The Opelousas courier., 1886-06-19
A THIEF DETECTOR.
One Mans Employment in
a New York Store.
A Private Detective who Mingles with
the Throng of Shoppers.

uofCA ldEily through tuc CHIoHS VI ollop-
pcrs in an uptown dry goods establish
ment the other day. She viewed with
Indifference the great variety of objects
exposed for sale, and chatted gayly with
a young and stylish dressed companion,
casting naughty looks of displeasure at
the more vulger shoppers whenever, as
frequently happened they were rude
enough to jostle against her. A hand
some Japanese leather shopping satchel
swung from her left arm, and in a harder
jostle than any she had yet received, the
spring snapped and the satchel swung
open. Inside lay a purse, some loose
greenbacks, and odd change temptingly
exposed to view. The fair owner con-
tinued her elegant walk utterly oblivious
of the danger threatening her purse.
A stylish young fellew who had been
darting hither and thither in the throng
suddenly rested his eyes on the open
satchel. They twinkled for a moment,
and then he became very earnest and ap-
parently very anxious to reach the street.
lie forced his way up to the satchel, dex-
terously hid it from view, and slyly stole
his hand into its depths. He was about
to withdraw it again, when he met with
a sudden and unexpected shock. A
stout, heavily built man, with his over
coat buttoned up to the ears, who had
been moving slowly with the crowd, APP
| parently Indifferent to everything and
everybody, had suddenly taken a violent
interest in the dapper young man, and it
was his hand which had arrested the
thief just as he had started to remove
purse and money from the open satchel.
The young lady turned around with o
slight scream, much disturbed, and there
was q connection in the immediate
neighborhood.
"Keep your satchel closed, Madam"
remarked the stout man calmly, and be-
fore she had recovered from her fright he
had disappeared with the thief in his
custody.
A reporter for the San, who had
watched the foregoing, followed the two
men into a private office at one end of
the second story.
81 should think that you would know
enough to keep out of here" said the
stout man angrily to the thief.
The latter laughed carelessly and sub
mitted to being searched without a MUIR
muir. o.
"What's the Odds" he returned with a
grin.
"The bosses won't have us arrested, SO
we run no risks. Once in a while we
strike a duffer when you're off ~gallivant-
ing with the daisies. That was a pretty
lay you spoiled just now, though" he
added regretfuily. "Won't you come
out and have something's"
mot just now,n replied the stout man
ironically, "but I'll see that you get out"
81 am the house detective" he said a
little later, after having conducted his
charge out of a side door. II have been
a detective nearly all my life, and l owe
my present place to the fact that l know
by sight every professional thief and
pickpocket in the country. l get a large
salary for doing nothing but walk up and
down through the store all day, and am
entirely my own master. have several
assistants also, but | am responsible for
all. If a pocketbook is lost, an article
taken from a counter, or a clerk knocks
down, | am held to answer, so that | am
obliged to keep my eyes wide open all
the time.
"People are very careless. A dozen
times at least every day / have to warn
ladies that their shopping satchels are
open, or that they have laid their purses
on the counter while examining goods.
sit is a rule of this house to avoid pub
licity as much as possible in the matter
of arrests. If | find a thief, even in the
act of stealing, ] simply take away his
booty, search him carefully for other
stolen goods and then put him out. If
find him in the crowd, wen when he is
not plying his trade, I search him just
the same and put him out. use no dis
guise. The thieves know me and I know
them. They submit to search rather
than arrest, and in that way we keep
from the public the fact that thieves fire.
quent this place. There is no doubt that
they do come here in large numbers as
well as to every other large store. Some
of the biggest criminals in the country
have been in this store. They frequent
the art stores very much, for there they
have a chance to make rich and unsus-
pecting acquaintance.
"Besides watching for thieves from
outside, ] have to keep my eyes on the
employees. | am supposed to know what
they all do, inside and out of the store,
from the superintendent down to the
scrub woman. If the superintendent is a
drinking man or the cash girl eats more
candy than her wages would pay for, the
firm wants to know it. If the young
clerk there spends his nights going
around town, / am expected to keep my
eye on him. ! take orders from no one