h as eight or nine thousand
dollars had been paid. He was then impelled, in sheer self-defense, to
consult a lawyer, when further extortion at once ceased and determined.
It subsequently transpired that the "lady" and her "husband" were two of
the most notorious panel thieves in the city.

The "anonymous letter" dodge is also sometimes successfully operated in
levying black-mail. The conspirator becomes acquainted with real or
alleged facts, and dispatches an artfully-worded communication for the
purpose of frightening the intended quarry. Very frequently silence is
obtained by the payment of a lump sum of money, especially where the
victim lacks backbone and decision of character.

Another form of black-mail is practiced by women who run fashionable
assignation houses and bagnios in this city. Gentlemen well known in
public life, fathers of families, and even clergymen, are occasionally
found in these gilded palaces of sin. It is a simple matter for the
madame of the house to inform "her friend" that Mr. This, or the
Reverend Mr. That, has been numbered among her recent visitors. The
usual machinery is set in motion forthwith--threats of exposure and
importunate demands for money. When the intended victim refuses to be
black-mailed, his family--his daughter, perchance--is notified of her
father's transgression and informed that the affair will be made public.
Under such circumstances she is very likely indeed to pay hush-money
rather than have her family's honored name dragged through the dirt of
public scandal.

It is not so long ago that a regular business of blackmail was conducted
in connection with the leading assignation houses. Ladies, as well as
gentlemen, who visited them by appointment were "shadowed" and
"spotted"; sometimes followed home and their standing and character in
the community carefully determined, preparatory to the application of
the financial thumbscrews.

A noted black-mailer of this city at one time maintained his wife in a
private house, conveniently within call of a woman who kept a house of
ill-fame. The wife promptly responded to any summons from the madame,
and when she subsequently made the acquaintance of some wealthy visitor
she would inform her husband of the gentleman's name and position. If,
as probable, he was a person of ostensible respectability and advanced
in years, with everything to lose by exposure, he "came down" promptly
and liberally. On other occasions this high-ton