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

! before she is turned loose-a process that
mas frequently the effect of soaring such We
men out of their drinking habits for good
ana all. Some of the professional women
snopiffters, aware Of the immunity which
Is generally accorded the intoxicated wo-
man VINO is caught stealing in a store, try
the game of Stimulating intoXication when
they are eorralied; but 1t won't do Even
II they are not known as professionals the
hlgh-grade character of their work easily
proves that they know all about It. so that
their skillful attempts at playing intoxicat-
ed when under the hands of the searcher
don't wash
Their Crafty Ways.
The professionals have devised several
pretty crafty tricks during the past two or
| three years. One Of these is known as the
| inside game. A young woman naturally
dishonest and with her penchant for thiev-
cry cultivated by environment and train
ing would get employment in one of the
big stores in department the goods OF
| which are worth while-silver ana gold
mounted toilet articles, say, or in the imita-
ton jewelry department, where the goods
for all their being limitations, are often
OF considerable value, or in the department
of silks. Then she'd just turn the outfit
over to her accomplices on the outside.
Shed make 1t easy for them to take every
thing in sight and screen them while they
made their footing good. She'd never take
anything herself, of course, and, likely
as not, she'd often pretend to the floor de-
tective to be exceedingly SOLICITORS as to
raids by shoplifters. She would conduct
herself with extreme sedateness and pro-
priety and when she had permitted her de-
partment to be pretty well cleared out by
her outside pals she'd simply fail to report
for duty any more. It's always pretty
difficult to prove anything in case like
his, but it has been done, all the same
There a men
in the department of toilet articles IN this
establishment about this time last year.
She was fine saleswoman, and The amount
of Solicitude she expressed to me about the
safety of the valuable articls ia her charge
and lying exposed on the cases was a eau
ton. She didn't come back to work any
more after Christmas, and when the invnn-
tory was taken, about two weeks later, it
was found that the department in which
she had been employed was shy more than
$4,000 worth of goods. OF course, the girl
| who had failed to come back and who had
| given no oral written reason for not
coming back was immediately suspected,
and after about a week or so she was cap
| tured, together with two of her pals whom
| she was visiting. Her companions were
| found to be well-known filters whose por-
| traits adorn the Mulberry street gallery,
| ticle department was found i'll their posses
sion they were sent away. We failed to
| make out a case against the girl who had
acted as saleswoman, but we did ma our
| in Baltimore, and the Baltimore police
| came and got her. When the possibilities
of the inside game are considered Ii seems
| odd that the references of young women
APPLYING for work in the department stores
| are not more carefully Investigated than
| they are.
Bundle Finders.
"Another comparatively new class of pro-
| fessional shoplifters is composed of women
| thieves who make a speciality of picking up
the bundles laid down on counters by other
| women. These are the very hardest lifters
to detect or to deal with after detection.
The litter will spot a prosperous-looking
woman who is engaged in general buying
about the store, and who carries her bum
dies along with her in order to place them
in her carriage when she is through pur-
chasing, instead of having them sent out
on the delivery wagons. The htters VINO
work this end of it are skillful In picking
out women who are not only buyers or the
high-grade stuffs, but who appear to be
more or less absent-minded. The litter
seats herself alongside such woman when
the latter is busily engaged in looking over
possible purchases and asks the saleswo-
man to show her something or other OF
course, the litter doesn't find anything that
she wants, and then, watching her chance
she leisurely rises, picks up the packages
Of the oblviouS woman beside her, and her
pocket book, too, as often as not, and
walks away, just as if everything were all
trance and looks for her things, only to
find them absent, she nearly always ac-
cuses some quite innocent nearby woman
in her excitement, and the uproar under
such circumstances is always nerve-rack-
ing But there is nothing to be done about
it. The woman has simply been the victim
of one of the new-style bundle lifters, and
she may accuse the whole world in general
and the establishment in particular of being
in league with the thief-as she often does
until dooms day without being any the bet
ter for 1t. happened to be by one after
noon early this year when bundle litter
was putting through her little perform
ance In addition to four good-sized bum
dies all containing articles of considerable
value, she picked up the purse or the Wo-
man seated beside her. 1 touched her upon
the arm as she was sailing down the
aisle
"'You have made a mistake, Of course?'
said T. pointing to the bundles and to the
purse that didn't belong to her.
"she stared at me as brazenly as you
please, and then looked at the bundles and
the purse Then her face became wreathed
in hard smile.
thought these were mine-I had forgotten
that I had my packages SENT, and she
handed the bundles over to me.
but the purse? said 1, pointing to that
"'Oh, my, isn't this mine?-so 1t isn't?
NO So;' said i. it isn't yours. and you
know it isn't, and you're one of the new
kind of lifters and common thief, and 1
wouldn't recommend you to come here any
more.
HShe laughed in my face and walked
away. She knew that I couldn't have her
grabbed because couldn't prove anything
against her. If I'd been foolish enough to
have her handled and brought to the bar
she knew that I couldn't prove that she
hadn't picked up the things by mistake,
while in a state of Observation-Disclosures 1t
Is for this reason that the bundle lifters
make up peculiarly dangerous class of
store professionals. Their opportunities for
working their game are great. for most
women engaged in shopping are exceed
ingly careless in their way of leaving their
bundles and pocket books scattered around
the counters.
"a few months ago an old darby woman
got UP in the rig OF a conventional old
nanny Of the south attracted my at
tention in here. Now, am from the south
myself, and know the southern NANNY
by heart. and had O feeling that. some
how or another. this coIored woman wasn't
right-wasn't the real thing. She had the
makeup all pat. with the bandana about |