love, nor detectives can trace a fellow to his lair, or his sanctuary, like a borrower. He will pursue round the world, and shame a sleuth-hound from the "Lost in the great city" is often a sad truth; bu be converted into a fiction if a man in need of mo his attention called to the pocket-book of the per posed to be lost. You cannot so bury yourself in th lon of a new world that the borrower will not bring light. And, if you have had experience, when a flatters you, you will understand, from the degree of pliment, the exact amount of the loan he expects to AMONG THE DETECTIVES. DETECTIVE LIFE. CURIOSITIES OF LIFE IN A GREAT CITY. NOT KNOWING YOUR NEIGHBORS. — PECULIAR ACQUAINTANCES. — ROBBERY OF A DRY GOODS STORE.-- INGENIOUS DETECTION OF THE CRIME. LOVE AND JUSTICE.— A SURPRISING DENOCEMENT. THERE are some men who seem better fitted to live beneath the surface of the earth than in the open air. Their habits are much like those of the mole or the weasel, and sometimes they are not altogether unlike those animals in general appearance. They have the burrowing propensity of the rat and the woodchuck, and in many instances their lives are about as reputable as that of the first-mentioned animal. They seem to avoid the light of day, and to spend their lives in undermining the works and lives of others. Great cities can furnish a good supply of these men, and the rural districts are not altogether destitute of them. They flourish best in large cities, as there they have a better field for their operations than in the country. In the country everybody knows everybody else for a considerable distance around, and can tell you about his family and its antecedents for as many years as you care to know. Frequently the people observe the manners and habits of their neighbors with more care than they observe their own. In the city men go about their daily occupations, knowing little and caring little about others, except those with whom they come in contact or have relations of a business character. In New York, for example, there is not one householder in five who knows the name and occupation of his next-door neighbor, and generally he does not care to know. People may occupy the same house for years without knowing anything 902 AN ODD EXPERIENCE. about each other. I can give a personal experience of my own which will illustrate what I have here stated. During the first year of my residence in New York, after remaining a few weeks at a hotel I went one day in search of lodgings in a private house. I found a house whose exterior pleased me, and on the door-post there was the attractive announcement, "Rooms to let." I rang the bell, made known my object, saw the vacant room, was satisfied, and engaged it. Next day I moved in. I took my meals at a hotel, and for a year and a half occupied that room. I did not know the name of anybody in the house except the proprietor, and never troubled myself about the occupants of the rooms on the floor where I was located. One day, in ascending the stairs, I met an acquaintance coming down; an acquaintance whose business was in the very office where I was located, and whose desk was not far from mine. We hailed each other, and our conversation revealed the fact that he had been for two years an occupant of that house, and I had been there nearly a year. Had we been in the country, or almost anywhere else in America than in New York, we should have known each other's local habitation and names in less than a fortnight. City life, politics, and poverty are about equal in the opportunities they afford for making acquaintances with peculiar people. These acquaintances may not be formed very rapidly; but as one moves about in a great city, he is certain, sooner or later, without any effort on his own part, to be introduced to men whom he would not always be willing to recognize in public. Without ever going to church he may make the acquaintance of clergymen. Without touching a playing card or entering a gaming house he may be acquainted with gamblers. Without studying the mysteries of the kinchin lay, or familiarizing himself with the language of the inhabitants of Blackwell's Island, or the state penitentiary, he may become acquainted with thieves of various grades. Without doing anything for which he should be "shadowed" he may be familiar with detectives, and without A DETECTIVE'S STORY. 993 speculating in stocks he may know the men whose fortunes. are made and lost on Wall Street. A great city is an epitome of the globe, and in its streets, and alleys, and by-ways may be found all the vicious and dangerous elements of human existence. Some years ago it was my fortune to become acquainted with a professional detective. He was not of the elegant sort, whose labors are confined only to the exposure and punishment of crimes of the higher grades, but he was a man who, to use his own language to me one day, was ready for anything. He told me several stories of his experience. He did not present documentary evidence of their authen ticity, and some of them were rather too much for my belief. Others were plausible enough to be true, and as the man always appeared to have plenty of money, I concluded that he must be an expert at the business. One evening he told me his experience in working up a case of robbery, which I will endeavor to give as nearly as possible in his own words: "A dry goods merchant on Broadway had lost a considerable amount of property at various times, but on no one occasion was there a large quantity taken. Of course the clerks in the establishment were suspected, but there was no way of discovering whether they were guilty or not. A close watch had been set on all of them, but nothing could be discovered. I was engaged to work up the case, and to enable me to do so, I was employed in the store as an extra clerk and salesman. It was thought that the foreman and floor walkers might be guilty of the robbery, and therefore they were not taken into the secret. The head of the house explained, however, to the foreman that I was a relative of his wife, and had been thrown upon him to provide for. It was therefore understood that I was not to be required to work very hard, and was to be allowed to go out whenever I asked permission. With this understanding I went to work at my new business. I did not know anything about dry goods, nor about selling them, and consequently they put me upon the commonest articles, which were not in very great demand. This gave me plenty of time for looking around and observ ing the habits of the clerks. "I became acquainted with one after another, but made no headway for several weeks in discovering the secret. I accompanied the clerks to their rooms occasionally, and sometimes we were at the theatre together. I knew the salaries that were paid in the establishment, and I knew just how much money each man could afford to spend, and my object was to find out what man among them was living beyond his income. All of them appeared to be quiet, well-behaved young men. Some of them were members of the Young Men's Christian Association, and others patronized the Mercantile Library, and spent most of their evenings there. Three or four were a little inclined to fast lives, but evidently did not have money enough to carry out their wishes. "After a time I found out that one, who was the most quiet and unobtrusive of the whole lot, seemed to be living a little beyond his means. Upon him I fixed my suspicion and watched him closely both in the store and out of it. "He and I became fast friends. We went about the city together; we visited the theatres and beer-gardens, and on Sundays took a trip to Coney Island, where we occasionally spent several dollars in entertaining ourselves and chance acquaintances; but the young man, whom I will call Johnson, was constantly on his guard, and whenever I proposed any new amusement or any additional expense, he always opposed it, and said that he could not afford it, though somehow he generally did afford it before we got through. Occasionally, "I found he had a sister living in Harlem. but not often, she called at the store. She rarely bought anything, and never remained longer than a few minutes. He visited her every few days, though sometimes a week or two might intervene between his journeys to the place where she lived. Several times, when he was absent and I knew he was to be away for the evening, I visited his room, and searched it carefully; but never a thing could I find to implicate him in |