“INORDINATE VANITY”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 857, 28 December 1929, Page 6

“INORDINATE VANITY”

BEAUTY PRIZE WINNER’S THEFTS WANTED FINE CLOTHES The effect of winning a prize in a beauty competition on girls of a certain temperament was described by counsel in defending Maude Hall, aged 29, of Catford, at West London Police Court recently, says a London exchange.

The defendant pleaded guilty to stealing 118 robes, of the value of £3OO from Messrs. Barkers, where she was employed as saleswoman. Six of the articles were found in her possession, and the rest at her home. They had been taken since September.

Mr. John Maude urged that the motive was not a desire to make money out of the sale of the dresses, but was a spirit of acquisitiveness. “She is a woman of inordinate vanity,” he said, "and she has become obsessed with the desire of surrounding herself with beautiful clothes which she could look at and handle.” The explanation of her conduct was to be found in the fact that when she ' was 23 she won a prize in a competi- | tion as a type of Grecian beauty. "She : was inundated with all sorts of flat- | tering offers; offers of marriage from a French nobleman; offers of jewel- ; iery from Indian princes; and offers ! of engagements from film producers. She was too nervous to take advantage of this flood of publicity, but the : flattery that was showered on her developed in her this inordinate i vanity, so that she was never happy ; unless she could feel that she possessed, though she could not in her humble social sphere use them, such beautiful clothes as she might have worn if she had been able to accept some of these glittering offers.” Mr. Powell said that he regretted he could not overlook the offence. It would not be fair to her employers or to her fellow-employees who had fallen under suspicion. He sentenced her to three months’ imprisonment in the second division. “I think and hope,” added Mr. Powell, “that it may help you a good deal more than you imagine.” _ v