Ways of Living.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 413, 14 April 1904, Page 7

Ways of Living.

BJIZIAB thieves.

SRfIKB. GLADSTONE once said that a kaziar waß a orai or " legalised mMk robbery. Considering the. absurd prices cjaS'g&i&fc eucb functioßs for the most trumpery seem that there was a good deal of' : '&tt&"m-*Ssßv? r .!** : statesman's remark. Ic is, however, for this very reason, and because a big bazaar is usually a very smart occasion, that thieves fini there suoh a happy huntingground. Bazaar thieves belong, of course, to what is known as the swell-mob, and are as well, if not better, dressed than the smart society people they elbow. Elderly ladies who carry their purses in their htnds or muffs are particularly the prey of the bazaar thief. Another type of professional b»zw thief makes us to represent the benevolent old gentleman who allows himself to be easily persuaded into all sorts of purchases, small and large. It is impossible to imagine that he is anything but what he appears as he ' bustles from stall to stall, carrying all his multitudinous parcels in his arms. He is ,a little short-sighted, and peers benevolently through his thick eyeglasses at the things laid out before him. He is a very clever trickster, this, He is very well aware that at big bazaars there are always to be sold a certain number of really valuable curios and pieces af old jewellery, and he makes it his business to know jaat whish of these are worth most. Another point he relies on is the fact that the saleswomen are amateurs.

Coßsrqaently nothing is easier than to distract the attention of the ladies who are selling, and to sweep off such trifles as he may fancy into his capacious overcoat pockets. A third, and still less to be suspected, type of the bazaar swindler is a smart little boy of fourteen, in Eton jacket and wide white collar.

He is rather shy, and the ladies are veiy kind to him. He, too, is a pickpocket of the smartest description. Sball-keepars who have had much experienoe of bazaars all have stories to tell of the society thief, the 80-called kleptomaniac. That kleptomania actually exists there is, of coarse, no noabti but it is a fact that many a theft is attributed to this form of madness which is nothing more than a weak-minden yielding to temptation, It is extraordinary the things that are 'liftedin this manner. A lady was leaving a bazaar held at one of the smartest houses in Mayfair last June, when, just as she was stepping into her carriage, she slipped and fell, As she was picked.op by her footman there dropped from the folds of her coat no fewer than five paper fane. Prom the way in which she had concealed: them, and the fact that they were not wrapped up, there was little doubt that she had stolen them. Yet their outside value was no mote than sixpence apiece 1

A bookseller was m uon anaoyed with a customer continuing 'to ask the price of articles, evidently with very'little intention to buy anything 5 bo when the customer, taking up a box of paper and envelopes, said :• * What does this run - aboutf The exasperated bookseller replied, 'That does not run about** that >ii sta* aery,' '■ ■'.'. ii^W*'''