Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1897-07-15

"Oh, give it any name you like-bor-
rowing other peoples belongings and
failing ever to return them, mistaken
identity as TO special possessions or KEEP
tomania, but | call it thieving, and
something ought to be done about it."
This is what the blond woman in the
very smart bonnet said to her nearest
neighbor in blue, whereupon every other
woman near the tea table cut short her
conversation and held her cup in midair
to hear what the discussion would bring
forth.
THAT l do, went ON the blond en-
p~hatically, land I've been stolen from
repeatedly. No. my dear, I won't take
a word of it back, and I am not speak
ing hastily. In every instance it was a
plain case of theft, and I've not up to
date recovered a single belonging. Why,
OF course if it had been a grimy fingered
sneak thief, or a too enterprising house
maid, I most naturally would have gone
to the police and detectives for protec-
ton and assistance, but it is not quite
so easy to have an individual who wears
the best French gloves, whose bonnets
come from an expensive importer and
who sometimes asks you to share her
opera box, receive at her teas or take q
lift home in her brougham, arrested and
searched on suspicion"
well, I never!" remarked the wom-
an in blue.
"Oh, that's just because you are a
dear, unsophisticated little creature,
and out in your western town they don't
do such things. The temptations are not
so great, but I can assure you that here
In our big cities, at regular intervals,
polite kleptomania is simply rampant,
and hardly a big function breaks up
that half the women don't come away
quite savage over the loss of some pretty
and especially priced belonging" Evil
IDENTIFY the blond was right, for all the
other women nodded assent, and the
hostess was apparently breathless to tell
of some personal grievance ON this score,
when the first speaker broke in again:
"You see" she elaborated, I'VE used
to think it might have been the servants
fault, or All honest error, when we found
our possessions exchanged for others
less valuable or simply disappearing, I'M
til two or three times the offenders were
caught right in the act, and their came
the awfully dismal consciousness that
really no one could be trusted.
my first experience was with a very
costly lace fan / carried to a dinner. !
held on to it most affectionately through
out the evening, until some half dozen
of us went up to the hostess bedroom
for our wraps. There / laid it, with my
vinaigrette and fan, on the dressing ia
BILE, and when l turned to get them
again the fan was gone. protested, the
maid searched, but nothing came of it,
and broken heartedly / went down, be-
wailing my loss to a sympathizing fem
mime companion. We went out to our
respective carriages together, but as the
butler opened the hall door a puff Of
wind blew her long cloak aside, and
there / saw, snug in its pocket, my pre-
cious fan. Well, the next day / wrote
her very frankly, asking for its return,
suggesting, Of course, she had taken ii
by mistake, and home it came. But we
have never spoken since.
"That taught me to look for higher
offenders than maids in dressing rooms,
who are usually accused of making way
with all wraps, umbrellas, oyershoes
and what not that may be missing"
"Ah, that is not my trouble, "phimed
i'm q debutante across the tea table "The
favorite plan is now to exchange bad
for good things. / am growing almost
philosophical over the deplorable shah
biness of my wardrobe from this con.
slant swapping. Last week, on coming
up late to the dressing room from a
dance, / found in place of my brand
new green suede carriage overshoes two
overlarge, badly worn ones OF rusty
black velvet and my lace head scarf exr
changed for a frayed n of soiled white
chiffon. Naturally cross and sleepy, !
fell on the tired maid, who wept and
denied, but looked as if she could tell a
tale.
'Only to make a test case of it / rolled
my new French galoches in my mackin'
tosh, laid my card on top and put them
in q safe corner Of the dressing room OF
q house where / went to luncheon tho
other day. But it was Of no avail. The
galoches had been metamorphosed into
a pair of muddy rubbers with holes in
them when I went back, and / didn't
grumble, since my pretty umbrella was
left. The work Of the spoiler goes on in
the c~loakrooms when big wedding re-
ceptions, teas, musicales and private
balls are in progress.
"At one of the big dances of the sea
son the hostess simply ordered her maid
to issue checks for every woman's wrap,
and, charming to relate, not SO much as
a bairpin was lost, for at her daughters
wedding reception, only a week before,
three NUTS got away somehow without
their rightful owners, and the possesscr
of a $500 sable hand warmer found q
scrubby old astrakhan n in its place.
THAT is where the fashionable KEEP
tomaniacs salve their consciences by an
exchange, yen see, for rarely ii anything
taken that some inferior article y not