Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-09-17
FAMILY SKELETONS.
What it Costs TO Keep Them Locked
Up In the Closet, 49,.
Especially If the private Detective" Be.
comes Aware Of their Existence
The Methods and Devices ofthis
Pestiferous Class, and
HOW THEY EXIST ON WEAK HUMANITY.

ID. teSlHefOuS IidSSj anu
HOW THEY EXIST on WEAK HUMANITY.
The art of blackmail is one of the old
est industries of man. In the middle
different Significance. Then, when the
Highland ehieftain "hfted" your cattle
or the German baron assimilated your
portable property il was not blackmail.
Then it was the result Of open violence;
now il is the price of secret intimida-
ton. Few people in Chicago know how
much matchmaking is done within the
corporate limits of this city. 1t is esti-
mated by those in position to know,
that at least 500, 600 of hush money is
discussed by prominent citizens every
year. The professional blackmailer has
his or her business to learn as we'll rs
the followers of any other calling. Be
ginning with little cases, they work up
to greater ones, and the lIcentiates Of
the profession or as shrewd and a. GER
tain i'll going TO the heart of a juicy
secret az the oldest surgeon in the city
is in seeking an abScesS. The brother
hood deal in mysteries. DiSgraceful in
formation about wealthy citizens may
not be quoted upon the blackbOards OF
the board Of trade, but they have value
as certain az telegraph shares or grain.
Taking hundred average people who
have passed along this vale of tears to
maturity it is safe to say that fifty OF
them have done something which they
would not
Have the world Know
1t is safe to say that at least dozen
of the fifty have done something SO dis
graceful, If not so criminal, that they
will part with their goods and chattels
rather than let the facts in the case come
before public which has not yet been
found out itself, and which is, conse-
auently, Indignantly censoriOuS over
everybOdy's else lapseS from virtue.
These people furnish the pickings for
messieurs and mesdames the blackmail-
ers. They can scent out the secret Of
wealthy family with the keen, educated
nostril of the buZzard shifting Ut dead
horse in an adjacent county.
In Chicago there is a full showing OF
every sort of criminal extortiOn. The
most industrious and energetic black
mailer is, of course, the so-called "pri-
waite detective" These gentry, who
can, with very little license of speech,
be classed wholly with the criminal
classes upon whom they prey, derive
the major part of their livelihood from
the price of their silence. There are
honorable exceptions to this sweeping
assertion, and especially is one bureau
in this city free from any aspersion of
this kind, but, as general thing, scratch.
a private detective and you will find
blackmailer. Their little game Is played
chiefly upon the small thieves and petty
criminals with whom they associate.
When these people get into trouble or
have any reason to court solitude, gem
orally they have to pay some alleged
detective to
Respect Their IneOgnitO.
Thieves, thugs, and fences, all have to
put up for these people, but their rich
est harvest comes from another direc-
ton, and it is halcyon day for the self
constituted "hy-cop" when these things
come to pass. Marriages are made upon
earth, and stalisticianS estimate that
63 per cent. of them are miserable.
Either a husband or q wife, trying to
rectify the mistake made at the altar,
seeks for the sympathy which can not
be found at home in some other quar-
ter, and jealous suspicious follow. At
this point the private detective Is called
in, and the Swallowing" of the suspect
ed one follows. There are instance on
record in Chicago where ladies have
been followed for weeks, their every
-, Nisiin1 whom
they spoke with, how they behaved, all
recOrdt d. One instance which occurred,
not two months since, on the West
side, will do to Illustrate this part OF the
subject. A very young and pretty lady,
who is ain society,"" excited the suspicion
of her elderly spouse, who Is engaged
in business in the lumber district. A
detective was put on the trail, anu for
days the girl was watched with an in
tentness sharpened by the hope of
double gain. At last the affair was en-
plotted. With her lover, a well-known
operator on the board of trade, she was
traced into a notorious "hOtel' down
town, and facts enough secured to as
sure a divorce for the suspecting hus-
band. Putting the whole matter into
shape, the detective called one morning
at the WeSt-side house, and, after some
demur obtained an interview with the
lady and told her the whole story. He
was poor, of course, but he wOuldsooner
get the money from her than ruin her
by
Going to Her Husband.
There were tears and Mysteries, but in
spite of the sympathy which weiled up
into his heart the detective remained
firm, thinking doubtless of the duty
which he owed to himself. Tue lady
made downtown appointment for the
next day, and went at once to her lovers
O lie. The SHADOW" next day had a
package put in his hands in which Were
len SlJO bills. And this but a part OF
what he will make on the case. Once
begun, the process never ends. The
girls jewelry will be replaced by paste
diamonds, her pin-mOney Will go to
buy silence, and after all she is only de-
ferring the evil day, for just as soon as
she is exhausted, financially, the detec-
tive will close up the case and go to the
husband with the results, getting his fees
and expenses for the arduous and long,
continued work which the case has
caused.
Some two years ago, to show another
phase in this matter, dry goods mer'
chant, the junior partner i'll fairly
well-known firm, was supporting two
families, one on the South side and the
other on the West. A private detective
made over $1,000 by finding out the
facts in the case and bringing them
TO the notice of the party most inter
ested, and nothing but the death of one
of his wiv3s-the first of the two-pre,
vented the imposition from going on to
this day.
Another and most fruitful engine Of
blackmail is found in the little flower
and apple girls and small female ven
ders of matches who infest the office
in the neighborhood of the board ol
trade and the downtown quarters of the
merchants, generally. The-e small of,
tenders are thoroughly hrazen ana
shameless, educated in crime. From
,ba orodla thpra il absolutely nothing