The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-30

| 1t is announced that the fashionable
ldressmakers of New York have form
ed a protective trust. and that hence
forth no credit will be given. ana mat
the woman who desires TO dlSporI het :
self in fine raiment will have to settle
for it in cold hard cash instead OF
rosy promises These DurVeyors OF
frills for the frivolous claim that they
! are Systematically robbed, year aIIef
| year, by women who order gowns that
| they have neither the means nor the
| intention of paying for, and VINO de'
J pend on their high social position TO
| protect them from the consequences
of their dishonesty.
When Madame Modste charges her
dead beat customers with what is vui-
carly known as running a confidence
same it is pretty much q case of the
kettle accusing the pot of being black
but the question thus raised is an In
tereSting one, for honesty is the star
virtue upon which woman plumeS her
self. She is never weary of boastinS
of her superior hOnorableness to man.
and of pointing out that it is the
stronger sex that furnishes the de-
faulting cashier. and produces the fes-
tive burglar, and keeps the path 20
Canada and Mexico hot, while incOr-
ruptible woman faithfully guards the
trust given her, and seldom plays
This is true A cynic might explain
it by saying that up till now woman's
opportunities of becoming an embez.
zler have been few, but it is fact
that Womans awe of money is so
great that she seldom steals it. just
as she seldom commits any other So
rilege Besides, her talents do not run
in that line. She is not by nature a
highWayman. Her gifts tend towards
million dollars in q woman's keeping
and when you returned she would
hand every penny of it, but those
of us who have cut our wisdom teeth
in society lock UP our silver trinkets
when we give u reception to our dear
500 friends.
In all the vagaries of the feminine
character there is nothing so utterly
Inconsistent and ineXplicable as WOm-
ems attitude towards honesty. for
every day of our lives we see women
who pride themselves upon their pro-
bity, yet who not only commit thefts
openly and ShameIeSsly, but actually
boast of their pilfering.
A woman. for instance. counts it
unto herself for righteousness to SNUG
gle goods inethrough the custom house
and she will calmly and with a serene
countenance stand up and perjure her
self to save the duty on a half dozen
pairs of gloves. Nor does she feel
the slightest oblioation to pay her fare
on the street car unless the conduc-
tor forces her to do it.
A still more pertinent illustration Of
the oblique way in which women look
at honesty is found in the wholesale
thieVing that goes on under the eu-
phoniStic name of collecting souvenirs.
That woman of elementary princi-
pie and morality H"uld steal at all is
strange; it is stranger still that women
who have no need to steal should DO
it, but it is strangest of all that these
Christian rich women should steal and
brag about it. Women who are so
we'll off that they patronize the most
fashionable restaurants, and the best
hotels, and who are invited to fash
ionable functions make Il habit Of
bringing home with them silver table
ware, glass. china, and even towels and
pillow slips that they have stolen from
their hosts and so far from conceal
ing these things they braZenly parade
them as souvenirs of places they have
visited.
Last summer, a wealthy young wom
an who was a globe trotter. calmly
told me that she mad a marvellous col
lection of towels that represented every
railroad and hotel of consequence in
this country and Europe. and it was
a matter of comment in the public
-ress that not long ago, after a swell
mems club gave d ladies day, they
did not have a single coffee spoon left.
Another common and t1agrant in
stance of feminine dishonesty is shown
in the way that women cheat at cards.
The ugliest word men have for an
other man is the epithet they apply to
him -vhe plays q dishonest game of
chance, but all of us have seen Wom-
EN- who, for the sake of a $3.50 imita-
ton cut glass prize would do things
so badly dishonest that they deserved
to have the doors of society shut in
their faces as it would have been in