Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-07-27
EVENING STAR.
@ ENTEEL THIEVES


English periodical, giving ,ne expe rie,.,e or a
London shorfeeper, aud will b, peruses with
interest BY those engaged IL thc retail trade
as many - them ksve doubtless met with an
experience simila= t. that of - writer Of h.
! narrative:
W GEN'EEL THiEvEs.-DY JsHS BRowS
! snoPkEER-i am a shopkeeper, standing be-
Lilu snop-cou aieT, where L have stood for
more than thirty-fV" yeafs. From ifty 20 a
.iuhuTea Thousand people pass my shop every
Hay oi .ne week, except Sunday, and from ore
! lunored To three hundred come into i N ,Le
| course of the fifteen hours that II stands omen
ana IL Is my business to do the best can ,yitE
| mem III Is OF ho Consequence to the r,.d.-r
that he should know what I sell. or what I
d1n sell, and he need lock for no revelations
ot mat KIND. L am goms to give him the
| oehen. OF my experience and the experience +
an unfortunate iricGd os mind, now no morv,
| with regard to ficuity with which shop,
AeePer; sooner or later, Is sure 10 have to deal
| ana which ne must deal with somehow. and
| Shoutd Know, as man Of business how 10
manage prudentiy and economically.
| "hen hrst began life behind the counter.
pesah 10 study human character from that
advantageous standpoint Chat, think ia the
"oid) which the position of shopkeer affords
! nin. The hypocrisy which cloaks a man, or a
woman either, when he or she comes to market.
! Is put OF thin, transparent kind, and is apt
10 fall on and disappear in the process of driy
! IS oargaln. III Is surprising what an in
slSht of the true cha acter and disposition of
| regular customer one gets by SURVIVING hin,
constantly with the necessa aries or the luSuries
| oi hie in exchange for his mency. [ doubt if
! any father contessor ever gets the gauge Of his
penltents SO correctly as does the butcher the
| Hsh nonger, the wine merchant, who have the
! care OF that other conscience the stomach-or
(
| adorn his outer busk
| Ii men and women-kind in general knew
themselves but half as well as their trades
men and shopkeepers knew them, thew would
spare us VINO stand inside of the counter an
| ih1Inlte deal of trouble and themselves some
| expense; but that is a kind Of knowledge
"nlch lew people pick up till late In life and
most people never. They never think that we
sec tnem as they are-that We take their moral
measure, SO 10 speak, to a nicety: and still less
40 tney think how little time it REQ uires for an
cid ha0d, like myself, for instance t. reckon
mem up But we do II, nevertheless with a
much correctness in most cases az we toJt up n
Ptee IN the led5er-aua we must do it, or we
saocic ne deceived t. cur loss ottener than We
are, which Is great deal too often. The fact
tS' we see more uf tho human face, at the mo-
ment when the least gOdiike and l. ast Inagnsn-
imous OF the owners propeasties ere actiye
'han any other class of mea ever see this
=,
DC pIockheads lndueI Ii we could aUt learn
nom an ever open page to read its writteu Ia
suage- Nhom TO tTust-aud 70 whom 10 re-
iuse credit when credit is deInaaded-tbis !,
the principal difficulty we have ~ s,ive.
Without being phrenoiogists, we are able t.
read mat riddle to.crably woil-it least l ;an
~ ak f1r myself. L don't lose much hy D. d
debts, and when man cheat. me, I sivav.
:eei Inclined to blame myself more than him.
because ought to have known better than, 10
put IL IN his power to dc IL There are other
difficulties, however, besides this; and the one
10 which L am going to call atteLtio., is that
difficulty with which Mr. Moule has been
idtely halnpered: ana which he ha- managed
50 lmprudei:tly in the case of that yirtuJus
Mrs. Rdmsbotham who stole his pocket hand
kerchlcIs, and who wasn't and couldn't in the
nature VI things a;d in the nature of the Brit
L law and Of British jury, be punished for
th2 theft
Let nc say something, then, about Lady
Thieves, and inform Mr.. Moule and Mr. Eve
rylldy Else, how L have learned T., handle
th,t sort Of business. When L first opened
shop, knew nrthing about it-aHd never be-
slowed thought upon IL; and WHEN yu. 8 sy [
saw a gent: el-loOking girl drop her oau,h.ic
handkerchief upon article which / usually
Ia for = guinea, and taking both up togeth-
er' convey them 10 Ii" pocket, | seized her
unceremOniOusly, hauled hor tito my it'll,
back room, ruI : the bel. for the maid, lad
Aei searched, found the article upon her, sent
Ter Bow street Officer, (there were no police
men tEen,) and gave her into custody. What
"a fool was, to-be-sure 1t happened that
hes father was a clergyman, backed by high
connections, ard looking forward 10 be a bishon
before long. He baiied her out in no time
came down upon me with charge of conspira-
cy, and threats of transportation for life-bs,ic-
cred my servlng-wenoh out Of her wits first
hi1lself, and then set a hatchet-faced fellow to
cross-examine her, who drove her clean be-
wlldered-more TOOL tor letting him do il:
but knew better then. I saw il would
never do TO take the case 10 trial with such a
witness, and, by Jove, she saved me the trou-
be by boiling away before the day Of trial
came. L was obliged to withdraw the charge,
aad pretend that II was all a mistake The
clergyman talked Of prosecuting me for con-
spiracy; but he had some conscience and only
talked; the girl, had no doubt, confessed the
theft to him. As it Was, l got the reputation
Of a monster, and only recovered my charac-
ter by acknowledging that / must have been
drunk at the time and did not know what |
was about-I, who was never drunk in my |
life
That affair cost me fifty pounds in cash, and |
damaged my connection to the extent Of at |
least two hundreds pounds more. / should |
have been ruined, but the parSon got his bish- |
oprick, and left my neighb0rhood; L put a new |
name on my sign-bOard, and in time the event |
was forgotten.
/ had learned valuable lesson The next |
lady-thief who favored me with a visit, did |
me the honor TO rob me to the amount Of two /
pounds-ten. She did it 80 clumsily that L |
could not avoid seeing her. l affected not to
notice it; smilingly took her order to the
amount Of few shillings and, when sent
home the goods, put the stolen article down Ia
the bill. She called next day, and with the
utmost afability informed me of the mistake
had made in charging an article viii b
had not sent, and which she had not order
ed. She brought her companion with her
to prove that the article charged was not ia
the packet of goods sent-which of course 1
knew well enough. / admitted ''the mistake
with perfect good humor, and she went away.
1t will be acknowledged that had Learned
my lesson weIl-but though / congratulated
myself on that score i thought the teaching |