' A SOOPER STORY'
NOTES for Mr. Wallace's enthralling series of stories and reminiscences aro not desirable ; it would bo fatal to mar in any way the listener's expectancy. The title of this story, however, may need some slight explanation to the uninitiated. A ' Sooper ' is the slang of the underworld and police force for a Superintendent of Police, that painstaking official so maligned in the classic detective fiction of Poe and Conan Doyle ; the private detective, dressed rather like Mr. Wallace himself in a quilted dressing-gown, would sarcastically expose his stupidity. He has been rehabilitated of late, however. Many listeners will remember Mr. Wallace's story last July, when a Sooper described how he had brought to justice a charming gentleman who was keeping his brother shut up in a cellar.