Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-20

lie was content sdly smoking a pipe when
the young phftanthropist braced him with
the dollar proposition for a little talk The
man In the blue dungarees took the dollar
| with slow grin. Then he pulled out of his
| as his ham-like fist. and. adding the dollar
| bill to the roll, replaced it i'm his pocket.
| Then the man in the blue dungarees good
| naturally went on and told his story He
wasn't bum and never had been one
| for a single hour. He had worked all his
| life until about six months before, when one
| of his uncles. wealthy contractor In the
| west had died and left him the snug sum
| of Sso.ooo. He had invested a good part OF
| the money In couple OF good East Side
/ tenement houses, and the rest of the money.
except the little change he packed around
with him. was safe I'm bank. He calmly ex-
hibited bank books showing aggregate de-
| posits of $4,000. Why. then. was he sitting
i around on park benches smoking clay
| pipe and clad In blue dungareese Because
/ that was the sort of thing he liked. He
wasn't used to putting any Tugs. Any
/ how. he enjoyed watching other folks going
to and from their work while he was idle
| and knew that he could afford to be idle.
| He spent half of the day. he said on the
| park benches. and the other half down on
| the docks watching the 'longshoremen, mis-
| former workmates. toll. He liked to see
'em work, he said. That was all. The
young philanthropist investigated the story
/ of the man In the blue dungarees. and
| found that IL was true in every particular.
| He has given up sympathi4lng with the
| long bench-rows of chaps sprawling around
mind that those of them who are not lazy
no-goods are sfesta-enjoying capitalists.
Novelties in Crime.
When it comes to novelties In the GRIM
inal lire. as often set forth in this cor
respondence. New York comes pretty close
| to leading the world.
About a month ago one of the great de-
| partment stores of ed street engaged as
a floor detective for the holidays an alert,
| handsome woman of thirty-fiye or So
When the woman presented herself for the
| Job she had all manner OF fine credentials,
! showing that she had performed similar
| duty in department stores In other cities.
| and she was engaged in quick order, She
was assigned to the fur department, which
| covers a whole floor of the great depart
| ment stores building, furs being one of the
| establishments specialties 1t was her
business. Of course. to keep an eye on
4 shoplifters.
She hadn't been at work in her new po-
| sitfon for more than week before the
| statesmen and saleswomen began to miss
| a good many articles-fine boas and muffs
| and such. But the female detective seemed
! to be tremendously busy all over the de-
partment all the time. and her employers
were convinced of her competency. So they
! simply charged the missing articles up to
profit and loss, deeming a certain amount
| Of cribbing by shoplifters inevitable during
| the Christmas shopping season, even with
| the services of expert female detectives
! During the second week of the new female
detectives incumbency the thefts from the
fur department Increased at prodigious
rate. The shoplffters were not contenting
themselves with boas and NUTS but they
| were actually getting away with heavy and
| valuable fur coats. When these facts were
made known to the firm by the fur sales
| men It decided to put one of Its regu-
lar female detectives In the fur department
| to assist its new detective In watching
the shoplifters. The regular female detec-
| tive hadn't been on duty with the extra
| employe for more than half day when she
| saw a woman whose picture has for years
been in the rogues' gallery, with shop
| litter" scrawled underneath the portrait,
| deliberately pick up a valuable seal muff
! and walk away with Ii right under the
| eyes of the new female detective. This fact
| she reported to the firm.
The Detective Detected.
| The firm telephoned for a headquarters
| detective. The headquarters detective was
| stroling through the fur department Of
| that establishment about fifteen minutes
| later, and he had no sooner clapped eyes
| upon the extra female detective than he in
dulged in broad grin. He recognized the
woman as one of the most notorious shop
lfters in America, whose picture is in every
rogues gallery in the United States, and at
the very moment the detective made his
appearance that fur department was SIM
ply ciuttered with professional shoplifters.
men and women, who We're footing the
place with the full sanction and approval
and connivance of the female detective,
their pal.
The woman was taken off to Headquarters
in cab with the detectives. She was too
game and too much of an old-tiner to
peach on her pals. but the headquarters
man found out where she lived, and with
a couple of assistants. he raidod her fat
that same evening. He dug out something
like $4,000 of the firms fine furs. and cor
rallied half dozen of the woman's pals.
men and woman, all of them with inter-
national regulations as filters" The
woman had skillfully forged the credentials
with which she obtained her position
store detective, and then she had invited
all hands among the shoplifters to come
along and loot the establishment II was
about as cleverly planned raid as has
ever been pulled off even in New York,
where there are thousands of crooks who
spend all of their time framing up such
schemes. The woman has engaged one OF
the most notable firms of Grim nal lawyers
in New York to defend her. and nobody
familiar with these things over here is
foolish enough to imagine that she will
have any great amount Of time" TO do
when the trial is over. Things don't hap
pen that way in little old New York.
Consumptives Try a New Cure.
Up in Morn.ngside Park. in Harlem, by
permission of the city, there has been
camp of about dozen male cousumptives
since October IL. They are taking the new
open-air cure for the disease. Each man
has shelter tent and there is a big A-tent
used as kitchen. The men take turns
doing the cooking for the camp. and sort
of voluntary military discipline is main
tanned the most robust man of the lot-and
the term is ra ther pitiabie, at that-having
been chosen to boss the outfit when the
camp was established.
The men are visited every day by the
physician in charge of them. who is posi-
tive that the open-air scheme is the only
way of curing pulmonary diseases. The
men are very warmly clad in several suits
of heavy underwear. but they are not per-
mittcd TO have any sort OF a fire in or
around their shelter tents, and they are re-
qlIired to Keep on the move much as
possible during the hours of the day. At
night they sleep in their shelter tents I'M
der heavy bedding. but their heads are ex-
posed TO the cod air. of course. The med
ical man having them in charge maintains
that the more frigid air they breathe while
thus comfortably wrapped up in their bed
ding the better are their chances of being
cured. Other features of the Open-air cure
are a diet consisting very largely of raw
eggs, unlimited quantities of pure milk and
a certain emulsion of mixed fats, which has
attained big vogue over here, even among
persons who are only in a rundown physi-
cal condition. The treatment to which
these consumptives in Mornngsde Park
r,,t,s Look stx,h