seats herself, adroitly arranging her
dress and the slit. Asking the saleswoman to be shown some kinds of
lace, she examines it critically, and, laying it down upon the counter,
asks to see another kind, or some feathers, or something else, and so
contrives to have several articles just before her, one covering the
other, if possible. Having accumulated a number of articles upon the
counter in an eligible position, she points to some things high up on a
shelf behind the counter, thus getting the saleswoman's back turned
towards her for an instant, when, with soft dexterity, she conveys
anything that happens to be handily in the way through the slit in her
dress into the bag between her legs. The goods examined and priced, "not
suiting" her, and other customers coming up, she takes the opportunity
of moving to another counter, where the same tactics are repeated, and
so on, till she is satisfied with her haul or exhausted her stowage
capacity.

The muff is worked in this way: The operator rests her hand, with the
muff on it, on the goods which she proposes to sample, and a moment of
diverted attention on the part of the salesman or saleswoman is ample
for her to transfer to her ingenious warehouse such samples as she can
conveniently and quickly pick up with one hand. The movement of
concealing the stolen articles is instantaneously executed, and, however
well the muff may be stuffed, it cannot be bulged out to attract
attention. It is surprising to know the vast quantities of material
these bags and muffs will contain. At police headquarters, once, in
examining the contents of one of these bags, it was found to actually
hold a piece of satin, several cards of lace, a camel's-hair shawl, two
large china ornaments, a number of spools of silk, several elegant fans,
expensive ostrich plumes, and numberless smaller articles, feathers,
artificial flowers and some minor trinkets. Shop-lifters are the terror
of the shop-keepers, for the thefts embrace everything of convenient
character lying about. With one dexterous sweep they will frequently put
out of sight a dozen small articles.

All the articles stolen are carried home, the trade-marks upon them
destroyed, and then subsequently sold to some "fence" for about
one-third their value, to finally be resold again over the counter of
some other store in another city. It is seldom the female shop-lifter
uses a male confederate, but it frequently happens that they travel in
cou