Even the servants in wealthy families soon learned that certain secrets of the master and mistress could be turned to profitable account.

We shudder when we hear of the system of espionage maintained in Russia, while in the large American cities, unnoticed, are organizations of spies and informers on every hand who spend their lives digging pitfalls for the unwary who can afford to pay." One would think that we were living in the days of the Borgias! "Ninety per cent," says Mr.Beet, "of private detective agencies are rotten to the core and simply exist and thrive upon a foundation of dishonesty, deceit, conspiracy, and treachery to the public in general and their own patrons in particular.

There are detectives at the heads of prominent agencies in this country whose pictures adorn the Rogues' Gallery; men who have served time in various prisons for almost every crime on the calendar." This harrowing picture has the modicum of truth that makes it insidiously dangerous.

But this last extravagance betrays the denunciator.

One would be interested to have this past-master of overstatement mention the names of these distinguished crooks that head the prominent agencies.