The San Francisco call., 1910-04-03
THE WONAN THIEF IN THE
PARTWENT STORE rs AN
EVERYDAY VISZTOZS

usually called to ferret out big things.
The petty larcenies don't come to us.
With US the proportion is about one
to fifteen; that is, we are asked to go
after one woman to every fifteen men,
and when a woman is stealing money
we almost always find that a man is
getting it. A woman will do things
for a man that she would never do for
herself"
This was another aspect of the sit
uation 1 liked 1t better, somehow 1t
was lunch time and 1 went to the NJ
restaurant in Market street. The
place was crowded; 1 had to wait for
table and looked about me. A man
and woman were just finishing their
coffee. The man left dime at the
left of his plate for the waitress. I
made my way toward that table, but
before could get there another couple
had availed themselves of 1t. The man
spied the dime, and, presto, with a
sweep of his left hand 1t was In his
pocket. The woman saw him and her
face turned scarlet. Just then the
waitress hurried up; she began to clear
the table. looking everywhere for the
dime which she, too, had seen her for
mer customer leave for her. where
is that diner she demanded of the
man seated at the table. GIVE 1t to
me; it Is mine.
Il do not know what you mean" re-
piled the man. IT have no dime" and
he looked across at his wife. his face
also red by this time, but he could not
confess that he had the dime. His
wife, poor thing, with a woman's wit,
came to the rescue. She called the
head waiter.
Will you please send us another
waitress?" she asked. "This girl has
fnsulted my husband. Give US another
yxyQf nr ytf
rant"
Another waitress came and the two
ordered their luncheon. When she had
gone to the kitchen with the order the
man said to his wife: What made you
do that? I never did such thing be-
fore" Tears were in the woman's
eyes. but she bravely forced them back
and smiled at him.
On my way home met my best man
friend. do women steal, do you
think?" 1 asked plaintively, for I was
nearly worn out with the subject
Yes. little girl" was the reply;
"some of them do, many of them do,
most of them do; but so long as you
do not don't worry about it. I'll tell
you some funny things that / have OBJ
served and experienced, the last first.
Some years ago ! was boarding with a
couple here in San Francisco. The man
was an Industrious, hard working hon
terror. A splendid cook and the clean
est house keeper that ever lived-that's
why I stayed there-she was an invet-
crate gambler and frequented the
small poolrooms which are to be found
in all sorts of odd places. grocery
stores, laundries, fats anywhere, in
fact, where women go to put dollar
or two on the races. That woman ac-
tually starved herself and her husband
to get money to play with. She had
to give me decent food. of course or
would not have stayed, but the poor
husband had barely enough to keep
alive. Out of $40 which he would give
her for the table five invariably went
to the poolrooms. But 1 got mine at
last. AS she could not take it out of
my food she took it out of my clothes,
and stole two valuable suits of under
wear and sold them. She laid the blame
on the laundry; said the things never
came back with the wash. / took the
matter up with the laundry people and
was convinced that they had never had
them; then, later on, / traced the suits
to the pawnbroker's and, like the idiot
/ was, informed the husband, thinking
to warn him to look better after his
affairs. The result was the usual one.
They both turned on me and / lost
my happy home for the time being.