Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1884 — Spotted by Detectives. [ARTICLE]

Spotted by Detectives.

While standing on Fifth avenue the reporter was accosted by a young man who is employed and bolds a responsible position in one of our leading business houses, and who saluted the reporter thus: “Come and take a walk with me, and I will show you something that will make a story for your readers.” The scribe, anxious and willing to take a hand in anything that would lead to an item of interest, accompanied the young man down the avenue, and as the pair passed along the clerk, in a sort of whisper, bade the reporter look back and observe a little man dressed in dark clothes skulking along the sides of the houses. The man didn't mingle with the throng on the sidewalk, but kept a certain distance behind the scribe and his friend. “l r ou see him do you ?” said the young clerk. “Now, let me tell yon who he is. He’s a detective employed in a private capacity and I am the one under surveillance. Don’t drop back. I am not guilty of anything that may make you ashamed to walk with me, and for goodness sake don’t look back again or the will ‘tumble’ that lam ‘onto’ him. Now let us go into this billiard-room and see if he follows me.” The clerk and scribe entered the room, and sure enough, in about five minutes, the man followed and took a seat some distance away. He seemed to interest himself in the game that was going on, But kept one eye in the direction of the clerk all the time. The reporter asked the reason of this strange proceeding, and the clerk replied: “Oh, it’s not strange; I am used to it now. That fellow is hired by my employer to shadow his clerks every night, He watches how much we spend, in fact watches everything we do and makes his report to the boss daily. The scheme is, as you can see, to tell if the employes spend a great deal of money, and if they do then the employer knows that their clerks are getting the best of him in some way, and the offender is accordingly discharged. This detective business has got to be a common thing and it’s done every night.” The scribe withdrew in a short time, leaving the clerk and his watcher in the room. “Is this thing of employes being dogged by d etectives ,hired by their employers a common thing?” asked the reporter of a private detective whom he met shortly after. “Well, I should say so,” was the -reply of the slouth-hound, with a knowing wink. “That’s where the best part of our work comes from. But how did you manage to tumble to it?” The scribe refused to give this away, and the detective started, off, saying, “I am on that lay now.” —Pittsburgh Leader.