The Russellville Democrat., 1889-07-18

hand at the business makes very little outcry, and takes it all as a matter of course.
 A woman was arrested not long ago in one of the dry-goods stores and taken up. stairs to the superintendent's desk; all the time she was talking some one at the op. posite side of the store noticed that she was taking goods out of her pockets and as fast us she did so she dropped them on the floor, and then tried to kick them under the desk, Whenever q shoplifter is caught she tries to drop the goods on the floor, so that when searched nothing can be found, and con sequently no arrest made.
 If a thief is one of a gang, she has no difl- culty in obtaining bail; in some cases the person arrested and bailed out has paid the sum, perhaps five hundred dollars, rather than appear in court. Two thousand dol lars was the bail fixed for woman who recently stole several rolls of silk. Nothing is too valuable, naturally, for these people to steal, and at the same time nothing is too small or trihing. Whenever their homes have been searched, articles of every conceivable description have been found. All is fish that comes to their nets.
 The organized gangs have their head quarters at some place down town. They go out by the dozens every day, and then report at night. Some of them when they start out on their days expedition go down to the ferries or to the Grand Central de- pot and station themselves there until they spy a victim--some lady possibly with a wen-filled pocket-book, who is bound on shopping expedition. This person is fol lowed from store to store until the pro fessional has either possessed herself of the pocket-book or found out that she has
 l.r.s wiles.
 As rule these people are not well dressed, for whatever money they may make in this way they spend insdrink and carousals. If they steal a dollar article and pawn it they seldom get over ten or fifteen cents for it. At the holidays all stores double their force ot detectives, or If they are not accustomed 10 employ onea any other season of the year they usually engage one or two then.
 Fully nineteen-twentieths of the shop filters are women. It is seldom that male shophfter attempts to ''work' a retail store alone, and the instances where women are assisted by men are not frequent. Male shoplifters operate mostly in wholesale stores They go in couples and generally drop into store soon after the porter has opened the doors, and while one of them engages the attention of the porter the other makes off with a package of goods.
 The usual pretext given by this class of thieves is that they have just come to town and thought they would stop on their way to their hotel" One of the men carries hand-sachel, into winch the stolen property, of course, finds it's way.
 Professional shoplifters were formerly in the habit of affecting the ''kleptomania dodge'' when detected, but since the store keepers have become so exacting in their demands for proofs of good character in such cases the thieves have abandoned that subterfuge and now depend upon their skill and luck to escape detection.
 The increasing experiences of the store keepers and the improved facilities for thief-catching have driven the bunglers out of this branch of the rogue's profession, and it is now an even match between sharp and experienced detectives and smart and ingenious thieves. There are plenty of evidences that "the smartand ingenioush thieves are numerous and that they operate in all the large retail stores with a fair average of success.