St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-13
FRENCH KLEPTOMANIACS.
Wonaen of High Life Who Can't Help Steal
ing a Little.
PoriS Letter

II
Women of High Life Who Can't Help Steal
ing a Little.
Paris Letter.
Twas yesterday breakfasting with a deputy
who occupies high position in the chamber
as an orator. When wewere at table the bell
of the outer door rang, and presently the
servant brought in visiting card. We read
on it the title of lady of great social station
whose family name is closely associated with
the history of Brittany from remote period
up to the time of the revolution.
''Whst, asked my friend, lean a person
of such quality want with a republican like
me!" He made signs to the servant to say
that he was not at home, and then suddenly
changing his mind ran into the drawing
room into which she had been shown. At
the end of about half an hour he returned to
finish his dejeuner. ''Wen," inquired his
wife, II hope you have had pleasant time
to compensate you for your spoiled repast.
What pretext had the fine lady for coming to
| disturb you.' ga very painful one," He
answered; ''she was in tears and sobbing;
her distress has quite upset me-" lis she
young and pretty, that she was thus able to
move you!n
''No, she is Notwithstanding oldlady
Her object in calling on me was to get me to
use my influence to hush up an affair." which
if it transpires, will disgrace her family and
| be a cause of domestic misery. The wife OF
her only son was caught stealing the other
| day in the Louvre, and is in detention. She
| is a kleptomaniac. After she was arrested a
search was made i'll her house, and drawers
and presses were found stuffed with those
rubbishy articles which are placed on tables
! at the doors of large dry-goods stores to
tempt ladies to buy things which they really
do not want. She had enough to set up a
small storekeeper in trade, and had evident
! ly been collecting them Ito judge from the
fashions in which they were done up) for
nearly eleven years. Here and there among
them was an article of some value. But the
bulk of the stolen articles was of the most
trumpery quality.
''She was married in 1867, made a sensa-
| ton by her beauty, and has in her own right
a fortune which brings her in revenue Of
| about 200, 600 frances a year. Her husband
as we all know, is very wealthy and was a
royalist member of the Versailles Assembly.
| 1t was he who urged his mother to come and
implOre me to use my influence in behalf of
the thief. She is not interesting but the
| husband, although hate his politics, is not
| a bad fellow and the old lady appears to me
a most noble being. What she says is that
the giddy, racketing existence of a fashiona-
| BILE woman broke down early the nerves of
| daughter in-law, and that she took TO NOR
| phine to soothe her irritability. Its effect on
her was to deprive her of the powerto discern
! between right and wrong, and, in short, to
obliterate moral sense. The only one of her
original virtues that she retained was gener-
osity. She was always giving away money
to poor people, and the dowager showed me
a pile of letters written to her by persons
whose distresses she had relieved.
''When she first began to steal she used to
90 to tell her cOnfessor of her weakness. She
was ultimately sent to a hydropathic estab-
tishment, where she remained for some time.
| When she came back she threw herself into
fashionable designations. The nerves again
broke down, and morphine was resorted to.
But she did not feel that she was in any dan
ger of relapsing into kleptomania. One day
however, she went to the Louvre dry doods
stores to pick up bargains which were adYcr-
tised in the journals. When there she saw
| a lady who was examining lace scarfs at the
counter, and who, when the shopman turned
his back, took one and stuffed it away under
| her circular mantle. The eyes Of the thief
and those of the new conner met. The for
mer stared at her and kept on purloining
while the latter, who was seized with lit of
violent trembling, rapidly and as if facinated
by her followed her example and thrust lace
cravats into her pocket and muff. She went
home and sat up the whole night admiring
her plumber and arranging it into bows and
Il l-eItn
undid all her nocturnal work and carefully
folded and put away the cravats. She found
that she was seized with an uncomfortable
desire to shoplift, and went on for years I'M
detected. She renounced going to confess
sion, but to lull suspicion used to pretend she
still discharged her customary religious du-
ties and had changed her confessor. AT
night she uses to be in a state of terror be-
cause pursued with fear of detection. Good
resolutions were made, and for some time
kept The sight of one of the stolen articles
always revived the mania, and out she would
go to pilfer.
''In her last shoplifting expedition she
purchased three remnants Of ribbon marked
| so confines each. A number OF persons
were looking at her as she took them from a
table and walked off. When stepping into her
| carriage she was arrested A shOpman,
placing his hand on her shoulder, said: You
are a thief, madame.' yes, monsieur she
quietly replied, L am, and have been one
this long time. l can't be anything else
On being taken before the police commissary
she betrayed no emotion. 1 daresay she will
be released when it is shown to what extent
she is irresponsible, and that she will be
placed again under hydropathic treatment.
There was an eminent doctor present as
this consequence of fashionable dissipation
was being related. He said that "there is
hardly lady who shines in society whose
nerves are not either broken down or in a
way to break down" In his opinion all civil
lized states are suffering from what he calls
the modern neurose, but most particularly
the wealthy classes, and of them the women.
Our nervous systems, grew up, he said, in
quiet, jog-trot times, and were quite unpre-
pared for the feverish excitement and racket
which steam locomotion, electric telegraphy
and the great development of the press have
occasioned.
The Steed COatLdS See.
Detroit Free Press.