The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-08-14
THE BRIGANps oF SOCIETY,".

Society is full of complaints at the present moment with regards to losses of an unpleasant character, There is certain kind of lady whom we all know who appears to be unable to thorough ly enjoy herself without leaving little mementos of her presence in the vari
 ous houses to which she goes. She will drop valuable diamonds in or about the palace in honor of state balls and drawing rooms which she has attended. Stars, brooches and other ornaments, valuable old lace and costly fans, ci- garette cases and match boxes of prec- ious metals and stones, or perhaps merely her card case, her list of en- agreements, handkerchief, gloves, or fan--all serve in turn to form a trail by which she turns the ordinary flat pro- cession through society into a kind of paper chase. This sort of thing is common. We are all used to it-used to the worry and heat of looking for the lost article in vague places which the owner will sometimes locate as some wher between Birmingham and the opera house, with dress at fire escape mansions and dinner at the Hotel Transcendentai; used to the advertis- ing, the interviews at Scotland Yard, and the loud lamentations Of the be-
 reaved.
 The specially dfsagreeable side, how ever. of these adventures, which seems to bcome more prominent year by year, is the increasing certainty that when | jewels or yaluables are lost fin socie- +,,t hn of fba eternal character that has enshrouded Hans Breitmann's "barty." The irre- sistible conclusion seems to be that there are large number of well dress | ed people to whom the distinction be- | tween meum ard tuum is represented
 only by the opportunity for convey | ing' the latter successfully; while in 1 the matter of stray and valuable jew | elry some ladies" have no more con- | science than is enough to induce them 1 to restore the pilfered property when
 threatened with unkind proceedings be- | fore magistrate. "Kleptomania" is
 the usual cry for the defense, but the | disease which causes lady to pick up
 a diamond ornament Of a costly na- l ture which she discovers lying on the | floor at a friends house, to conceal it about her, to deny that she has done
 so, and eventually to surrender 1t when
 she is informed that she was seen to
 do it and that proceedings will be taken | if she does not bears very strong re- l semblance to crime Or, again, when if
 is conclusively proved that a lady has
 been in the habit of going about from | hn11Gn In rryith q N VIC n Q
 for the tedious formality of an invita-
 ton, but invariably signifying her thorough approval of some piece of
 property belonging to her involuntary
 hosts by quetly annexing it, the plea of ''kleptomania" is altogether too slim to hide the striking similarity of her line
 of conduct to that of a professional
 shoplifter or sneak thief"
 The brigands of society do not array
 themselves in Tyrolese hats and band | ages with trimming of pistols and
 daggers. Neither do they stop elderly
 ladies( as yet) on the way to the opera
 and demand their diamonds or their de-
 struction. Nor are they hunted with | guns and dogs across black Hamp- | stead's swarthy moor' or over Barnes | Common. On the contrary, their fa-
 vorite wear is silk and velvet and lace
 Diamonds often glisten on the front ot their dress, and the front of their hair is, as a rule, as false as are the smiles | and kisses which they will lavish or their unconscious victim. They are to
 be found mingling on the most inti- mate terms in what is known as the
 best" society. When any article o1
 value is missed, suspicion passes over them lightly until the fatal moment ar
 rives when luck or opportunity fails to
 serve them to the full, and they arc
 seen in the very act of annexing the l property. The coolness with whicf this is occasionally done may be judg-
 ed from the fact that on one occasion
 0 lady calmly exchanged fans as they were lying on the cloak room table | leaving common paper arrangement i and taking away a very handsome and costly fabric of feathers and tortoise
 shell before the very eyes of the owner The latter had the disagreeable task oi
 pursuing the aggressor up to the draw
 ing rooms and taxing her openly witl having carried off the booty, which the