The great value of the "agency" to the victim of a theft is the speed with which it can disseminate its information--something quite impossible so far as the individual citizen is concerned.

Let me give an illustration or two.
Between 10.30 P.M.Saturday, February 25, 1911, and 9.30 A.M.

Sunday, February 26, 1911, one hundred and thirty thousand dollars worth of pearls belonging to Mrs.Maldwin Drummond were stolen from a stateroom on the steamship 'Amerika' of the Hamburg-American line.

The London underwriters cabled five thousand dollars reward and retained to investigate the case a well-known American agency, which before the 'Amerika' had reached Plymouth on her return trip had their notifications in the hands of all the jewelers and police officials of Europe and the United States, and had covered every avenue of disposal in North and South America.

In addition, this agency investigated every human being on the Amerika from first cabin to forecastle.
Within a year or so an aged stock-broker, named Bancroft, was robbed on the street of one hundred thousand dollars in securities.