The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-12
HOW CHORUS GIRLS GRAFT

1 in taxi. Cece Marie is very proper and allows him to make love to her only enough so that he won't be sorry he didn't take a street car. The next morning he is called to the phone and he hears the sweet voice of Cecile Marie:
 rOh, I did so hate toodisturb you this gloves in the taxi last night? You didn't. Oh. am so sorry; they were brand new
 and were the only long white gloves ] , had. Oh-h-h, goodness-' and the next | day a messenger brings a nice new pair of white gloves to the theatre for Cecile | Marie. Of course the night of the din ner, If the John had been sclose ob- server, he would have seen that the gloves | or Cecile Marie were neither new nor white, and that she had not taken them off in the taxi.
 | Debt is another scheme for softening the not quite adamant heart of the ever present admirer. You've got to know the | John pretty well for this one, and you've got to lead up to 1t by being sweet and girl3sh and good and confiding. Then one night, after a particularly good din. ner, you tell him, if you are a chorus girl and a grafter. This is the graft You have borrowed money from some wicked man and now he, the wicked man, wants 1 the money back. And you haven't it, and l you haven't single thing you can pawn not even a family jewel, and the wicked man has insplted you, and if you don't | pay him back, O-- It is all dreadful
 If you have gauged your John" correctly you will have the check by the next day | and 1t will be a nice big one, too, with perhaps $1O over for you. And he will never suspect anything if you get new dress the very next week.
 "The left over from the check' is a
  | hard luck story to make it a success Lu- cile goes to dinner with a .'John." The dinner is good. Lucille is gay, joyous, 1 sparkling. She Is having a bully time. Just as the waiter brings the check little | Lucille leans across the table to her companion, makes baby eyes at him and l says with playful gestures:
 "Pm dreadfully hard up this week, so you'd better be careful or I'll ask for | loan. Oh, Oh, I have an idea. Give me | the change that is left on the tray after you have paid for the dinner and tipped ! the waiter. It will be just what I need car fare"
 Now. the "John" doesn't dare give the | waiter a bill that is just a bit larger | than the price of the dinner He can't | be so cheap as to offer little Lucille 40 | cents. So if he is any sort of a good | spender he gives the waiter a bill about S5 larger than the check-and there you are. Five dollars isn't much, of course.
 but if little Lucille is invited out to | a lot of dinners
 The buying of cold cream and powder and other makeup and much candy and many flowers is too old to need discussion | Every member of the chorus has achieved perfection in the grafting of trifies. It's an art these days. A
 But another graft that is successfully | worked in big cities by the girls from Il. Al, s,skx ic Ina 'unpaid bilr' graft There are lots of little shops in a city that want chorus | girl trades Some of them are the ex- elusive imported goods shops"
 Little Lucille or Florine or Elise, who used to be Elsles back in Lotus City. de- cides she needs new lingerie or dresses or hats She goes to the smart shop She is stylishly attractive She asks for the | proprietor. The proprietor scents the l nIan before she explains, but he listens The date is about the 25th. On the 1st she wants a bill of, say, s6o mailed to her. Ytems? Oh, anything-a couple of waists, | a iabot. silk stockings, or some lingerie Very we'll The bill is mailed. About the 5th of the next month. when Elise goes to dinner with her particular admirer, whom she has captured since coming to the city, she smiles divinely.
 "You know you are always wishing there was some little thing you could do for me- Well, here is something. got a little bill the other day that has been on my mind ever since 1t came. I had
 the money to pay for it. but-story of how much money was spent-and now if you | want to pay 1t for me It's just a
 trifle." Sixty dollars doesn't look like a trife to the John But what can
 he do? Elise has lovely eyes. So Elise
 goes back to the proprietor of the little
 shop and spends about half of the $6O
 with him. And everyone is. happy '
 There are more grafts. hundreds more:
 but they are all alike and depend on the
 cleverness of Elise and Lucille and Cecile
 Marie. So if you are 'John." or if you
 are a ''msn about town" who occasions
 ally visits the stage door. look out