at account, for lack of
sagacity, zeal, courage, or any of the numerous other qualities that go
to the making up of an efficient "Hawkshaw."

That they are not deficient in zeal, at least, is manifest from a
circumstance which took place a short time since. Counterfeiting had
been carried on to a great extent in the city. The rashness of
counterfeiters is proverbial, and they usually carry on their operations
immediately under the nasal protuberance of the law. Nevertheless, in
the case under notice, some vigilant detective, with a nose as sharp as
that of a Spitz-dog, obtained a clue to the arrangements of the
counterfeiters. Having informed some of his associates, a concerted
descent was made by the party upon a house in one of the lower streets
of the city. A portion of the house is, and has been for years past,
occupied by several artists connected with the illustrated press. Few
gentlemen are better known in large circles than these artists, none
more highly appreciated by hosts of friends. But duty is duty--often
stern, but never to be shirked; and so the faithful detectives inserted
their Spitz-dog noses between the joints of the artists' doors, and,
having smelt a very large rat, suddenly burst in upon these graphic
malefactors, and caught them in the act, with all the tools and
paraphernalia of their nefarious occupation scattered about their vile
den.

Most of them were engaged in executing drawings upon blocks of wood,
although it is probable that some of them were smoking pipes--tobacco
being vastly conducive to that concentration of thought by which alone
great mental efforts can be followed by equivalent results. Short work
was made by the sagacious detectives, when they saw the graphic
malefactors engaged in their diabolical toil. Some of the officers
seized the implements of the gang, while others collared the
delinquents, and marched them through the streets to the nearest police
station, where they were thrust into a dungeon and locked up for the
night.

Next morning, on being taken before a magistrate, the prisoners were
discharged, on the grounds that the affair was a mistake--or a joke--we
are not exactly informed which; but the parties chiefly interested do
not look upon it as a joke.

Now it is a very clear case that the mistake in question--or joke--may
be traced to a deficiency of education on the part of these vigilant and
zealous detectives. Had they been properly cultivated in the variou