The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-21
DISTINGUISHED sHoPL1FrERs.
Washington Women Who Indulge in the
Eccentricities of Kleptomania.

Eccentricities of KIeptomania.
Washington Letter.
To hear talk of the wives of army officers,
heads of government bureaus or even congress
men being caught at shopliftiug is quite aston
ishing, not to say painful Yet thu store-keeperS
of Washington tell me stories in this line which
are very curious, to say the least. 'There are
women in the very highest walks of life in this
city said one of them recently, who ara
practical shoplifters They say it is disease
when they are caught. but l don't believe that.
One woman l caught stealing some lace, how
ever, swore that it was affection that she
could not control, and offered to bring her fami
~ physician to prove it. But don't put any
faith in it They have propensity to steal and
they do it rather than buy. Some of these
women are from the first families in the city;
have wealth, and would pay cut almost any
amount of money to avoid exposure, yet they
will steal, and we have to forbid them the store
Some of them are very clever
thieves. Then, too we get to know
their ways so well that we recognize
them very readily When a woman is very To-
quacious and affable, and keeps her eyes watch
fully on yours while talking, averting them oc
casionally to take hasty glance at the articles
about her, she's person to be watched. 1t
don't make any difference how handsomely
she's dressed, or who's wife she is, we have to
keep an eye on her OF course we never let
them know we suspect them, but it's seldom
they get away with anything when once we've
marked them thus. When we once catch them
them, and having settled the thing upon them,
we make them pay for what they took and warn
them never to come in the store again. | sup
pose there great many whom we never
catch But our girls are trained to be quick
and clever, and they are not apt to let anyone
get ahead of them. A very stylishly dressed
lady-the wife of an army officer-came in here
the other day She had every mark of lady
about her, and was the last person in the world
you would suspect of being shop-lifter. But
she had not been i'll the store long looking over a
pile of fine collars when a girl gave
me a sign and told me that customer
had something in her pocket that she had
not bought. Before we could secure her she got
out of the store, but we followed her close with
out attracting her attention, and she went into
the store next door, and, taking the collar out of
her pocket, pretended she wanted to match IT,
then asked the clerk to wrap it up. Just then
she was told that she was wanted in here, and
she returned without protest, but before doing
so she slipped the collar over to her maid, who
in here, and she paid for the collar. after receiv-
ing lecture and being warned not TO come into
the store again. She is woman of high social
position, but is probably pretty we'll known by
the merchants in the city by this time. There
are any number of just such cases. though, of
course, the majority of shop-lifters are profess
SIGNALS. One woman who is pretty well known
to us now (she lives in fine house, stole pair
of stockings The sales girl saw her tuck them
up under her basque, and invited her up stairs,
and on the way she tried to throw them away.
There are lots of these cases.