The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-10-26
A KLePTomAnlAc DUCHESS.
Speculation Rife In EngIand ~ TO Hes
Identity.

Identity.
Speculation Is rife in London as to
the identity of the English duchess
who. according to the annual police
reports of the French government just
published. has been arrested during
the last twelve months in one of the
great Partisan emporiums for shoplitt-
ing, quantities of stolen articles being
discovered about her person
Her grace was subjected TO the In
dignity of arrest and search by the po-
lice and to the even still more intolera-
BILE ignominy of detention for forty
eight hours at the depot. or central pc-
lice station, among tho crowds Of
drunk and-disorderlies and criminals
of every description who axe assembled
there previous TO being brought before
the magistrates
The duchess was with great difficulty
extricated from this disagreeable sit
uation through the Intervention Of
Lord Duferin, the British ambassador,
and only after the payment of fine OF
devoted to the relief of the Partisan
poor.
The Partisan police, with the gal.
lantry that belongs TO their race. have
had the commepdable consideration Ia
abstain from mentioning her grace's
name in their published report Un-
fortunately, however, the number of
English duchesses is exceedingly small.
There are not more than twenty OF
them altogether. and they are such
important personages that their migrs-
ton to and fro on the continent arc
considered worthy of mention in the
newspapers. English and foreign.
Now there are only few Of thu
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. ladies who
crossed the continent to Paris last
year, hence there are about three
among whom the titled shoplifter
must be-
People are inclined to ascribe the
identity of the kleptomsniac duchess
10 lady twice widowed, a commoner
by birth, but married into a ducal
house.
II is well known that last year some
thing happened which suddenly caused
this until then frivolous lady To en-
tirely change her mode of life and TO
become very penitent. her days now
being spent in fasting. prayer and in
the endeavor 10 do good TO the poor.
Moreover. she has abandoned Paris,
once her fsvorite residence. Presum-
ably IL was the arrest and forty-cigbt
hours in the police depot that effected
this radical transformation
Yet her grace may console herself
with the knowledge that she is by 20
means the only lady of rank afflicted
rested while engaged In shoplifting. |
The daughter OF a reigning prince in !
Germany and some Russian princesses
were detected some eight months aga
purloining small articles in a Paris /
shop and were only let 20 after paying 1
heavy fines
Kieptomsnia IL a form Of insanity /
far commoner among the bigh-bcra |
and delicateiy-nprtured classes than /
people realize. and inasmuch a. Paris
Is the headquarters Of everything Ia
the shape Of feminine elegance and A.
ticles of one kind and another calca-
lated 10 tempt the purse and the \
wishes OF the fair orc, u Is only nat
uraI that those afflicted with this /
moral silment Of kieptonsnia should 4
find Il impossible 20 sSppress II on tk. 4
banks Of the Seine Consequently the
foreign embassies a. Paris are pat TO a 4
good deal q troaSie ia sxir!catiog
their couatry-wonen from serapes Of
the kind in which the EzgiisA dscheks
above referred 20 involved herselE-
Chicago Record