And each has its own particular victim upon whom it intends to fasten the blame.
Heaven save his reputation! Many an innocent man has been ruined for life through the efforts of a newspaper "to make a case," and, of course, the same thing, though happily in a lesser degree, is true of the police and of some prosecutors as well.
In every great criminal case there are always four different and frequently antagonistic elements engaged in the work of detection and prosecution--first, the police; second, the district attorney; third, the press; and, lastly, the personal friends and family of the deceased or injured party.

Each for its own ends--be it professional pride, personal glorification, hard cash, or revenge--is equally anxious to find the evidence and establish a case.

Of course, the police are the first ones notified of the commission of a crime, but as it is now almost universally their duty to inform at once the coroner and also the district attorney thereof, a tripartite race for glory frequently results which adds nothing to the dignity of the administration of criminal justice.
The coroner is at best no more than an appendix to the legal anatomy, and frequently he is a disease.

The spectacle of a medical man of small learning and less English trying to preside over a court of first instance is enough to make the accused himself chuckle for joy.
Not long ago the coroners of New York discovered that, owing to the fact that the district attorney or his representatives generally arrived first at the scene of any crime, there was nothing left for the "medicos" to do, for the district attorney would thereupon submit the matter at once to the grand jury instead of going through the formality of a hearing in the coroner's court.

The legal medicine men felt aggrieved, and determined to be such early birds that no worm should escape them.