offices throughout the country are naturally in a better
position to acquire such information quickly than the private
individual or lawyer, since they are on the spot and have an
organized staff containing the right sort of men for the work.
If the information lies in your own city you can probably hire
some one to get it or ferret it out yourself quite as well,
and much more cheaply, than by employing their services. The
leads are few and generally simple. The subject's past
employers and business associates, his landlords and
landladies, his friends and enemies, and his milkman must be
run down and interrogated. Perhaps his personal movements
must be watched. Any intelligent fellow who is out of a job
will do this for you for about $5 a day and expenses. The
agencies usually charge from $6 to $8 (and up), and prefer two
men to one, as a matter of convenience and to make sure that
the subject is fully covered. If the suspect is on the move
and trains or steamships must be met, you have practically no
choice but to employ a national agency. It alone has the
proper plant and equipment for the work. In an emergency,
organization counts more than anything else. Where time is of
the essence, the individual has no opportunity to hire his own
men or start an organization of his own. But if the matter is
one where there is plenty of leisure to act, you can usually
do your own detective work better and cheaper than any one
else.

Regarding the work of the detective as a spy (which probably
constitutes seventy-five per cent of his employment to-day),
few persons realize how widely such services are being
utilized. The insignificant old Irishwoman who stumbles