The Baltimore County union., 1883-02-10
SOME KLEPToMANIAcs.
CAieago Herald.

~ pOlCCtldl III Il tOy.SuOp. Two OH
guard in fancy crockery store. The
same number on duty in glove empo-
rum. Seventeen private detectivesmak-
ing their rounds on the notion floor OF
a single retail dry-goods store, while
thirty-two ofthose sentinels have patrol
cd another dress goods establishment
during the last month. The question,
"What are they hired for ?" necessarily
presents itself. Nobody sees to these
places but ladies, yet the truth must be
told, and the ladies must be watched.
Floor-walkers are paid for doing that
work, ordinarily, but the crowds have
been great during the holiday season,
and the shop lifting proportionately
large, so that extra help had TO be en-
gagged.
"Oh, yes we watch the ladies'; they're
not at all angels, by any means. The
regular 'lighi-fngers,' who make pro-
fession Of petty thieving, we hand over
to the city police. But there is another
class, Of which ! think few people are
aware. You know, OF course all news.
paper people know, that everybody is
hobby.horsical. One runs wild on DAT.
fodilS another on rubber skates one
fellow prescribes 4 magnetic appliance
for every all and ache Of body and soul
some have comets on the brain another
extracts sunshine, Theoretically, from
cucumber seeds quite as readily as his
neighbor, who fails to comprehend the
indifference ofthe public toward phone
tic spelling. Now, women folks don't
care for such lore. They 90 in for
something more. tangible than comets,
stray sunbeams and redundant spelling.
These are the kind Of things they run
mad on" and the clerk pointed to
counter full Of ladies' handbags, reti.
oules, portcmonnaies and pocket books.
"Wc have one customer, the wife of
la Sale street lawyer, who is perfect
monumaniac on re;icules. She has an
aversion to seeing them lying around.
She canno; visit the counter without
appropria,ing one. Her plan of opera
tion is this: She picks up two or three
OF one kind, asks the price, and shortly
after requests the clerk to show her
some article displayed on the line over
the counter. While thus engaged she
has time TO slip one of the bags under
her seal dolman, where she hangs il to
her chaielaine. She is one of our very
best customers, and we allow her to de-
ceive herself by carrying off the bag"
"When the bills, which are made ou,
every four months, are sent home. We
charge the stolen reticules TO sundries.
This item has been as high as S.7 at
one time.
alt is difficult to say wha, disposition
she makes of the bags. as | have never
seen her carry one. Probably she gives
them away as presents, or sells them to
cloihes-venders. But, although this is
the most remarkable, we have several
others cases. She is no trouble we
know her weakness and give her no fur
,her attention after she leaves the leather
counter. But the lady who steals pro-
miscuously is 4 source of endless trouble
and annoyance. She steals for the pleas
ure of TIE thing, and not because she
cares especially for the articles. The
chronic thief goes all over the store
and steals any thing that she can con-
ceal about her cloak. Cheap jewelry,
a box OF hairpins, handkerchiefs, laces.
fans. belts and bundled ike small
notions are slowed away in the front or
sleeves OF her dress. have known one
TO steal dozen children's lace collars.
At another visit she took bunch of en-.
broidered ties, worth $50, and showed
them up under the basque of her dress.
This same lady will pick up box OF
linen handkerchiefs or stockings. and il
she thinks she is not being watched
will carry them off with the utmost
complacency."
The clerk informed the reporter that
this lady always makes objections to
the extra items, but pays the bill with
of Warren avenue. Her husband does
large wholesale business, and she is
never s,inied in her allowance.
Another case WAS reported by clerk
in a downtown dry goods house. The
destructive habit OF one large buyer led
to the adoption of the expression, 1.-TWO
ten, which was used in \. I. Stewart 5
house for years, and cautions the clerks
to keep two eyes on ten fingers. The
lady for whose benefit this laconic sign
has been revived amuses herself by ex-
amining laces, curtains, kid gloves and
satins, which she mutilates by tearing,
crumbling and pulling. She works
havoc with fine hall edging by running
her fingers through the meshes of the
pattern she tries the kid gloves on SO
thoroughly As to split them down the
front or dislocatc the fingers. She is a
lady of fine social standing, her husband
is good for rs many debts As she con-
tracts, and. in view OF these facts, she
is permitted to indulge her peculiar
taste.
BY AND BY.