Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-11-03
ACUTE KLEPTOMANIA.
PecuIiarities of Wealthy Persons Who
 Persistently Filler.

PecuIiarities of Wealthy Persons Who PersistentIy Pilfer-
 The Cincinnati Enquirer in recent | issue says: "A private carriage drawn
 by fine pair of horses stopped ID front ! of prominet dry goods house one after noon last week, and pOrtly, we'll dressed lady, perhaps fifty years of age, | ahghted. As she entered the store the | clerks riyeted their eyes upon her, as | dld also the hOOr-walker whom she ! passed at the door. The lady walked to | the rear of the store and asked to see
 some ostrich feathers. After handling | the goods laid before her for some little time, she turned and left without mak- ing purchase. Particular notice was paid to the visitor, because she was known to be Q kleptomanlac. Less than a week before she was in the same store, and after her departure silk dress-pat tenn was missed. Her carriage was fol- lowed by a clerk and caught up with,
 and the missing silk was discovered ly-
 ing upon the seat alongside of the lady,
 who said that she did not know 1t was there. The silk was taken back to the
 store, and that was the last of the case.
 IL was 2ne of that kind where the shop
 people had no desire to prosecute. The
 lady had not taken the goods with the
 intention of stealing them. She was
 simply attacked by the strange mania.
 She had no good cause to steal. Her
 husband is well off, and can pay for
 anything she wants. On other Occa-
 siuns when she succeeded in getting away with the goods and carried them home, her husband paid for them and nothing further was said.
 {" The case Is but one of many, said one of the proprietOrs cf the store O the reporter Still the kleptOmgEsacs seem tO be thinning out ID this city and vicinity during the past few years. We formerly had great deal of trouble with kleptomaniacs, and professional rickpockets escaped punishment by In- troducing evidence that they, too, were possessed of the mania. It Is something I never could understand, and | always notice that kleptomanIacs are women who are well off Four years ago over StOOO worth of goods were missed in our store inside of ten months, and l haven't the least Idea but that the class of women I speak of took a big portion of them, and were not detected. l sup pose you remember the last case made public by the arrest of the lady. l felt some for her husband He wanted to make good tho article taken, but the storekeeper wouldn't believe there was such a thing as kleptomania.
 "Ihe wife of well-to-do merchant possessed of the mania was in the habit Cf going into very prominent estab- Hshment and helping herself to what article she wanted without interference from the proprietor or employees. Not word was said, but an account of every thlng was taken and bill sent Co her husband at the last of the month. When her husband showed her the bill she could tell whether or not lt was cor rect to every item. Any number of sim liar cases could be cited. One of the most celebrated women of the kind, not many years ago, was the wife of an ec- centric minister now dead. Many of the older class of citizens will remember her dOings. Not long ago wealthy down town merchant, residing in an aristO- cratic suburb, obtained for his son pO- sition in a leading dry goods house. Soon it was discovered that the young man was stealing goods every day and taking them out and selling them. He was taken into a room and locked up, as is the custom of the store m question, and his father came to the front and paid for all he had stolen, and the mat ter was not made public. It was always believed that the young man was simply possessed of mama for taking things, and did not steal with any criminal in- tsrat"