Men and women, many of them of some social
standing, made it a practice to pry around for secrets which
might be valuable able; spies kept up their work in large
business establishments and began to haunt the cafes and
resorts of doubtful reputation, on the watch for persons of
wealth and prominence who might be foolish enough to place
themselves in compromising circumstances. 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.
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