Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-04-13
THEY lEls IN SOCIETY .
STORIES TOLD BY NoN8EuEvERs IN
 KlEPToMANfA.

 Light Fingers In the Dressing Rooms of
 Fashionable Entertainers Unfair Ex-
 changes Which May Be Called Robbery.
 Old Things For New.
 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 klep- tomania, but I call it thieying, and something ought to be done about it.
 This is what the blond woman i'll the very smart bonnet said to her nearest neighbor ill blue, whereupon every other woman near the tea table cut short her conversation and held her cup i'll midair to hear what the discussion would bring forth.
 That do went on the blond em- phatically, and I've been stolen from repeatedly. No. my dear, won't take word of it back. and I am not speak ing hastily. h every instance 1t was I plain case of theft, and I've not up to date recovered single belonging. Why, of course if it had been grimy fingered sneak thief, or too enterprising house maid, I most naturally would have gone to the police and detectives for protec- tion and assistance, but 1t 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 a lift home ill her brougham, arrested and searched on suspicion.
 We'll, neverl' remarked the wom- all i'll blue.
 0h, that's just because you are |, dear, unsophisticated little creature, and out i'll your western town they don t do such things. The temptations are not so great, but 1 can assure you that here in our big cities, at regular intervals polite kleptomania is simply rampant and hardly big function breaks mp that half the women don't come away quite savage over the loss of some pretty and especially prized belonging" Evi- dently 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 an honest error, when we found our possessions exchanged for others less valuable or simply disappearing, un- til two or three times the offenders were caught right i'll the act, and then came the awfully dismal consciousness that really no one could be trusted
 My first experience was with very costly lace fan I carried to dinner. I 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 yinaigrette and fan, on the dressing ta- ble, and when l turned to get them again the fan was gone protested, the maid searched, but nothing came of it, and broken heartedly 1 went down, be- wailing my loss to q sympathizing fem mine 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 l saw, snug ill it's pocket, my pre-. cious fan. We'll, the next day l wrote her very frankly, asking for it's return, suggesting, of course, she had taken it 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, overshoes and what not that may be missing
 An, that is not my trouble, 1" chimed ill debutante across the tea table "The favorite plan is now to exchange bad for good things. I am growing almost philosophical over the deplorable shab- biness of my wardrobe from this con- stant swapping. Last week, on coming up late to the dressing room from a dance, found ill place of my brand new green suede carriage overshoes two overlarge, badly worn ones of rusty black velvet and my lace head scarf ex- changed for frayed one of soiled white chiffon. Naturally cross and sleepy, I 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 I rolled my new French galoches in my mackin- tosh, laid my card on top and put them in safe corner of the dressing room of house where 1 went to luncheon the other day. But it was of no avail. The galoches had been metamorphosed into a pair of muddy rubbers with holes i'll them when I went back, and didn't grumble, since my pretty umbrella was left The work of the spoiler goes on in the cloakrooms when big wedding re- captions, 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 cheeks for every woman s wrap,