The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-04-11
CRIME OF sHoPLlFTlNe.

The Brooklyn Times makes the fol-
lowing editorial comment on the KEEP
tomaniac feeling that's in the air:
There seems TO be something akin
to the unholy appetite for alcohol and
other deleterious drugs in the klepto-
maniac excuses Of he confirmed shop
litter " is not always or usually a
flrmed victims Of the habit make no
other use of their spells except to
hoard them as the miser boards his
gold, deriving no other satisfaction
from their possession but the ecstacy
Of looking at them and perhaps re-
joicing at the recollection of the perils
that were encountered and surmounted
In getting them. II is essentially a
feminine weakness or crime call il
what you may, like its baby sister, the
souvenir collecting mania which proves
so costly to hotel and fashionable res
taurant keepers. That II has its birth
in the same instinct is obvious. 1t is
seldom the result of need, for those
who are guilty of il are generally wom-
en- who could easily acquire by pur-
chase what they prefer to steal; ii
seems rather the outcropping of some
hereditary trait bequeathed by ances-
tors who regarded the lifting Of cat
tie or other of their neighbors' pos
sessions as the most laudable and pro-
fitable OF pastimes. When that instinct
survives in men il is liable to find ex-
preston in bank wreclSing or some of
the more dignified methods Of preda-
tory wealth, but in women it Is liable
TO develop into shoplifting.
A lady who was arrested for this Of
Tense the other day, and in whose pos
session stolen goods to the value of
over 5000 was found. had In her pos
session at the time money and checks
to more than the value OF her plumber.
and could have purchased honestly all
the goods she stole, although probably
she would not have then have had the
same satisfaction in their ownership
as she would have had If she could
have got safely away with her plumber.
This lady attributed her crime to
mental arrangement that came with
distress over the death of a daughter
who died as the result OF overstudy
three months ago, but the probability
is that her dishonest instincts found
exercise long before that date. Her
depredations were made on too extern
sive a scale to be the work of a no.
vice in crime. But the question how TO
deal with such offenders is one not
easily answered. The storekeepers, for
their own protection. clamor for the
most exemplary punishment, and
doubtless the dread of q prison is a
strong deterrent force. but it must
never be forgotten that a prison SEN
tence is. after ALL a crude and un-
equal form of punishment. II does not
fall on all offenders alike, for
The kick that scarce would move a
horse
Might kiln sound divine.
Imprisonment is mild penalty to
the hahitual criminal. while II might
degrade and utterly demoralize a worn-
an of ordinary refinement and deli
cacy. 1t would seem that there is room
in our penal system for some moral
sanitarium, where such culprits might
be secluded for given period and
subjected to such moral influences as
might stimulate their mental and moral
fibre and make them Ioathe and ahhor
the practices which led to their un-
doing In this way they might be pun
ished without being nnduly degraded.
and weaned from their evil habits BY
methods which would leave no stig-
ma or stain upon them.
We grudge no expense TO cure the
physically or mentally diseased: might
It not be equally profitable TO treat
with the same kindly care the victims
Of moral naladies whose cases are so
common. and who form the constant
problem OF the periologist?