The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-11-21

season of the year, New York de-
: partment stores increase the size
of their detective forces in order to
combat the growing number
! OF thoughtful persons who begin
| their shoplifting early. From now
| until after Christmas, shopliftin e
| will proceed at a bold and furious
! pace. The women's court will be
kept busy hearing the cases OF
: light-fingered ladies, caught at in
opportune moments, while the large
Fifth avenue stores will lose thou
| sands of dollars worth of goods to
| others, who will successfully get
away with it.
This is always the case. The an
nual depredations of shoplifters are
regarded as an inevitable calamity
which no mercantile establishment,
however resourceful, can hope to
escape. And this year the stores
anticipate greater difficulties from
this source than ever before be-
cause OF the new styles in sleeves
You may have observed that the
new feminine sleeve is a volumin-
Gus, dropping, bell-shaped affair.
possessing tremendous possibili-
ties for ladies who are clever with
their fingers. 1t is going to be ex-
tremely easy TO hide stuff in the
recesses Of a sleeve which trails
obug1ngly all over the counter
when the wearer puts her hand
down We saw it done only the
other day. A plump. agile hand,
accompanied by one of these dang
ling sleeves, glided quickly along
a counter covered with feminine
lingerie, then paused for several
seconds while the fingers examined
the texture of the silk. When the
hand moved again it was in swift
upward flight presumably to ad-
just a slight discrepancy in the
owners lace collar.
There, you see how easy it is
said the salesgirl who had given
the demonstration, as she removed
pink silk undergarment from her
sleeve. You didn't see me do that
even though you were watching,
and think how much simpler it
would be to stuff my sleeve in the
confusion of a Christmas crowd.
That's why we've got to be so par
ticular and insist upon customers |
keeping thir arms off the cou1- |
ters."
Store Detective.
The interesting information was |
corroborated by one of the store de-
tectiyes, a tall, sleek-faced individ- |
ual who so we'll looked his part |
that one did not see how any shop
litter could fail to notice and avoid
him
There's no doubt but that the
new styles are all in favor of the
he said. But. of
And then we've got our own sys-
EN-. They don't get away with as
much as they used to-"
We pressed for details by
What astute methods are shoplift-
RS prevented from running off
With the store?" we inquired.
"Oh. we get to know a lot of the
professionals by their looks" the
detective replied. And there's
somethin' about them to
excite suspicion. One thing and
mother" Il
But your system - we persisted.
We'll. there's the store aisles.
or instance. Notice how wide the :
isles are in this store? That amt
or beauty and it amt for comfort
is because the light fingered Liz F.;
les don't like them They prefer
he narrow, crowded aisles where !
hey amt so likely to be seen"
This was all the Information We Z
ould drag forth. The system" If {
eemed, was a secret formula {
which had to be carefully guarded. / j
T the shoplifters once get wise TO
/, it would be useless. To make {
p for his inability to crafty our
in this respect, however, l
ur friend showed an eager willing i
ess to discuss other important s
latters. He gave US. in elaborate {
etail. his private views on the dis (
rmament conference; dwelt upon T
ne carelessness with which the &
lails were handled. and explained s
ne most dramatic plays in the late d
'orld series. Finally, when he had g
alked himself into a good humor t
nd We were nearly in a state of I
oma, he allowed himself to be r
teered gingerly back to the sub l
'ct of his own secret activities.
Let me see," he said cautiously. .
rok1ng his long jaw, the case of c
aorlelle Lemalre was in the news I