Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1897-03-26
WOMEN AS THIEVES.
4 QUESTION now IN THE REALM ar
SCIENTIFIC DISCUSSION. it,

, A QUESTION now IN THE REALM o
, SCIENTIFIC DISCUSSION. *,
Women Steal Much LesS Frequently Tha
Men Do-DiRercnces In the Impulse
} Which Actuate the Two-Frequcntly ID
Woman Steals Under Mans Influencs
The British Medical journal affirm,
that cases OF stealing by women who ar
more or less klcptonaniacs have becOm
of late so numerous and so distressing thu
1t might be expedient to employ specia
deterrents, such rs visible policemen Il
tho shops which princi u ly invite thi
kind of scmidcliriols action. Our contem
porary, after reflection, however, dismiss
es this suggestion as impracticable, til,
shopkeeper who rcsortcd to it being nearl,
certain to lose all custom, and W., rather
doubt, from the police records, whether thu
Offenso is increasing us much rs the writer
fancics. Every form Of interesting Grim,
seems to increase nowadays because it /,
more commented USs Women of a certain
kind have always been addicted to shop
lifting, and their inclination has always
attracted attention, partly from, its ex
tremc Inconvenience to shOpkeepers, whose
very business cOmpcls them to expose theil
! goods to this risk, and PARTLY, we imagine
| because men arc SO accustomed to trust il
the honesty of women that this particular
alteration from their usual habits excites
sense Of surprise. Women have much
less opportunity Of stealing than men, as
they could hardly take to burglary, high!
! way robbery or the work of the footpad,
women, we notice, being rarely accused
even of snatching jewels or purses from
other women, though they can approach
them so closely. They are, besides, we feel
sure, moro honest. They feel tho tempta-
ton of money less alsd tho sense of its i'm
portance and of their own trusteeship in
regard to it much more. So
That is the universal opinion of the CON
tincnt, where women are implicitly trust
ed with the till, and we notice that the
practice is spreading here, so that charge
of the cash receipts of shops is becoming
one Of the most frequent of female e,nploy-
mcnts If they would get up their arith-
metic little more perfectly and be a little
less irritable when overhurried-men un-
der such circumstances display silent OBJ
Gtinacy rather than irritation-they might
M
greatly to their own relief, for the occupa-
tion suits them, and to that of the men.
who suffer both in health and spirits from
confinement in little glass boxes where,
they can hardly stretch themselves and
from an occupation which, though most
respectable, allows no scope for energy or
for the cxertion of physical strength. sst
There are bold female swindlers, but
fhf,Vy 1IV,, NIL I,,,
pacity for histrionics. The charges of en-
bezzlcment alleged against women are ex-
traordinarily few, while their honesty as
when they must often be griev-
ously tempted, is really marvellous. The
ordinary well to do housemistress takes no
more precautions against her maids thiev-
Ing propensities than against her daugh-
ters' and If she is shrew dilates upon ev-
cry fault possible except this one. Nine
hines out of ten when q maid steals it Is
under the influence of some man outside,
: remark which experienced policemen say
Is true even Of the street girls, who are so |
charged with the of1ense. Wom-
IN, In faot, steal much less frequently than
men do. .4.-,-.t,' -" ...-.t. Sc ri
The fact, as contrasted with the other
net mentioned by our medical contelnpo-
o neutrality-suspicious. an inquiryof some
Intellectual interest. Is it possible that the
minus furendi, as the lawyers call it., the
otuM motive for stealing, differs In the
exes In kind rs we'll as In degreep We
ave an idea that this may be truB and
hat the wo1nan's desire to thieve is:ex
tied by wish to possess the visible arti-
le stolen, while tho mans is aroused by
WI fou %h0 ~ Al,r II
which the article stolen will purchase. He
eeks money, in fact, while she seeks
hings. Only an old and experienced re.
eiver Of stolen goods could answer the
question with any exactness as regards the
hieving classes, but among the educated;
his Is almost certainly the case.
Educated men EN- bez2le, forge and swim:
le often enough, and ilNleed it takes some
ducation to be successful In those lines Of
illainy, hut they arc rarely convicted Of
hoplifting, while that Is the special Of
onse of educated women who take to this:
description Of crime. The latter very rare.
2 forge, which is remarkable, for, beinA
,ss controlled by commercial opinion,
hey undoubtedly attach, less opprobrium,
D this form Of crime than men do, while
1ey are quite as competent to commits
AGoIACSj OAO VAACy OshO tuAuEoOAOOA
ne reason being that the things attract
hem more than the abstract wish for
honey does We do not mean that they are
by kleptomania moro than men
re. There is such an impulse, and it is
strong in both sexes, as all
len know who are familiar with ships,
arracks, clubs or public schools, but it is.
OF ungovernable-the belts of the soldiers;
ovorn it very effectually-and it is con-
antly pleaded where it does not exist. !,
rue madness which takes that form, !
,ough it exists, is rare and is usually &C.
by other recognizable signs. s
But we fancy that with some women
,ere is q distinct pleasure in acquiring: :
lings without paying for them, in part
dependent of their money value, to-
hich there is nothing corresponding in
Re minds of males. There is something
the spirit Of adventure in the effort as
ell as greed and something, too, of that
and indeed inexplicable idea