The Opelousas courier., 1901-09-07
UNCLE SANS Spoilers
the Man in Europe Who Looks
Out for snyf callers.

SHPcC1AAtV ~ all tI w hU A<OOAa
Out for snYf xrlers.
"Uncle Sans large and well-organ'
ICED secret service is made up mostly
Of men who come properly under the
head of detectives with police powers,
but it has it's class of bona fide spot.
tiers, whose entire duty it is to ingra-
tiate themselves with persons suspect
ed of having designs to evade the
custom house duties and to warn the
baggage inspectors at this end Of the
impending swindle. In c~leverness. adj
dress and a~daptability the secret SER
vice spotter Is easily at the head Of
his profession. and even ranks with
the trained experts OF the European
diplomatic corps 1t Is essential that
he should beh@man Of the world, for
he must associate with all kinds Of
people on equal terms. He has no
fixed abode, but lives in various Euro
pean capitals when he is not on ship
board. where he is much of the time.
He must eve let himself be in the
slightest degree suspected. There Is
always a number Of these agents In
Paris, because of the great American
trade there. They live at the fashion
able hotels and live the life. apparent
ly, of f%laneurs and boulevardiers. In
all lines of trade that concern duti-
able goods they are experts. and no
large purchase by an American in
Paris is unknown to them. Their cir
Gle of acquaintance is enormous. but
nobody knows them for what they are.
In one way or another they contrive
to make the acquaintance Of any per-
o whom they suspect, and unosten-
tatiously but unremittingly trail him.
Many a time some man who has made
a heavy purchase of diamonds or
laces and so disposed them that he
felt sure of being able to get them
through the port undiscovered has
been passed on the dock by a chance
acquaintance of the voyage over who,
unseen, presses a little note into the
hand of the customs inspector. That
note tells all that the willy smuggler
would wish to keep secret. and his
40 lASlS llCoSIy IdIooIhCu uAIlA
the hidden articles are brought to
light. He has been followed over by
the spotter. Men employed in this
line get good pay-as high as $40 a
it costs them much to live in
the name in which they must main
tain themselves.
Suspicious as it Is of sWindles from
without, the government is more trust |
full of the employees in its financial
centre than in any private corpora
ton. In the U. s. treasury the whole
output of the nations currency is
handled by men who are under neither |
nor bond. The paying
handle 40 or so millions a year.
The exchange clerk has every day
$1,000 in change at hand. The money |
in charge of the keeper of the cash
room runs from s170, 900, 900 upward,
and the chief of the issue division,
who is a negro. handles millions every
lay. Any of these men could get
away with enormous amounts of
money and be reasonably secure
@5dAAob OCSOStAOA IoI a. SOASIAC1 SblC l
ength Of time. Nevertheless. pecula-
ions from the treasury have been few
small in amount, during its his
,ory. There Is an axiom in the de-
,artment which runs as follows:
wherever money is handled there
s a point which the honesty of the
Individual must be the main reliance
"And SO the treasury d~isDenses with
he services of spoilers. However,
business interests involving
he handling of large sums of money
ire not likely to follow this example.
may be an evil. but they
re a necessity in the present phase
4 human development, and until some
psychological chemist devises a prepa-
alton to make men honest. the type
likely to persists. H. Adams. in
Ainslee's.