His clog-dancing on the city editor's desk, when that
gentleman was up-stairs fighting for two more columns of space, was
always a source of innocent joy to us, and his imitations of the
comedians of the variety halls delighted even the dramatic critic,
from whom the comedians themselves failed to force a smile.
But Gallegher's chief characteristic was his love for that element of
news generically classed as "crime." Not that he ever did anything
criminal himself. On the contrary, his was rather the work of the
criminal specialist, and his morbid interest in the doings of all
queer characters, his knowledge of their methods, their present
whereabouts, and their past deeds of transgression often rendered him
a valuable ally to our police reporter, whose daily feuilletons were
the only portion of the paper Gallegher deigned to read.
In Gallegher the detective element was abnormally developed. He had
shown this on several occasions, and to excellent purpose.
Once the paper had sent him into a Home for Destitute Orphans which
was believed to be grievously mismanaged, and Gallegher, while playing
the part of a destitute orphan, kept his eyes open to what was going
on around him so faithfully that the story he told of the treatment
meted out to the real orphans was sufficient to rescue the unhappy
little wretches from the individual who had them in charge, and to
have the individual himself sent to jail.
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