give the matter serious reflection during the night, and lay before him the result of his cogitations in the morning. Accordingly, when he called the next morning, the major inquired if he could procure a man and woman who would obey his injunctions to the letter, and in whose discretion the most implicit confidence could be placed. He replied that he thought he could find such persons, provided the parts he proposed having them enact would not involve them in any legal entanglement. "There is not the least danger of that," said the major. "What I shall require of them is this: I understand you to say that, in consequence of the man's peculiar vagaries, his servants generally remain with him but a short time. Now I propose to make it an object for our confederates to enter his service, and, by a zealous compliance with all his requirements and whims, to gradu |