Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-10-26

Busy Season for the Store Sleuths
Coming Now.
AN EXPERT TELLS WHAT SHE KNOWS
Holiday Times Make Criminals of
Some.
TIL E OTHER VARIETIES
'ecial Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

special Correspondence OF The Evening Star
| NEW YORK, October 25, 1901.
| The busy season for us sleuths' will
| soon begin," remarked the black-haired,
| piack-eyed little woman of thirty, seated
on stool in front Of counter in one of
the big Broadway department stores.
Sne didn't look anything like ones pre-
conceived notions of a female detective.
sne was pretty and plump and had laugh
ing race She was dressed exactly like
the saieswoman behind the counters. She
even mad pencil saucily poked into her
pack hair. There was a plain gold band
enc1rcling the third finger of her left hand
her husband is Pinkerton and she has
sieuthed' In department stores for years
because she likes to be busy. She might
easily have been taken-as she intended to
De taken-as head of one of the stores
multitudinous departments as she swung
ABOUT on the revolving stool and chatted
IN a low tone about some of the character
istlcs OF the great army Of appropriations"
Holiday shopping begins in New York
.n the 10Th of November she said,
and 1t is while the holiday shopping is IN
progress that We do the most toward earn
ing our annual wage Now, in az humble
way and In connection with my own trade,
M theoriSt: l am convinced that the
holiday shopping business makes shoplifters
OF most OF the women who become addicted
TO the habit of thieying in the big stores
l 40 not speak of the professionals, of
course. They comprise a select class and
only small one, of the great body of New
YORK shoplifters. They go into the thing
with deliberation and malice aforethought,
MAKE a business of 1t, study 1t under the
tuteidse OF top-notch shoplifters and stand
ready to take the consequences of being
| caught But the bulk of the women who
steal from the counters of the big stores
are not professionals in any sense of the
WOrQ. In6y don't belong RI ri,
Grass. and few If any of them have any
criminal antecedents. The professionals
carry their loot as soon as they get it to
the fences. The occasional thief steals
what she wants to use or wear herself or
what she wants to give away in the form
OF presents. l am convinced that most of
tnese non-professional shoplifters get into
the hablt of stealing from the counters
Whlle engaged in holiday shopping Find
ing that their resources for present making
are so limited that they haven't half
counters loaded down with just the articles
that strike their fancy for presents aud
rendered nervous or desperate at the
thought of having to neglect this, that or
the other one in the distribution of holiday
gear, they Yield to the temptation, seeing
how easy It looks to lift the things they
want. If they are collared the first time
,ne lesson generally lasts them through
ire, ana they never again attempt to crib
what doesn't belong to them But if thew
succeed in their first stealing venture. as,
OF course, owing TO the jammed condition
OF OF the stores during the holidays many of
them do, they are in bad way They be-
come hushea over the success of their in
itial job; they lu1f their consciences with
the reflection that the great stores can
easily afford to lose the few articles that
they crib, and they try it again. And they
keep on at 1t until, they are caught They
are always caught. of course in the long
run. When even the professionals are in
evitably nabbed While executing the most
scientific schemes of theft, what chance has
the amateur and occasional shoplifter? And
SO the occasional one, every time she feels
that she needs something which she hasn't
the means to purchase, falls into the prac-
tice OF just taking it. In time she becomes
as confirmed store thief as the profess
sional. the only difference being as L say,
that the professional steals for money
profit while the professional cribs for
her own adornment or for the purpose of
making presents of her articles of loot.
Lacking the professionals finish in the fine
art of shoplifting, and becoming greedier
with each successful achievement in theft
she PUSHES on to her first nabbing with
pit1able velocity, but, lacking also the pro-
fessional's poise and hardness. she colIapses
completely upon her first detection, and the
ordeal through which she is put in nine
cases out of ten. cures her of thievery for
the balance of her days That's one re-
deeming feature about the non-professjona1
anyway-she quits after one dose of detec-
ton; the professional never stops for She
or he-needs the money
II have found that many of the non-pro-
fessionals whom | have caught in the act
of stealing have been more or less under
the influence of drink at the time They
had been indulging too freely in cocktails
as preliminaries to their luncheons or had
used wine too literally in combination with
their reflections. The average woman, in
my opinion, is nearly twice as reckless IN
der the influence of alcoholic stimulants as
the average man. and thus these over-tn-
dulging women, few of whom would per-
haps ever dream of doing such q thing
with all of their senses about them, have
been led to attempt to steal The shop
lifting work of woman in such a con-
dition is naturally coarse, and her at
tempts at thieving are discovered by the
saleswomen as often as not. woman who
is manifestly under the influence OF liquor
when caught in the act of shopift.ny Is
rarely punished if her attempt mas been so
clumsy as to make it obvious that her con-
dition alone caused her to mike it; but she
is put. through a mighty SOLDERING process