The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-07-04
KLEPTOMANIACs. :]E!, |'.][' Il
PEOPLE WHO STEAL FROM
NECESSITY OR CHOICE.
An Agency Projected Which Will
Protect Merchants From Their
: Depredations - Respectable
Women ShopIifters, Etc.

tsWhy is it that so many persons pre-
fer stealing to making an honest hving2"
asked a Washington Star reporter of a
detective the other day.
s'There are various reasons, replied
the detective ''Some persons steal be-
cause they can't help it; others because
they find it easier than working, while
others steal simply because they have an
opportunity. There are some persons
who steal thousands Of dollars worth of
property before they are caught. Often
they are ladies, the wives of respectable
citizens, who would never for g moment
be suspected of anything wrong. Some
of them, as I said before, do it simply
because they have an opportunity.
Others commit these thefts because they
like to dress we'll and fashionably, and
are not allowed enough money for that
purpose by their husbands. Such
women always dress we'll and usually
have enough money to spend for ordi-
nary wearing apparel, but not enough to
keen pace with the fashions. They
usually confine their operations to three
or four stores. They will do their shop
ping in such few stores that their pur-
chases at each amounts to considerable
in year. They become acquainted
with the proprietors and clerks Of
the stores, and are regarded 30
highly by them that they are
given full sway, and can go about the
stores without ever being watched or
suspected, and even if they acted sus-
piciously no notice would be taken OF
them. In this way they manageto Sc
cure considerable property. They are
not always satisfied with robbing the
stores, but will sometimes pick up a
stray purse, carelessly placed on the
counter by another customer, who Is
making some purchases, or who is being
fitted to cloak ortrying on 9 bonnet.
Then when the purse is missed, COM
plant is made, but she, OF course, is not
suspected. The only other persons
about are the clerks, upon whom sus-
picion rests, and sometimes such clerks
are closely watched and sometimes dis
charged and the suspicion hangs to them
forever afterward. i. There is another
class of persons" continued the detect
tive, "who need considerable watching.
Young men who are employed as clerks
in the stores at salaries ranging from S3
to $40 per week. They are frequently
from fifteen to5twenty years old. After
hours, when the time Is their own, they
frequently fall into bad company and
bad habits soon follow. They have to
pay board at home, and after that amount
Is taken out of their weeks earnings
they have but very little left. With
that small sum they cannot hire buggies,
put up champagne and go about like 9TH
ers, and the consequence is they soon be-
gin to knock down. ~
ssTo avoid so much Of this class Of
stealing" he said, sT think 1t would be
q good plan for the merchants to organize
sort of protective agency or society,
and have in their employ detectives who
would watch the scores Of clerks after
business hours, and note the habits Of
each. Monthly reports of their conduct
could be made and the merchants would
then be able to know or at least have an
idea of how the clerks conducted them.
selves while not attending to business.
Take a case for instance where q clerk
receiving small salary would visit
saloons and other places where he would
spend money freely, and spend more in
a night or two than he actually earned in
week, his employer would certainly
know that there was something wrong
and could then take special notice Of the
particular individual.
s.Another class of persons who steal
are porters. They usually open the store
in the morning, and there is ample op-
portunity for them to wrap. up bundles
and secrete them in the celler or other
convenient places, and when they start
out to deliver goods they carry the plum
der with them. Sometimes a.porter in a
dry goods house will cut silk dress
pattern and pin it to the lining OF his
coat. He can then put his coat, on and
walk out of the store undiscovered.
Then there are some persons who steal
on account of poverty. Such persons,
however, are few, and their thefts
amount to but little. J.
ga great amount of stealing done re-
suits from the carelessness Of persons IN
EMPLOYING servants" continued the de-
tective. ."Householders frequently en-
ploy servants who come as perfect
strangers, without any recommendation,
unless it be the recommendation OF some
unknown person, which any person can
pet from some one. They receive their
pay and leave, and, if they ask it, will
often be given recommendation. Be-
fore such servant has been gone any
length Of time a theft has been dlscov-
cred and the police are called in to in.
vestlgate the case.
.'There is another class of persons who
steal for nothing else than to get money
for the purchase of whisky. This class
of persons travel about in the guise OF
tramp and go from door to door asking
for something to eat. There are very
few persons who will refuse such hungry
looking individuals something to eat.
and will either invite them In or tell
them to wait ut the door until they
return. In the former case they usually
manage to pick up some trifiing ornament
which will get them drink, and in the
latter case they will step in and clean the
hatrack, and when the charitable persons
return they have disappeared:
'sThen there are persons who have dis
honest sons. From time to time they
miss pieces of silverware or clothing, and
the servant is suspected. The unsus-
pected member of the family continues
his systematic robberies untllthe matter
is reported to the police, and an investi-
cation follows. The officer soon learns
the place frequented by the son, and
when it is shown beyond doubt that