Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-10
spoilers OF VARIOUS GRADES.
Mysterious Men who are Seen Standing
Around for No Apparent Purpose.

SPOILERS OF VARIOUS GRADES.
Mysterious Men who are Seen Standing
Around for No Apparent Purpose.
There are many men in New York, says
the San, whose business is to be ''spOt-
ters." They range all the way from high
priced detectives down to the employees of
the street car and stage companies, and
the miscreants who earn a precarious liY-
ing by seeking or manufacturing informa-
ton for divorce cases. Spoilers are east
ly recognizable. They are known to very
many people outside of those by whom
they are employed. This is particularly
the case with the men who keep a close
watch upon the stage drivers. There are
half a dozen of them scattered along
Broadway, Fifth avenue and Fulton
street, and they seem to pass their lives
in laziness. 1t is their duty to count the
persons on the roofs of the stages and to
keep some sort of tally of the passen-
gers inside. They are usually rough
looking men, vino wear clothes that have
been faded by the sun and the dust of the
streets, and they are seldom seen talking
to any one. Every stage driver in New
York knows a spOtter as far as he can see
him. The proprietOrs of one of the stage
lines often take light buggy or road
wagon and drive down Broadway at might
after business hours. They never were
known, however, to catch a driver in any
wr0ngdOing, for the drivers have a code
of signals, and the approach of the "boss'
in a light wagon is signaled for blocks
ahead. The men who drive the New York
stages are grizZled and experienced.
They know the town from one end to the
other, and are seldom caught mapping.
They are the most expert drivers on Broad
way.
There was spOtter on Fifth avenue
year are so ago who became very popular
with the children and the nursemaids on
his particular block. He was jolly, red
faced, burly man, perhaps 80 years of age,
who looked like a retired sea captain.
He had a CHEEKY word for every driver as
he passed. He told the children stories,
spoke sWeetly to the nurses, and event
ually married a cook in one Of the Fifth
avenue houses.
The detectives who are occasionally
seen lounging about make no such ac-
quaintances. When they. have to watch
house they will stand on the nearest cor
ner and keep it in view for eight or ten
hours at a stretch. No one who has not
tried it can imagine the tediOusness of
such a vigil. 1t is a matter of business,
however, with the detectives, and they be-
come accustomed to it. Their presence in
a residence neighborhOod gradually at
tracts attention, and they soon become
CONSPICUOUS. A Central Office detective
told the writer once that it amused him
very much to observe how quickly people
noticed the presence Of stranger, even
in such city of strangers as New York
is to-day. He was then watching house
on Madison avenue between Thirty-third
and Thirty-secend streets. He stationed
himself on the southeast corner OF Thirty
third street and Madison avenue, on which
there is a large house. He was waiting
for the brother of a servant girl to visit
her at a house further down the block. The
brother was wanted and they hoped to
catch him there. When the detective
first took his stand on the corner it was
about O'Clock in the afternoon. He stood
there unnOticed until dinner time, when a
maid across the street came to the DINING
room windows to close the blinds. She
saw him, and few moments later came
back with her mistress, and they both
looked over at him somewhat suspicious
ly. A few moments later girl in house
on the opposite corner tripped up the
street to mail a letter, and stared with
pronounced suspicion at the man, who
had then been for three hours on one cor
ner. The detective strOl led across street,
and, looking back at the house he had
just left, saw the head Of the chamber
maid projecting from the top story of the
house. She had evidently been watching
him for some time. AS the night advanced
he found it necessary to keep nearer the
house that he was watching; but he found
that all around the block the servant girls
were watching him. When he resumed
his watch the next day the same interest
was shown in him, and when the police
man on post passed along at s O'Clock
that night he was stopped by lady, in a
house near the corner, who asked who the
suspiciOus-lOOking man was who had been
hanging aroung for two days. The de-
tective remained in the vicinity for five
days before he caught his man.
The spoilers of the railroad lines hoard
every car, note the number Of passengers
III small book, and make their returns
at night. Their work is much liyelier
than that of the men who pursue long
v1gils on Broadway for various purposes.
One OF these men was asked a few
days since whether he didn't find it very
mOnOtonOus standing in one place so long.
"Wel, no." he said, cheerfully, sit
amt as bad as it seems. When you first
start into the business it seems like hard
work, and you find standing still a good
deal more tiresOme than actual labor. 1t
catches you in the small of the back.
Just try to stand up three or four hours
some time when you have nothing partic-
ular to do with your hands and arms, and
you will find at the end of a day that you
feel as completely tagged out as though
you had walked % miles. Your should
ers feel heavy; the back Of your neck feels
as though it had an iron bar laid across
it, and you can't for the life of you stand
easily upon your legs. But you get more
and more accustomed to it, until you can
rest just as well standing up as sitting
down. can stand on my feet ten hours
and never feel it if l have a good, thick
pair Of boots and dry place to stand. If
you stand in the wet. though, you get
rheumatism. AS for amusement, there is
nothing on earth so amusing as Broad
way. You can stand still and the whole
show Will pass you, and it won't cost you
cent. A spoilers life isn't all pie, but
it amt so bad as it might be-"