While comparisons are invidious, I should be inclined to say that the ordinary chauffeur was probably a brighter man than the average detective.

This is not to be taken in derogation of the latter, but as a compliment to the former.

There are a great many detectives of ambiguous training.

I remember in one case discovering that of the more important detectives employed by a well-known private Anti-Criminal Society in New York, one had been a street vender of frankfurters (otherwise yclept "hot dogs"), and another the keeper of a bird store, which last perhaps qualified him for the pursuit and capture of human game.

There is a popular fiction that lawyers are shrewd and capable, similar to the prevailing one that detectives are astute and cunning.