This essay examines the impact of James Greenwood's "A Night in a Workhouse by an Amateur Casual" (1866) on the emergence of investigative journalism. Whereas the American press is often credited with the invention of undercover reporting, this essay argues that Greenwood's exposé established undercover reporting as a global genre and exerted a lasting influence on both its terminology and methods. The appeal of Victorian undercover reporting lay as much in the exposure of social ills as in readers' identification with the incognito persona of the investigator. Styling themselves "Amateur Beggar," "Amateur Tramp," "Lady Amateur Casual," and the like, Greenwood's imitators offered newspaper audiences the vicarious experience of extreme suffering and degradation. This performative dimension structured even the impersonations of avowedly conservative investigators such as Thomas Carlisle, whose series "The Unprofessional Vagabond" (1873) explored the lives of crossing sweepers, street musicians, and blackface performers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]