with his family. His trunk,
which had been left behind, was found to contain nothing but bricks and
rags, or paper.

Another adventurer would put up at the most fashionable hotels, and when
requested to pay his bills would feign madness. He would rave, and sing,
and dance, call himself Nebuchadnezzar, or George Washington, or some
such personage, and completely baffle the detectives, who were for a long
time inclined to believe him a _bona fide_ madman. In this way he ran up
a bill of one hundred and seventy-one dollars at the Fifth Avenue Hotel,
which he never paid.

Others do not seek to obtain lodgings at the hotels, but confine their
efforts to securing meals without paying for them. They get into the
dining-rooms along with the crowd at the meal hour, and once in and
seated at the table are generally safe. Some two years ago as many as
thirty-four of this class were detected at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in a
single month. These men as they leave the dining-room generally manage
to secure a better hat than that they deposited on the stand in entering.
Under the regime of the Lelands, the Metropolitan Hotel had a colored man
stationed at the door of its dining-room, who proved more than a match
for the most expert thief.

All first class hotels keep private detectives and watchmen on duty at
all hours. The business of these men is to keep guard over the upper
part of the house, to prevent thieves from entering and robbing the rooms
of the guests. Suspicious persons are at once apprehended, and required
to give an account of themselves. Some queer mishaps often befall guests
of the house who are not known to the detectives.

Bold robberies are often effected at the hotels of the city. Some time
ago a thief was captured at the St. Nicholas, and upon being searched a
gold watch and chain, and five different parcels of money were found upon
him, all of which were identified by guests as their property.

XVIII. IMPOSTORS.

There is no city in the Union in which impostors of all kinds flourish so
well as in New York. The immense size of the city, the heterogeneous
character of its population, and the great variety of the interests and
pursuits of the people, are all so many advantages to the cheat and
swindler. It would require a volume to detail the tricks of these
people, and some of their adventures would equal anything to be found in
the annals of romance. All manner of tricks are practised up