and how his evenings are spent. It may
be some bank clerk, hitherto enjoying the confidence of the directors,
but who now, in consequence of certain rumors, desire to have him
watched. Or it may be any of a thousand instances in which an employee
ceases to retain the full confidence of his employer, and the convenient
private detective's services are at once put in requisition. Undoubtedly
it would greatly surprise the army of clerks, cashiers and assistants of
this and every great city to learn how many of them are thus under
detective espionage. The young fellow may have fallen into the web of
the siren. He may be down at Coney Island or at the races enjoying
himself; utterly unconscious that a pair of watchful eyes is observing
every motion and chronicling every act. Some fatal morning the reckoning
comes. He may be a bank teller, and he is requested by the board of
directors to show his books and give an account of the situation and
prospects of the bank. Despite his proficiency in bookkeeping, he will
be unable to figure up and cover the money he has squandered in gambling
houses, on the street, or at the race-course. _"Crimine ab uno disce
omnes,"_ says Virgil. From a single offense you may gather the nature of
the whole.

The detective who accepts employment for the purpose of procuring
testimony in divorce cases is undoubtedly at the nadir of his
profession. No self-respecting member of the private detective
organizations will undertake the service even when the pecuniary
inducement, as is frequently the case, is large and tempting. For
testimony so procured is regarded by the courts with suspicion. The
veracity of a person who would crawl into a house, peer through a
key-hole or crane his head through a transom window for the purpose of
witnessing an act of immorality, can hardly be considered higher than
his sense of honor, decency and self-respect. When he stoops to this
kind of business he will hardly manifest any remarkable zeal for
truth-telling, and he will be quite likely to offer to sell his evidence
to the other side--a course which invariably transpires when the other
side is willing to pay for the information.

Violations of conjugal faith are, unfortunately, not unknown, but in the
majority of cases the intrigue progresses in secure secrecy until some
wholly unforeseen accident brings it to sudden and relentless publicity.
The recent case of a Brooklyn lady, who was carried into the
city-hospital