The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-05

The way they work, NOWADAYS said
he, lis usually this: They watch some dis
reputable resort of the higher order until
they see some respectable looking man or
woman come out of 1t. Suppose it is a
woman, who may or may not have gone
there for an improper purpose. The black
mailer follows her home, thus ascertaining
her place of residence. The next day he
calls upon her. He puts on an air of deep So
lemnity. L am an agent says he, EN-
ployed by a society to ascertain the charac-
ter of certain suspected houses. / saw you
enter one Of them yesterday and know that
you remained there more than an hour.
You know its character and | shall there
fore subpoena you as a witness Then he
puts his hand in his inside pocket as if to
get the subpoena. OF course he hasn't
any but the woman usually faints about
this time and on her recovery she is
willing to take the jewels of her wrists and
fingers, if she has no money, to buy her
immunity from the subpoena. Once she
makes a payment she is lost and has to CON
tinue it month after month and year after
year, till some kind of a scandal breaks out
and she finds, with shame and sorrow, that
her previous payments have only put off
the evil day. You'd be surprised to know
how easily this scheme is worked, not only
upon women but men. l tried it myself
one day, for fun, on man who has since
become high city official While | was
Shadowing some parties | saw this man
come out of place that he wouldn't have
liked any one to know that he visited.
Nothing very had, you know, only unpleas
ant If the thing became public | went up
to him and said: Major, you're just the
man I've been looking for. ! want some
one to testify about the house you've come
out of and Good heavensn he exclaimed
don't, don't Can't this thing be fixed up
some way? I'd do anything to get out of
it and he was getting white, when | told
him the whole thing was joke. You never
saw man so relieved in your life, but he
could hardly forgive me for the scare.
"Since Byrnes has been chief of detectives
this thing has been broken up to a cOnside-
rable extent. These men who hang around
looking for chance to backmail somebody
do not frequently give any opportunity to
the police to arrest them, but under Byrnes'
system they are often brought into a station
house under suspicion. Then they are stood
up as it is called; that is, all the men con-
nected with the station are given chance
TO look at them so that they may recognize
them again. Afterward, if the fellows are
seen hanging about they are taken in, and
if they don't happen to have any money
about them charge of vagrancy is pre-
ferred
81 happen to know the inside history Of a
'aSo which Is HOW DtllS iildue lue DttSlS Vi OLle
Of the police romances.' 1t concerned Jay
Gould. For some time he had been receiv-
ing threatening letters They requested the
payment of money as the only means by
which Mr.. Gould could escape death by an
assassin. Of course he was disturbed and
annoyed by them, and neither he nor Byrnes
had the faintest idea who the writer could
be- / was then Post Office Inspector and
the matter coming to my knowledge sug-
gested the plan by which the miscreant was
finally captured. l discovered that the
letters were all mailed within a circle about
Vest Twenty-third street, so one Sunday
wegot all the letter carriers and men from
Police Headquarters that we could muster
and went up into that district. We put a
detective in sight of every letter box and a
carrier between every two of them. Every
ume man mailed a letter one of the de-
lectlves put i'll a large heavy letter on top
Of It, Then he signsled to the carrier, the
oox was opened and the letters were re-
moved. After several hours of this work a
mSslve addressed to Jay Gould was discov-
cred, the depositor was arrested and he
turned out to be the man who was wanted.
~ took more than forty carriers and some
5nlng like hundred detectives, but we col
Jared the culprit.