We are constrained to answer that it is no more wonderful
than that any person earning the same sum should remain
honest when he might so easily turn thief. As the writer
has himself pointed out in these pages, there are hundreds
of so-called detective agencies which are but traps for the
guileless citizen who calls upon them for aid. But there
are many which are as honestly conducted as any other variety
of legitimate business. I do not know Mr. Beet's personal
experience, but it appears to have been unfortunate. At any
rate, his diatribe is unfounded and false, and the worst
feature of it is his assertion that detective agencies make a
business of manufacturing cases when there happen to be none
on hand.

"Soon," says he, "there were not enough cases to go around,
and then with the aid of spies and informers the unscrupulous
detectives began to make cases. Agencies began to work up
evidence against persons and then resorted to blackmail, or
else approached those to whom the information might be
valuable, and by careful manoeuvring had themselves retained
to unravel the case. This brought into existence hordes of
professional informers who secured the opening wedges for the
fake agencies. Men and women, many of them of some social
standing, made it a practice to pry around for secrets which
might be valuable able; spies kept up their work in large
business establishments and began to haunt the cafes and
resorts of doubtful reputation, on the watch for persons of
wealth and prominence who might be foolish enough to place
themselves in compromising circumstances. Even the servants
in wealthy families soon learned that certain secrets of the