The morning call., 1894-08-18
THEY TOOK COIN.
Stealing Which Covered a
Years Time. 81. j.
CONSPIRACY OF CLERKS.
The FIoor-WaIker Was in on
the Game. -.
SIX CONFESSED THEIR ACTS.
A Discovery That Has Brought Con-
sternation to the Firm of "
VIII s. FinCk. :"

this summary action of the management
has been going on quietly for the pasttwo
months, and may later lead to the arrest
of several Of the guilty ones. If they are
not all arrested il will be because three of
them are women. The names of the clerks
whose systematiZed plumber has enriched
them more or less at the expense Of their
employers are Z. 4. Darrin of sol Post
street, Sam Barwan of S07 Golden Gate
avenue, T. Smith of sol Larkin, j. Rich
ardson of sos Ellis, Jack Simpson of 6
Metcalf place, w 2. Cressy of 40. Ellis.
Miss Alice White of 214 Leavenworth,
Miss Ida Leary of 603 Ellis. and Mrs. Har-
ris of 1920 Mission.
According to the confessions of these
their stealing has been going on from
last Christmas, and has averaged 81 a day
for each, so that the aggregate amount
that has been diverted from the Golfers of
the firm must reach into the thousands.
At their own showing of ST day the six
clerks named must have taken nearly
$4,000 in the period they have been at
work. While the firms have only the
word of the guilty ones TO 60 by they can
not as yet determine whether the stealings
were not great deal more than the aver
age mentioned. Six other clerks will be
discharged this week on suspicion of hav-
icy been implicated in the affair. and
others have already been engaged To take
their places. Some tWenty-siX clerks are
engaged in the downtown store. and as half
of them have been engaged in the defraud-
ingOf their employers some idea can be
gained of the extent of the operations and
the amount that may have been taken.
was first awakened two months ago.
About that time it was noticed in the art
department that more picture frames were
going out than were accounted for on the
! books. A rigid examination failed to. re-
veal the cause of this strange state of af-
- fairs and, after having exhausted their
means Of inquiry, the MANAGEMENT turned
the matter over to Harry Morse; who de-
tailed Captain Jules Callundan to work up
the case. The first move was. to place
three detectives at work in the store as.
clerks. After few weeks. quiet applica-
ton the cause Of the discrepancies in the
frame. business was discovered. Then
customers we're sent in. with marked
money to make purchases, In the last
month forty-fouT people were sent in to
buy different articles. from. hats to pic
ture-frames In tb at one month fromthe
:; forty-four people: the entefprising clerks
: obtained no less than $40 fer themselves.
The method employed was. SO simple as to.
invite criticism Of the lax supervision of
the firms affairs: A customer would buy
two pictures, paying say s. for. them. The
clerk waited until the customer left the
store, marked dewnS3 and poeketed the
remaining 50. r.. - r.. q. III III.
The flo0r-walkef. F. Smith, was: in with
the gang He made his money in various
ways. II a customer. bought Sc athing
worth 50 and came back and exchanged it
for an article wert1 <S4 the Aoorwalker
simply marked Exchanged Q Il on the
check, left the price as. it was and pocketed
the differance of So. If there was any dis
pute with any one of the clerks who were
lin" with the gang Mr.. Smith Was very
accommodating. He. would go K?:: the
check and send it upstairs. From all
accounts the most active and enterprislng
of the clerks was Miss Ida Leary.i Her
last scientific :aetwas to take in S5for. two
pictures and never even enter the sale,
and next day. So 80 went the same: way.
= At first Miss Leary was inclined I'd den
the accusations, but when confronted with
the. confession Of Smith and others. she
broke down and admitted she had been
REGULATING, but claimed that the ST SO was
the largest. amount she had ever taken. :
Smith was the first man TO whom the
news was broken that he had been found
out: This was on Wednesday night. The
foQr-Walker at O'Clock was requested tC
step down to the detective agency ant
explain things. :. He WAS closely questioned
for an hour, and finally broke down EN-
tirely and: confessed to the whole sys
tematic stealing. Visits were made TO: thu
houses of The other people: implicated
: Miss Leary's rooms atSOS Ellis street were
.found to be nicely decorated with picture.
the frames of. which she claimed were
given her by clerk of Sciiossler, The
Grant-avenue picture man. She was con
fr0nted with 15-vear-old messenger boy
who. in sisted that he: had taken an onyy
table out to Miss Leary's place: She de
MED this. but the boy sticks to his story
Mrs. Harris has sad tale behind her &C
tions. Her husband is out of work, anC
with tears in her eyes she claimed that he
necessities drove her to do what she did
Sam Barman, it is said. was to have beer
married in two weeks time:
According to the stories told by TIL
clerks, they get into the way of peculatini
by being asked by others already in IL
why don't you get in and make. SOM
money!. Itdidn't take them long to fol
low the advice so freely given as the ex
pose Of the last few days shows. Some o
them claim they only took some monel
now and again when they wanted it. Th
amount taken at one. time only furnished
ground for petty larceny charges and it i
doubtful if the firm VIII push many of tn
cases to extremes. "A meeting Of the mem
bers will be necessary before anYt hing cal
: he done. Some action will probably b
taken to-day to make an example of som
of the clerks. Smith, the floor walker, is
married man and SO is Richardson.
w. T. Litgins. the secretary of the firm
is much worked up over the. state 20
affairs disclosed by the detective in vest
CATION ana will discharge every clerk +
whom the slightest suspicion attaches. ]
is probable from this that there will be
marked increase in the profits of the firm
at the Market-Street store.
'Ths beats anything have ever seen,
said Cantain CallIndan- when seen yester
day. II have had some experience wit
" clerks, but never ran against such
Wholesale business as this. Here's
: marked IS gold piece l got back from on
of them. We've been a little over