The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1872-01-04
Polite Thieves.

Ii you have any curiosity on the sub
iect, step into dry goods store and ask
the merchant or clerk. "Do thieves ever
come in here?" Nine times out of ten he
will answer, "Why, yes that's our great
est trouble" So merchant answered
our reporter, and then proceeded to ex-
plain what he meant. In law there are on
lv two grades of thieves-the big thieves
and the petty-larceny ones. Outside OF
law there are several grades of thieves,
and the worst ones to guard against are
criminals with white fingers, the ones who
.'shop" for two hours without purchasing
fifty cents worth of goods.
Take an instance which occurred IN a
Northumberland store some time ago.
A lady called in and asked to be shown
some velvet and some laces, and the clerk
soon laid large stock before her. She
turned over the goods, held chem up to
the light, viewed them over and over, and
finally went away without making any
purchases. She had scarcely closed the
door when cash boy informed the clerk
that he saw the lady pocket two pieces OF
velvet trimming and a lace collar, and an
examination showed that he was right.
But the matter ended right there, or 1t
went no further than to report the occur
renee to the proprietor. tie had hun
bred reasons why he should not arrest the
lady, or charge her with the theft, the
most prominent being that she was reg
ular customer at the store, sometimes buy
ing a bin of goods amounting to two or
three hundred dollars.
1t is a fact, of which all people are
n ptp nd ba ola rl, a
iuyariable on the watch to detect these
"kleptomaniacs. but ian arrest seldom
follows a detection. nor is there word to
give thief a suspicion that she has been
discovered. Suppose that lady sits down
to the counter and has the space before
her piled up with valuable notions she
has asked to see. Be she ever so sly. she
can seldom pocket an article without
some one seeing her. But no one says a
wold, and she goes out, feeling that she
has escaped with her booty without any
one being the wiser Next time she comes
in The clerk will be Just as polite and Just
o. prompt, but she will find that he does
not hand pown the goods as before, mere
ly handing down one box at time, and
if convenient another clerk will stand
near him, and give the lady to understand
that he has nothing to DO but to keep
watch on her. She has a feeling that
they are watching her, but yet she doubts
if they suspect the former theft, and so is
too prudent to commit another offence.
A few days ago a merchant, standing
at his desk, saw a woman roll up two
costly lace wells, and secretly work them
under her cloak. having called the clerk 5
attention to the top shelves for a moment
that he might not see her. The merchant
knew her we'll as good customer, but
vet he did not want to lose the costly
property. Therefore, when she had fin
ished her trading, he approached her and
insisted that She should take look at
some new dress goods, and after that
some cloakings, and then finally asked
her opinion of some cloaks ready made,
and thus kept the victim in the store for a
half-hour, meanwhile giving the history
OF a clerk who had been discharged from
the store short time before toI stealing
goods. I'VE always detect every theft,
no matter how SMALL" he added, and then
excused himself and returned TO the desk
The lady went back to a pile of dress
goods, hauled them over a little, and then
departed The merchant went to the
pile and found the two wells crushed in
between some of the folds Of the cloth,
The easiest thing in a store to steal is 4
pair Of gloves. \ lady is not content
with seeing ten pairs, and sometimes not
with seeing fifty She must have the
whole stock down, and with her own
gloves pulled down of the hands ID the
finger Joints, she has two little pockets