The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-06-18
MARVELLOUS DEFECTIVE SYSTEMS
Service Men Work Union and sangest ALL Are Said
to Be Modest to Fault

done in. so skiful way that there is
little or no chance Of the object of so
much attention suspccting that he Is be-
ing observed.
The moment the secret service men dis
covered the future victim Of the barrel
murder with his suspected murderers In
a Stanton street butcher shop, they sent
for all the secret service men In town at
once to see II any Of them knew him.
For several hours that afternoon secret
service men were going in and out of
that butcher shop making purchases, but
really trying to get look at the new
comer,'' as they called him. None had
ever seen the man before, SO by night he
was on record in the federal building in
this city with a number opposite his de-
scription.
| The value Of this system Of constant
surveillance is not often made public, as
| it was in the barrel murder case. But
| it's worth is demonstrated to the secret
service men themselves scores Of times
each year. So perfect Is the system now
that when a bad bill or a bad coin turns
up anywhere, the detective can tell by
its workmanship just who made it and
about where it was made. They can
come pretty near, also, to finding the
men they suspect, and within twenty -four
/ hours. After that it Is simply matter
of making out legal case.
/ This Is done by the closest kind OF
watching. Sooner or later the passers OF
the bad money, who, by the way, are
rarely molested until their. principals are
caught, will lead the detectives to the
plant. Then IL Is a case of coming down
on it suddenly and bagging the entire out
fit redhanded.
It is dangerous work. At shadowing the
secret service men are too clever to De
cornered by coiners, who would Kill thine
in a second If they could catch them; but
when a raid is made the secret service
man takes his life in his hands. There is
one little secret service man working In
the local bureau who has been shot several
times in these raids, and whose body is
covered with the scars Of knife wounds re-
ceived in encounters with coiners ana Ia :
cit distillers The story of this mans ca
reer would fill book, and 1T would all be
interesting reading; but it Is impossible to
get him to say a word about himself or his
work for publication.
The secret service men have scores Of
, allies in every city in the country. In this
city ministers, lawyers, doctors and bust
ness men are assistants of the secret SER
vice. Of course, they are the most dis
Greet of citizens, but even II they weren't
they could tell very little, for most of the
work done by outsiders for the secret ser
vice is done by men who are not allowed
to know the significance of the information
they are to procure. They are told to
watch man for given time, and to re-
, , port fully what he does during that time,
or they are ordered to watch house and
make mental note of what goes on outside
of it during stated period.
In this way great mass of information
is collected by the government detectives,
: every bit Of which has its own peculiar
value to the men who go quietly in and out
% of a little room on the third floor of the
federal building. 1t is a marvellous system
l that the secret service men employ. and
: the jails in all parts of the country, full
of government prisoners, are the best evil
! dences of it's merit.