Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-07-11

one OF the members OF the 1rm said they
would gladly pay ten thousand dollars an
nually to be insured against the pllferings
/ of shOplifters, professional and otherwise
The Sixth avenue shops are more troubled
with thieves than those in other parts OF
town. At one store the superintendent as
sured me that shOplifters were never al
lowed to enter, the detectives employed By
them being very successful in sporting
shoplifters at the first glance At an
J other store near by they do not employ q
! regular detective, but pay some of their ex
/ perienced statesmen a liberal salary fol-
watching the people that come and go, and
! to keep constant watch on suspicious char
/ acters.
One of the floor walkers said: IF we have
reason to suspect any person who comes II
here we follow her up closely, and do not
for one instant lose sight of her. The most
skillful shoplifters invariably travel il
! pairs, or, in detective parlance, one stalls
/ for the other. That IS, one of the thieves
! will undertake to engage the attention OF
! the clerk, while the other deity abstracts q
| piece of silk, a package of gloves, or a card
/ of lace from the counter. 1t is frequently
! the case that the confederates will not enter
a store together or exchange any percepti-
vocation. A well-dressed woman, of re-
/ spectacle appearance, will step up to the
/ lace counter, for instance, and ask to be
shown some fine lace embroideries. The
| clerk, mentally noting her well-to-do ap-
pearance thinks he sees chance of making
a good sale and is, consequently, very
Obliging. He finds his customer hard to
/ suit and places box upon box of choice goods
before her. Soon a second woman comes
up, and calmly ignoring the first customer
as women have way of doing-she de-
mands to see a peculiar kind of goods
which belongs to that particular depart
ment
The clerk pulls down something for her.
Itturns out to be the wrong article, and
leaving the first customer to contemplate
the extensive assortment of embroideries
before her, he endeavors to please the
second customer Immediately he finds
himself the victim of two exactIng and I'M
reasonable females, and, after showing
them large share of the goods in his de-
partment, he is mortified to see them walk
away, each one in a different direction,
without having bought dimes worth, and
he is subsequently mortified to find that
two or three cards of the most costly lace
have been stolen.
substituting an empty pocket-book for a
well-flled one is another dodge. A lady
lays her pocket-book on the counter while
she looks at some goods that have been
taken down for her inspection. In the
twinkling of an eye an empty purse has
been substituted for the plethoric one, and
the shoplifter betakes herself to another
store to repeat the operation"
Are the women who ply this trade well
dressed!'
''No, not as rule; if you would like to
get an idea OF their general appearance you
ought to go to police station and see the
'Rogues' Gallery"
Rather glad of pretext for seeing this
interesting collection of celebrities, l went
to one O. the police stations and had the
pleasure of seeing 1875 rogues, all in a row
not such bad looking lot, either, as
had expected to see. The shoplifters, who
were pointed out to me, were mostly wom-
en-; as rule they affect shawls or loose
sacks and jaunty hats. Some of the wo1E-
en- were not over twenty or Whereabouts,
but the majority were middle-aged, and,
from their appearance, had grown hard
ened in crime. Some of the men had been
decidedly averse to having their photo
graphs taken, and in some cases drawn
their faces into all sorts of contortions.
Where a man had absolutely refused to
look the camera squarely in the face po-
liceman had obligingly held up his head
for him; but with the women it was differ
emit Their pride in having their photo
graphs look as well as possible had over
ruled their desire for Disgusting their coun-
tenances. In one or two cases, however,
the less hardened of the wretches held their
heads bent over as far as they could, and
their eyes were closed This was possibly
the first time they had been asked to con-
tribute mementoes of themselves to the
Rogues' Gallery.
They have very little sense of shame,
however," remarked an officer, land they
seldom reform. A shOplifter once, shop
litter always. Now, this woman here, No.
=" he continued; ''she has been brought
up here three or four times, and there is no
telling how many times she has appeared
in other police courts"
The record accompanying each picture is
concise aud to the point:
Name, aliases, crime, nationality. age, color
of eyes, read, write.
\ young girl about twelve years old was
arrested in one of the stores yesterday and
brought here. When searched it was found
that she had innumerable pockets in her
skirts, which she had filled with a variety
of articles, gloves and handkerchiefs pre-
dominating
There is regular system of education in
vogue among shoplifters. There are nu-
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