"Wooldridge has refused perhaps 500 bribes of from $500 to $5,000 each. He has been under fire forty-four times. He has been wounded dozens of times. He has impersonated almost every kind of character. He has, in his crime hunting, associated with members of the '400' and fraternized with hobos. He has dined with the elite and smoked in opium dens. He has done everything that one expects the detective of fiction to do and which the real detective seldom does. "When occasion requires he ceases to appear as Wooldridge. He can make a disguise so quickly and effectively that even an actor would be astonished. Gilded youth, negro gambler, honest farmer or lodging house 'bum,' it requires but a few minutes to 'make-up,' to run to earth elusive wrong-doers." The pictures which appear here are actual photographs taken from life in the garb and disguises worn by the author in several famous cases. [Illustration: "HECK HOUSTON"--STOCK-RAISER FROM WYOMING In this garb the author makes himself an easy mark for the crooks and grafters of the Stock-Yard district. The hold-up man--the card-sharp--the bunco-steerer--the get-rich-quick stock-broker fall "easy game" to the detective thus disguised.] [Illustration: ASSOCIATING WITH THE STOCK AND BOND GRAFTERS Disguised as an Englishman who has money and is looking for a good investment, Mr. Wooldridge is easily mistaken for a "sucker." The trap is set. He apparently walks into it; but, in a few minutes, the grafter finds himself on the way to prison.] [Illustration: POLICY-SAM JOHNSON This is a favorite disguise of the author when doing detective duty among the lowest and most disreputable criminals. Unsuspectingly the crooks offer him all sorts of dirty work at small prices for assistance in criminal acts.] [Illustration: WE NEVER SLEEP Detectives disguised as tramps: "I am made all things to all men," says St. Paul. The Detective must also make himself all things to all men, that he may find and catch the rascals. To be up-to-date it is necessary to be able to assume as many disguises as there are classes of people among whom criminals hide.] [Illustration: POLICY-SAM JOHNSON SHOOTING CRAPS An illustration of the way the detective employs himself in the gambling dens. It is often necessary to play and lose money in these places that he may get at the facts. Observe that he is watching proceedings in another part of the room while he is throwing the dice.] [Illustration: SHADOWING ONE OF THE FOUR HUNDRED. Some of the most dangerous grafters in the world hobnob with the elite. Here we have our author in evening dress, passing as a man of society at a banquet of the rich, shadowing a "high-flyer" crook.] [Illustration: CRAPS AND CARDS The gambling house is a station on the road to crime. In proportion to population there are, perhaps, more negro gamblers than of any other race.]