engineers, foremen, or laborers who are drawing from $8o to
$100 per month as detectives either (1) to keep their
employers informed as to the workings of the labor unions, (2)
to report to the directors the actual conduct of the business
by its salaried officers, superintendents, and overseers, or
(3) to ascertain and report to outside competing concerns the
methods and processes made use of, the materials utilized, and
the exact cost of production.

There are detectives among the chambermaids and bellboys in
the hotels, and also among the guests; there are detectives on
the passenger lists and in the cardrooms of the Atlantic
liners; the colored porter on the private car, the butler at
your friend's house, the chorus girl on Broadway, the clerk in
the law office, the employee in the commercial agency, may all
be drawing pay in the interest of some one else, who may be
either a transportation company, a stock-broker, a rival
financier, a yellow newspaper, an injured or even an erring
wife, a grievance committee, or a competing concern; and the
duties of these persons may and will range from the theft of
mailing lists, books, papers, and private letters, up to
genuine detective work requiring some real ability.

Detective work of the sort which involves the betrayal of
confidences and friendships naturally excites our aversion
--yet in many cases the end undoubtedly justifies the means
employed, and often there is no other way to avert disaster
and prevent fiendish crimes. Sometimes, on the other hand,
the information sought is purely for mercenary or even less
worthy reasons, and those engaged in these undertakings range