The St. Louis Republic., 1903-09-20

report the others. presence, his, his actions
| and. if possible, who employs him.
| Not long ago a prominent man OF afairs
| was told by his own detective that there
were four men on him: me man nau
big deal on and did not care to be both
cred
| He asked his detective to throw them of
the track 1t was dark and the detective
| canes and glasses.
The scheme promised TO work. because
very much alike. Disguised. the detective
walked briSkly out of the office. after put
| ting out the lights. Four men followed
THROWN OFF THE TRAIL
| He got into a cab at the door and they
| followed in closed carriage
He aIighted near Chatham Square,
( which was curious place for a Wall
| street man to Go after dark but the de-
| tectye was born and as a boy played
around Chatham Square, and knew the
| ms and outs of it. The four shadows
| got out also.
Two walked down one side of the street
and two on the other.
The disguised detective walked along ul-
| I'll he came to a shoemaker's awl stuck
| IN the pavement up near the house line Tor
sign. Back OF the awl was an aleyway
He lodged into the alleyway and MADE
| his way home.
The four detectives. failing to see q, llv-
| Ing soul on the street nistook the shoe-
| makers sign in the dim light OF the street
lamp for their man.
He was standing still, and so they stood
| moving; so did they. One OF them, grow
| ing suspicious. turned back ana came at
the awl from the opposite direction
Then his laugh and his curse notified the
| rest OF their defeat
Mr. Arthur Merklein, manager of a we'll
| known detective agency, told the story
| from the inside: how the detectives follow
| financiers and how they work. "Oh, yes
he said. They are doing it right along, and
| II is a regular branch OF our business now
We never know for whom we are work
ing Our orders always come from law
yers, never from the person most inter
ested- You see, in a secret business like
formation-they pay US for getting it. /
was walking down Broadway the other
day and l saw four men whom l recog-
nized as operators for q rival agency.
Looking ahead l saw an oldish man, who
knew was their party
L followed until he went to hotel and
up to his room. L stood near him and
heard him ask for the number of his key.
Then looked on the register and saw
Il am not at liberty to tell his name. but
will say that he was man high up in
the Treasury Department at Washington,
and every visit of his to New York meant
something to the financiers Of Wall street.
| knew what lawyer represented him in
New York, 80 'phoned TO that lawyer.
" Do you know there are four detectives
following Mr. So-and-So from Washing
tonT asked.
&" NO. said he. but you put four more
on them and find out, II possible, who sent
them
FOUR MEN REQUIRED.
Il knew already which agency sent
them. and I also knew that the power be-
hind the throne would never be known.
But 1 put four men on the other four
and. by turning to their reports. can tell
you wnere that Washington man went
whom he met and all that he did even to
what he ate. and, in great many in
stances, what he talked about when he
Usually it takes about four men to
shadow a man carefully. We do not
shadow the man alone, but also the peo-
pie he meets until we find out who they
are. Sometimes we shadow the person the
man meets, IL IL looks to US that the sec
ond man is important
For instance. the purpose of cur Silad-
owing an individual may be to find out
how he sells or buys a certain stock. II
A. sugar magnate. meets B. and 3
sells sugar short, the brokers' Office is
more important TO our client than the
meeting Of A and B. because an Inference
as to the tone of the conversation can be
gathered from BIS subsequent action.
This. of course, is by way of illustra-
tion, because sugar magnates rarely ever
talk business in public-their private office
there.
In the meantime, while one man is
following B to the brokers' Office, the
other three are still on A. One by one
they leave to follow the men A meets. but
before they go they have phone address
with the last man, SO that he can call
them up and tell them where to rejoin the
party after their part of the work is done.
These tall Office buildings are hard
places TO follow a man into. because of
the elevators. You have TO be right on
your friends heels. to get into the same
car with him, or you will never find out
which office of the hundred or so in the
building he visits.
when he gets out. you get out. and
FFnr 4Nvasr @f.a
which he goes you wait in the halls Then
you come in contact with the floor man.
He lets you loitcr a while and then he
wants to know whom you are waiting
for.
"our agency has a great many of these
floor men fixed so that they will not in
terfere with our boys.
OFFICE BUILDING WORK.
TT always takes two men to work an
office building: one TO go up in the elevator
and the other to watch the door down
stairs to prevent the party from escap-
ing in case the other operative should hap
pen to miss the man upstairs.
ut does not often happen that we can
report conversation between our man and
the friends he meets. but We do sometimes
When man dimes ate he drinks wine
and talks private affairs in public places
His shadow eats at a table as near to
his as possible, but a financier even in
his most unguarded moments will not raise
his voice enough to be overheard even
at the next table. So it becomes neces-
sary for the shadows to fix the waiter
''The waiter is a privileged person. He
can stand right over the two at table,
and he often is compelled TO hear the
conversation whether he wants TO or not
IF you make IL worth his while he wia
stick to the table like leech, with his
eyes in vacancy, but his ears in action,
and he will tell you all about II later
I'VE never know to what use the infor-
nation Is put, and we do not care. A
man should not do anything he would
not have the whole world see. And will
say that the men we have followed rare~
ly ever do.
THE value OF our reports depends upon
the information which the man who reads !
them brings to them.
They do not mean a thing to US, and |
frequently the whole affair looks so use |
less that We wonder why the Wall street |