The Russellville Democrat., 1889-07-18

one of the members of the firm said they would gladly pay ten thousand dollars an nually to be insured against the offerings 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 "spotting'' shoplifters at the first glance. At an. other store near by they do not employ regular detective, but pay some of their ex. perienced salesmen liberal salary for watching the people that come and go, and to keep constant watch on suspicious char. acters.
 One of the walkers said ''If we have reason to suspect any person who comes in here we follow her up closely, and do not for one instant lose sight of her. The most slillful shoplifters invariably travel in pairs, or, in detective parlance, one stalls for the other. That IS, one of the thieves will undertake to engage the attention ot the clerk, while the other deftly abstracts piece of silk, package of gloves, or card of lace from the counter. It is frequently the case that the confederates will not enter a store together or exchange any percepti. ble signs of recognition while plying their vocation. A well-dressed woman, of re- spectable 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 obhging. He finds his customer hard to suit and places box upon box of choice goods before her. Soon second woman comes ,tf, nd Ool Ivy ret --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 It turns 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 exactlng and un- 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-filed 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 dressedln
 ''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, went to one of the police stations and had the pleasure of seeing 1875 rogues, all in row mot such q bad looking lot, either, as 1 had expected to see. The shoplifters, who were pointed out to me, were mostly wom- en; as a rule they affect shawls or loose sacks and jaunty hats. Some of the wom- 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 q 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 ent. Their pride in having their photo- graphs look as well as possible had over ruled their desire for disguising their coun- tenances. In one or two cases, however, the less hardenedo 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 liter 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.
 A young girl about twelve years old was arrested in one of the stores yesterday and brought here. When searched 1t was found that she had inuumerable 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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