Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-07
THE TOPICAL TALKER.
Umbrellas Not ProDerty-A Cool Thief, In
City Theater-ColIections OF Slippers

Umbrellas Not ProDerry-A Cool Then In n
City Theater-ColIectious of slippers
How Some slippers Were Put on sale.
| WHO owns an umbrellaF Not always its
owner Thou shalt not steal does ,o+
apply to umbrellas. A man who would scorn
TO steal cent. or even more if he had tho
chance, is not proof against the seductions Of
MS ne1ghbor's umbrella. But it is not of nm
Dreila stealing in general that have some.
thlng TO say; single instance merely.
| AT matinee in one of the city theaters re-
Gently young lady, with gold-topped um-
Dreiia, occupied seat in the front row. Beside
her sat q lady, who also possessed an umbrella
AT the conclusion of the performance both
Travelled up the aisle until near the door, and
the lady nrst mentioned discovered she had no
| umbrella. She retraced her steps at once and
| returning to her seat found no trace Of the
missing umbrella The attaches of the house
VINO were picking up the programmes said they
had not seen it So the fair owner
of the missing gold-topped umbrella
started for the street. When she
reached the lobby 1t suddenly occurred TO
her that her neighbor in the front row of
the parquet besides wearing a aremarkabl bon
net with pink flowers in it, had attempted to
engage her in conversation, and had been alto
gether too familiar and friendly. This thought
hastened her toward the street. and her eager
progression caused the matinee loungers in the
lobby to imagine that she was out of her senses
A T the corner of the street she overlook the
pink bonnet and the young woman who
wore it. The latter had a beau on one side
and an umbrella in her right hand. 1t was not
the umbrella. The expedition in search of a
gold-topped umbrella was about to be aban-
doned, the chief of the expedition had turned
I,ar ro1ao ipad fI,ot fba
bonneted female held close TO her cloak another
umbrella-The Umbrella!
"Give me that umbrellaI' was all she said,
and the face under the pink bonnet grew GRIM
son as the stolen property was restored without
murmur.
This incident happened few days ago. Now
what should like to know is, how came an ap-
parenty respectable girl-for all her pink bon
net, she seemed above the criminal classic
deliberately steal that umbrella? There is space
for her reply in this column.
PEoPLE collect postage stamps, horseshoes,
coins books-I once knew man who col
lected relics of murderers, knives, guns, re-
volvers razors mallets-stones, diamonds and
shells-why not slippers?
A collection of slippers never came into my
head till a married man whose friendship
enjoy showed me one that he had made during
some 80 or 40 years. How many pair he had
forget; several dozen know. There were all
Sorts Some were finely embroiGered-nearly
all of them showed ornamenration at feminine
hands. He is-well, there is no need to identI-
fly the man. Probably you can guess his call
ing.
A NYHow he did not do what another man. of
whom have heard tell, did to the scandal
of all his friends. For this man, who was a ter
rife fellow with the girls, no less than seven
fair creatures manufactured pairs of slippers,
all delicious things of embroidery. ribbons and
velvet, and presented them to the lucky favorite
at Christmas.
This was an embarrassment of riches, and the
wretched man having picked out the finest
pair for his own use, quietly placed the remain
ing six pairs of slippers in the show window of
a drygoods store downtown for sale. And they
fetched fancy prices, am told.