El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-09-19

WYE spoke yesterday of the
~ strange popularity that ena-
bleS a woman, who eSteemS
herself the soul of honor and honesty,
to smuggle, without in any way doing
violence to her conscience.
1t is an ethical phenomenon that is
as common as it is unexplainable. An
other popularity of woman's conscience
equally remarkable and equally unex-
plainable. is that women are enabled
calmly and deliberately to commit a
line of petty thefts under certain condi-
lions, and yet remain perfectly honest
in their own sight
With a woman the name souvenir"
is a mantle that throws a rosy aegis
over any kind of stealing that is done
in its name, and as long as she doesn't
take thing because she really needs IL
but because it will remind her Of
something else. she hasn't the slightest
cOmpunceion in appropriating the said
article
That the women who pilfer from ho-
tells and sleeping cars and such places
do not consider themselves thieves
needs no other proof than that the SOU
venir robber has no shame in telling
You of her depredations, and exhibit
ing her booty to you.
1t is a sight to make moralists shud-
der and the cynical laugh to see a wo-
man, who is rich enough to travel over
the whole world and to stop at the very
best and most expensive places, bring
out, for instance, her collection of SOU
venirs and vaingloriOusly point out to
you that they bear the ST Regis, the
Ritz-Carlton, the Ponce de Leon and
such costly hotel names plainly marked
upon them Every souvenir is the visl-
bic evidence of a theft, and yet she is
not trying to conceal them, but is
Haunting them before your face
Why Did She Steal Them.
Why did she steal them? Not neces-
sity. rs she a kleptomaniac?" you ask
yourself. Has she an irresponsible
mania for stealing things, and had you
best keep your jewelry locked up, and
your hand on your pOcketbook while
you are in her house?
Not at all. She would never dream of
stealing a penny from you She is a
woman OF the highest principle. phil
anthropist a church worker, an influ-
enoe for good in the community. and
she would be Mortified at the mere sug-
gestiOn that she was not the very
soul of honesty.
Yet those souvenirs, those salt shak-
ers, napkins, after dinner coffee spoons
with the crests of various restaurants
on them-how are you going to recon-
Gle them with her conscience? You
don't, and you dare not ask her how she
does It remains one of the impene-
trable feminine mysteries.
Just how widespread among women,
is the form of petty larceny euphoni-
ously called collecting souvenirs" is
shown by the fact that all hotels and
restaurants experience an annual loss
Of thousands of dollars this way. and
recently after a ladies day at a smart
club in a large city it was found that
not single after dinner coffee spoon
was left
Mortified at Name of "Thiefv
Yet there had been no women present
except the wives and daughters and
sweethearts and friends of the men
who compose the club. Most respecta-
Bile, most eminent women. all of them.
and not one who wouldn't have
swOOned with horror had any one called |
her a thief, even when she was caught
with the goods on her
Then kindly observe as another &C.
centricity Of the way the feminine con-
science works, the manner in which |
women cheat at cards, and other women |
,Ondone the offense. There probably
sn't bridge whist club in existence