TAKEN ON THE FLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7270, 7 March 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

TAKEN ON THE FLY.

••Do you eee that man ahead?" asked ft friend, as we were strolling up Broadway. •'Well, just keep your eye on him for a moment." The person referred to was •bout twenty feet in front of ae; welldreseecL though in a Bohemian sort of a faibion, and was strolling along looking at the eight* in the shop windows. The only thing about him at all ont of the common run was the fact that he carried under his left arm a square box of rather large size. It might have been a case of surgical instruments, for it was carefully covered with a green covering, and had quite a professional appearance. The man strolled along leisurely, looked up at the windows, stopped for a moment to glance at the pictures in one of the big art stores near Eighth-street, then joined the throng, and kept on. I vrtA beginning to wonder why he didn't ehift the box over to the other arm, when he suddenly and in a very natural manner stumbled and dodged before a tall, thin man almost behind him. The man with the box dodged before him a moment, in the ludicrous way that is often seen on the street; then both stopped, muttered an apology, and so got clear of each other, and were soon in the crowd that were surging up the street. The box I noticed was now under the other arm, and was carried rather carelessly. The owner seemed to have lost his interest in the stores, and was about to hail a Broadway stage, and disappear box and all, when my friend stepped up and touched him on the arm and said, "Well, did you get him ?" The man with the box looked np quickly, smiled when he saw who it was, then broke into a rippling laugh. I was finally introduced, and in a quiet corner in the Hotel Dam Cafe learned the mystery of the box. " There are tricks in all trades but ours," said the tall man, lighting a cigar, and watching the smoke ascend upward, ring after ring. " But I'm tired. I've been following that man you saw me pretend to run into all day. I went down town with him this morning, followed him over to Brooklyn, then back to the Jersey City ferry, and finally he started up town, and I got him as you saw." " What were you going to do?" I asked. "Blow him up?" "Hardly," replied the stranger, with a laugh ; then, taking up the box, he gave a glance aronnd, sent the waiter to see if a man by the name of Dobbs was on the register, and quickly lifted the cover, and instead of a dynamite machine there was a simple photographic instrument known as a pin-hole camera. "Yes," continued the owner of the box, "this is a phase of tho detective sysiem, and whether I am a detective or photographer I don't know. The latter is my profession, and I try a little of both. They tell me I have an innocent, faraway look that is quite necessary in the make-up of the detective. Yes, this machine ie my idea, though I believe there are others in use in England and France. The idea is this : This little box contains the camera, and at this end there is a little round hole that closes or opens by a spring that I govern by my thumb or finger. Now, no one would guess what it was, but if I can get anyone in front of it, and snap that spring, in the tenth of a second your image is indelibly stamped on the plate within; in other worde, it's instantaneous photography, and used whenever you want to take a man's picture without his knowini it. I try it in different ways. The man whose picture you saw me take this morning is wanted in Belgium on a charge of forgery. The authorities suspect that he is the one wanted, but, as they are not sure, they don't want to arrest him. In the meantime he is watched by the detectives, and I take hie picture without his knowing it. When I finish it ap it will be sent to Belgium, and if it is the man a telegram will be sent to that effect, and he will be arrested." "Is there much of this sort of thing done?" " Yes, Ido a good deal of it," was the reply,. "The street-dodging trick is the best. The detective on watch pointed him out to me, and the only thing I had to do was to get in front of him, and get a full front view. This I generally do by pretending to run into a men, and, while we are trying to pass each other, I get him perfectly, and he does not suepect it, thinking me some clumsy boor who doe 3 not know which way to turn. I have taken persons in all sorts of situations. Some time ago a lady called at our office and inquired for me. She said that she believed that her husband was deceiving her, and that she wanted to learn the truth to secure evidence for a divorce. She gave me the photograph of the husband and his place of business, and I soon knew him by sight and knew his habits as well as possible. But it was necessary to have photographic evidence, so I rigged up a machine that resulted in a divorce. I found that he was in the habit of meeting the lady in the restaurant of an op-town hotel, and one day, as I saw them sitting at the table, I walked in rigged up as a flower-seller. I had a square board punched with holes and my box on the under aide. I walked up to the table and held up the array of bouquete, so as they had to look at them, and the business was done. When the photograph was shown to the man, with the woman looking at him, they say he gave right up, but he offered one of the men £100 to find out how they got the picture—that's what they say, at least. I have photographed people at the church and theatre. At tbe theatre I had a hard time on several occasions, but once I found that the man I wanted h'ad a front Beat, and I procured a position in the orchestra. There are w*ys of fixing these things, and I managed to get a picture distinct enough for recognition. lam also employed by artists to do perfectly legitimate work. Thus, the other day I was sent by an artist who had an order to paint a man's picture and wanted to get some photographs showing a perfectly natural expression. 1 followed the gentleman about all day. I took , him when he had a smile on his face, as he met a friend at the L station. I got a fresh plate and next took him as he read the ticker from the Stock Exchange. I got him again in the Astor House, and, in fact, I had live or six different views before night. Another kind of business I have is to take the photographs of people who won't have them takea willingly. You would be astonished to know how many people are superstitious about it. A. T. Stewart was one; never had hie picture taken that I know of. Of course, the relatives of these people want their picture, so they come to me and I manage to fix it for them. One lady told me tkat her husband never would have his picture taken, as he believed that it would change his luck. 1 took him, and the day she showed him the pictures he made over £10,000 in wheat. He was scared half to death when he saw them, and first he thought he had had them taken when he was under the influence of liquor, but he wasn't much of a drinking man, and was pretty well mixed up before his wife told him. So he got rich and she got her pictures. How much do we get? Well, this is a difficult line, and naturally we charge higher. 1 generally charge by the time. I had a curious job last week. A doctor up town wanted to show some insect—a water tiger I think he called it—in the act of swallowing. He had a machine that enlarged it, and I got about twenty negatives showing the tiger in the act of catching another bug."