Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-12-19
PARTISAN SECRET POLICE.
Strangers in the City Are Constantl
Watched and Acts Recorded.

Strangers in the City Are Constantly
Watched and Acts Recorded.
About the words the secret police"
there is pretty air of mystery. They
summon up pictures of cloaked figures,
of men waiting in dark alleys and Of
stealthy steps behind the curtains of
corridors. They are woven into nine
tenths of popular French fiction The
woman concierge, summing herself in
what Parisian doorway you please,
feeds her imagination on tales of null
tiple DISCUSSES. For her the agent de
Ia surete, who comes to inquire about
her dodgers, is dark with mystery; he
is ''of the secret police" AS a matter
OF fact, this branch of the police,
though dressed in plain clothes, is not
at all occult. 1t has to do with plain
and simple crimes. Most of the agents
OF the surete are old soldiers, honor
able men. They are supplemented,
however, by a band of quasi police
known as indicators. These people,
who are permanent auXiliaries of the
service, are recruited among the street
fakirs and masterless rogues who fore
gather in Paris.
Behind these humdrum agents ana
those gloomy outcasts, their aids, there
is a mighty and mysterious secret
police" about which not one Partisan
in a hundred has definite knowledge.
The real secret police-to-day, as -ln-
der the empires that which is
known as the brigade des recherches--
that is, the brigade of investigation.
The members of this force are recruit
ed in Tar higher rank Of society than
the fellows of the surete. Indeed,
there is no classroom the old nobility
to the new feudality of finance-Which
does not contribute to this occult sys-
TEN of espionage. II is not my par-
pose here to describe in detail the
many qualifications of this ancient and
potent order of spies.
A foreigner in France, if he assOci-
ates frequently with people of import
ance, comes in time to know them
well. They follow him in his comings
and goings, report upon his acts and
opinions, and sift his life W It'll a care
unknown in our careless republic One
of those who were sent out on my trail
came to know very well. What l was
suspected of l know not, though dur
ing the troublous days of the Dreyfus
case l fraternized with mary men
one of whom, the COmte du Temple an
eXdeputy, was an aggressive royalist.
Anyway, my spy and | came to know
each other very well. He played a
good game # billiards and was a COM
panionable gentleman.
A little later DR.. w. ]. O'Sullivan,
an assistant corporation counsel of
New York, visited me in Paris. He was
greatly interested in the secret police
| could hardly persuade him that from
the moment we met and shook hands
in the Care du Nord until his de-
parture from the Care st. Lazare ev-
cry act of his had been noted. | got
the evidence from my friend (my own
pet spy in the brigade des rechercheS.
The doctors record was singulariy
complete. He haG not spoken with a
man, he had not cnatted with a wom-
an, he had not dined out or break
tasted in my garden, he had not
bought pair of yellow gloves, unseen
by some ubiquitous spy. The amazed
gentleman, when he learned how close
had been the watch upon him, shud-
dered as if he had walked in peril, and
went back to New York wondering.
So close are the meshes of this police
net that not even a casual visitor slips
through.-Success.