merest child's spelling-book beside these
prodigious alphabets. Page after page contained
nothing but William Browns and George
Greens; and, as for the Smiths, I thought
the man would never leave off turning the
pages of Smiths over. There were upwards
of five hundred John Smiths, more than three
hundred William Smiths, a host of George
Smiths, to say nothing of Alfred Smiths,
Benjamin Smiths, Charles Smiths, David
Smiths, Edward Smiths, Francis Smiths,
Henry Smiths, and armies of more Smiths
whose Christian names were initialed by
every other letter in the alphabet. Then
came the Smiths with a difference (a good
many of them aliases) such as Smithes,
Smyths, and Smythes. I felt quite bewildered
amidst all this crowd of names, and was at
once impressed with the wonderful power of
this one man by the aid of his enormous
books.

He need not have told me that those
indices were never removed from their tables;
for, not only was there no room on any shelf
to receive them, but I could see no machinery
by which such masses of hide and paper
could be lifted to any distance: as to the
clerks attempting to shift any of them, that
was simply absurd. I could but wonder what
would become of them in the event of a fire,
and began to reckon how many of Pickford's
largest waggons would have been required to
remove them at two tons to the load.

In the strange excitement of the moment I
entirely forgot the business which brought me
to his office; and, absorbed in the bewilderment
of ledgers, gazettes, and police reports,
I followed my informant to another part of
the room. He paused before a deep, well-
filled recess to point out to me a complete set of
the Imperial Gazettes, beginning with the
first number as printed at Oxford during the
Great Plague. Further on were perfect sets
of all the Post Office, London and Provincial
Directories that had ever been published.
Every city in the United Kingdom that
publishes a periodical list of its inhabitants, was
there represented; as well as many of the
Continental capitals. On several tables at
the remote end of the room beyond the
abandoned old orchestra, were ranged books
more enormous than any I had yet seen;
voluminous monstrosities. They were old
newspapers strongly bound, and used as
day-books of a peculiar description for a
particular purpose. On the right hand side of
each of the wide leaves of these volumes was
pasted, day by day, every police case involving
a fraud on a tradesman, or a mal-practice
connected in any way with trade. The
immense collection I saw there was a proof
of the enormous extent of current swindling
even in these day of vigilant police.

To satisfy my curiosity, Mr. Perry pointed
out, on the face of each of these cases, a
number, which indicated the volume and folio
where every one of them was posted up
into his criminal ledger, with as much
regularity as a banker's cash-book. And here
he begged me to observe that, although it
formed his duty to obtain and classify
information throughout the country regarding
trading and other defaulters for the purpose
of protecting the interests of commerce; yet
a very large number of those who came under
his notice were persons of irreproachable
character. It was his chief object to classify all
bankrupts and insolvents; and, by keeping
a record of the honest and the dishonest
bankrupts, to put the fair dealer on his guard
against the one, and, when in his power, to
befriend and maintain the character of the
other.

I was anxious to see and understand how
all this could be accomplished with such
a mass of crude materials, and with the
certainty of which he spoke. Mr. Perry
explained. Opening one of the many volumes
before me—number one hundred and thirty-
seven, only—I there saw regiments of columns
of various widths ruled from one side to the
other. These columns were a complete key
to each person's character and career. His
name and residence at different times; the
various years in which he had become
bankrupt or insolvent; the amount of
dividend, if any, and if all of each dividend
had been paid; the class of certificate
granted, if any; the particulars of any fraud
with which he may have been connected,
referred to by a mark of direction to the exact
page in the Criminal Ledger, and thence to
the Police Case Book; with any fictitious
names by which he may have been known.
He had that day, he said, put a tradesman
on his guard against a reckless character,
who, had thrice made very unsuccessful
appearances in the Court of Bankruptcy;
having paid somewhere in the provinces—
but one dividend of ninepence in the pound;
and who had, at Colchester, seven years ago,
made away with his creditors' property, and
appropriated the proceeds to his own unlawful
purposes. The man was now at Glasgow
at his old tricks; but Mr. Perry's faithful
records warned his Scotch subscriber of the
character of his customer in time to save him
a heavy loss.

This reminded me of my own affair; and,
without further delay, I gave my guide
comforter and friend all the particulars; the
name, address, professed business, amount of
order, name and address of reference, and
some other items of intelligence respecting
our jewelled and fumigated patron. Away
went the Recorder like a very vigilant cat
after a mouse; scratching, and burrowing,
and tumbling, and tossing, and ticking of
endless indexes, ledgers, day-books, gazettes,
Criminal Ledgers, and Police Books. These
researches were made with such a bright
pair of spectacles, that in a few minutes my
attention was directed to the whole history
of our customer drawn up in one long line