The Savannah morning news., 1902-11-02

Are women honest? The astounding
query is propounded in the New Or
leans Picayune by Dorothy Dix, who
goes on to say;
As sex we are ready to rise en-
masse and shout an affirmative an
swer to the question. Furthermore, in
proof of our unimpeachable virtue en-
the subject we point-to the fact that
burglary is a profession monopolized
by men: that bank robbers, embez-
zlers, defaulters are invariably of the
suparior gender, and even the conf
Dental clerk colony in Montreal is an
E,veless Eden.
And the worst of it is that we hon
estly believe that women are more
honest than men. We have stood upon
a pedestal with II am holier than
thee expression so long that we have
come to take ourselves seriously, and
TO actually think that we are setting
an example of high and noble principle,
when the truth is that most of US
would be run in by the police if we
got our just deserts.
NONs II 10 uOl MY pui pOSC W lllSlllul6
a profitless comparison between the
honesty of the sexes. According to ira
dition Diogenes went about with a Ian
tern for the better part of a lifetime,
in vain search for an honest man.
If he were to start out to hunt for
perfectly honest woman, he would need
a government Searchlight, and a cou-
pie of hundred years OF additional time,
for in nothing is modern decadence
so apparent as in honesty and women
share equally with men in the loose
ideas of the times in regard to steal
ing.
1t is true that women do not loot
banks, or decamp, as men SO often 40,
with the funds of widows and orphans
for whom they were guardians, but
women have not yet been placed in
such positions of trust, and we have
yet to see whether their honesty will
be able to stand the test of opportun-
ity On the whole, / think it will, for
women have handled so little money
they still have such a superstitious awe
of it that it keeps them from making
free with it, even when it is other peo-
pies. Business men agree than wo-
men make more honest cashiers than
men, and it is significant popularity
between the sexes that, as a rule, men
steal money and women steal things.
Women's dishonesty runs to petty
larceny, and it is amazing what 1ati-
tude in the way of appropriating things
that do not belong to her woman will
allow herself. and still consider her
character for honesty above reproach.
All of us would holly resent the fact
that our friends are rogues, yet we all
know from actual experience that it is
safer to lock up the silver trinkets on
our dresser before We give a swell tea
or reception to which only perfect
ladies are invited. Nobody takes the
things, of course, but jeweled hatpins
and stickpins have way of disappear
ing on such occasions, while as for the
Spartan principle that would lead a
woman to return a borrowed book, no.
body even expects it. / know one wo-
man who does. and not only returns
them, but in good order, and with the
backs still on. but she is universally
regarded as peculiar.
One of the commonest forms of dis
honesty among women is that which
masquerades under the euphonious
term of collecting" things, and which
enables woman to steal not only
without compunction of conscience, but
with brazen effrontery that makes
her absolutely shameless. By what
process of logic or ethics a theft is de-
prived of it's dishonesty if the article
stolen is called a souvenir, nobody
knows, but the fact remains that many
women consider anything they take in
public places legitimate loot if they de-
nominate it keepsake. Last winter a
caterer in New York, who served the
banquet that was given Prince Henry,
was ruined because the guests carried
away the silver and cut-glass and CHI
ma as souvenirs. A fashionable athletic
club in Chicago, a year or two ago,
gave a 'lady's day." and at the end of
it discovered that they did not have a
spoon left, while many of the cut-glass
water carafes had been secretly ap-
propriated by the fair guests as me-
mentos of the joyous occasion.
I have felt like crying out stop
thief" to women who have showed me
collections of towels and napkins mark
ed with every hosiery from the Wal
dorf to the st. Charles, and one woman
once told me frankly that she always
took the napkin if the waiter wasn't
looking, as a means of getting even
with her restaurant bill. "If they catch
you, you can always look surprised,
and apologize for being absent-mind-
ed she added by way of explanation
OF how to do the trick. Strange to say.
these social bandits not only generally
get away safely with their plumber, but
suffer no social ostra ciSm, though I
know one girl who lost a rich and
splendid husband through her habit of
pilfering, for men seldom condescend
to such small pickings, and the one who
might rob you of a fortune, could still
be trusted with your spoons.
In this case, however, the man was
of high and infexible principle, and
scrupulously honest, and he was deep
ly in love with a beautiful young girl
whom he thought an angel. He met
her last summer in New York, and ask
ed her to lunch at Sherry's. The girl
was charming. the lunch perfect and
the proposal trembling on his lips when
he observed her calmly appropriating
a quaint little silver pepper box, which
she slipped in the wrist of her long,
loose glove. Just for a souvenir" she
murmured. You don't mean to keep
it2" he asked incredulously. Certain
ly, l do" she replied, II have quite a
collection-one from the Waldorf and
the Normandie and the Alcazar and
reeling off a string of well-known hos
telries. The man caught the house de-
tective's eye and motioned him to the
table. This young lady desires one
of these pepper holders as a souvenir"
he said. "See that it is put on my BILL"
and the discreet detective did as de-
sired. The meal was finished In stony
silence. and when it was finished the
man put the girl in a cab and bowed
ms adieu from the sidewalk.
Are you going to marry herr" 1 ask
ed him when he told me the story.
What" he crier. marry a thief!
Another form of dishonesty that wo-
men gid over. but that is none the less
stealing is the q hit thaU have M han-