Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-03-29
The FALL OF a kLEpToMAfllkc
Tempting Counter Array. That Deaden
housekeeping and Despairing

Tempting Counter Arrays That Deaden
housekeeping and Despairing
There are generally but two classes of
shoplifters-the regular criminal pro-
e. nal and the kleptomaniac. The
very poor classes seldom Jake a hand in
t. Poverty is held by the world to be
Tie badge OF crime, and the poor slattern
or trollop who enters a store is sure to be
SO carefully watched that larceny is next
to impossible. The shoplifter is always
q person of fair apparel, and she gener-
ally has a pleasant home. IF She be a
professional she may be one of a criminal
community and her home may be shared
by some other engaged in equally evil
ways. Ii she be a kleptomaniac-and in
'nop-lifting the word has peculiar sig
n~ificance--she is possibly a woman
whose life in other respects is exemplary.
at does seem strange that a wife and
mother whose home is an honest one,
who attends religious services regularly,
md who seems far removed from the
world of crime, should be SO carried
lway by her admiration of some trinket
Or knickknack as to risk home, honor.
everything to secure it.
But the annals of metropolitan Of
lenses are full of instances of Just this
Kind. 1t is the sex's fondness for finery
chat nine times out of ten gets them into
trouble. A woman who has left a home
happy and well provided for goes shop
1ing. She buys the necessary articles
'he first started to procure after a good
deal of selecting and chaffering. Then
she has time to look about her, and goes
counter gazing. That is the fatal mo-
ment. Some taking article-it may
only be a ~trihe-catches her eye and alb
serbs her. She has already spent the
contents of her purse, and she can not
honestly possess 1t. But the object every
moment gains new fascination. She
must have it. Then comes the tempta-
Jon. 1t is SO exposed. There is no one
about. 1t would be such a. simple thing
70 take it and conceal it. Conscience
stif1ed by cupidity is dormant, and the
ust of possession is all that possesses
her.
a moment more and the article is I'M
der her cloak, and all of a tremble she is
edging away, half frightened, half re-
gretful yet wholly swayed by the secur-
ing of the moments idol. Then comes
detection. Everything about her rises
70 betray her-her frightened glance, her
~sneaking attitude, the closer clutch she
has upon her cloak. She ia accosted,
questioned, and then every thought of
acme, family and the disgrace that
threatens rises before her, and she sum
mons all the pluck there is in her poor,
huttering neart and denies.
Fatuous soul! She forgets that the
sanctity which a moment since sur
rounded her as an honest woman is now
stripped from her. She is searched. The
stolen articles are found upon her, and
she stands there dropping and despairing
IA proven thief.
Every year, repeated over and over
again, is this sad scene produced. Klep-
tomania is a byword applied to heaven
Knows how many forms of crime. But
among the shoppers of New York there
are more ome who have had a passion
or larceny bred in them tilan perhaps
anywhere else in the world.--New York
Herald.