(3) The Modern Shoplifter
The modern shoplifter is usually a well-to-do, dressy woman of the middle class, all the way from twenty to forty years of age. She visits the large stores like a bold footpad in search of plunder. When the opportunity presents itself she steals all she can lay her hands on without being detected, then sneaks away unobserved.
Nearly all of our large dry goods and department stores offer her unusual opportunities for stealing, provided she is well dressed and knows her business. The counters of these establishments are lavish with all kinds of jewelry, laces, gloves and knick-knacks of various kinds and values. During the holidays there are dazzling arrays of silks, satins and velvets of all the colors of the rainbow from which the shoplifter can make satisfactory selections. And best of all, these stores are so thronged from morning till night, that these petty thieves are able to secrete dozens of small articles on their persons without being detected.
Shoplifters as a rule ply their business only in stores that are crowded, where they can steal unobserved and afterwards get away with the plunder. These people as a rule are bold, daring depredators who will scruple at nothing. The most dangerous of this class are so slippery that they seldom get caught, but when discovered and their rooms are searched, the police find a wagon load of stolen property, the accumulation of years of thievery.
Their work is systematic, and carefully planned, and as a rule they are able to successfully carry off the goods and get rich on them. When they go out to steal, these women have pockets in their clothing sufficiently large enough to carry away a big haul. On this account all the principal stores are compelled to employ male and female detectives to watch these thieves and arrest them in the act. Many of this class of thieves do not belong to New York. They straggle in from Long Island, Jersey and small towns on the Hudson.
The Christmas holidays are the great harvest for shoplifters and petty thieves. A gang of four expensively dressed shoplifters have been known to get away with thousands of dollars worth of furs, silk waists and laces in a season.
Scores of these women are arrested during the year who refuse to disclose their identity and many of them are sent to jail for short terms.
A shoplifter of experience was arrested not long since in a Sixth avenue department store. She was about thirty years of age and well dressed. When searched in the Tenderloin Station House, forty-one articles were found in her umbrella, ranging in value from eighteen cents to three dollars; according to the marks on the articles the shoplifter must have visited four different stores on the Avenue. Among the things found in the umbrella were belts, collars, pins, garters, laces, handkerchiefs, pocket books, pencils, combs, brushes, lockets, buttons and several bottles of cologne.
The shoplifters are seldom prosecuted to the full extent of the law, as friends intercede in their behalf, reimburse the storekeepers for their losses, after which they are let go. If the shoplifters are rich they are called kleptomaniacs, but if they are poor and friendless they are classed as thieves and have to go to jail.
A gentleman in one of the large stores told me that they sometimes lose as much as a thousand dollars a week by shoplifters and employes.
When the expert shoplifters come to the Tombs they weep and lament at a great rate. They weep because they have been caught “red-handed with the goods on,” and not because they feel sorry for their crime. They are really crocodile tears shed for the sake of securing sympathy!
CHAPTER XVII
THE STEAL OR STARVE UNFORTUNATES
Many of our most recent sociological writers commenting on some of the causes of crime, omit all mention of poverty. They speak of heredity, environment, intemperance, and many other things, but of poverty they say nothing whatever. Even Henry George in his book on Progress and Poverty is silent on the latter subject as one of the great producing causes of crime. Any one who carefully studies the relation between poverty and crime will see that these two in many cases are vitally connected.
It is not necessary in this discussion to enter into all the ramifications of the subject. Indeed nothing would be gained by doing so. In the present instance we simply wish to present to our readers a few cases which will go to show that the question of “bread and butter” is one of paramount importance to the average man. And we shall endeavor to show that poverty is one of the most potent causes of crime in our day, especially in our large cities.
The London police authorities have always maintained, and are able to prove by statistics, that when the bakers raise the price of bread only one-half a cent, it means an increase of crime to the extent of ten per cent. And for the reason that so many of the poorer classes are so pinched by poverty, that when the price of food is raised it means to many of them starve or steal.
It is foolish any longer to stultify our minds and argue against believing that poverty and crime are vitally related. This is especially true in our large cities, rather than in the country. Not only do they belong to each other like cause and effect,—but poverty in many instances fosters crime.
It is a well known fact that when thousands of our laboring classes are out of employment only one week, they are, to use the language of the street, “dead broke.” In a few days the whole family become so affected for want of food that unless the father gets work at once whatever is of value in the house is either put in pawn or sold for what it can bring anywhere. When the house ceases to have anything more to sell, the children are sent out to steal. A large number of those who are arrested by the Children’s Society for various crimes and taken to their rooms before going to Court, eat ravenously of whatever food is set before them. When they are questioned as to why they stole, they usually say they were hungry.
Diminutive boys and even men with sunken cheeks and pale faces are taken to the Tombs almost daily charged with the crime. When you speak to them they freely admit that they lived for months by stealing. And in a great many cases they stole to get food for the family. The same is also true of boys and girls who work in stores and factories. When sorely tempted to steal they do so but only when hunger stares them in the face! In nearly all the places where young people work they pay such small salaries, that they are unable to save anything. After they pay their board what is left goes for clothing and carfare. But there is nothing for the proverbial rainy day.
But self preservation is said to be the first law of nature. “All that a man hath will he give for his life,” is as true to-day as it ever was. When men steal to preserve life they simply trample under foot a lower law to maintain a higher one. And it is the most natural thing in the world to fall back on the law of self-preservation when driven to the wall by hunger or other adverse circumstances.
The annals of crime in this city will show that the children of the poor at an early age are turned on the street, where they are left to steal or starve. I have found by careful observation that twenty-five per cent. of the boy criminals of New York started on their wayward careers when they were hungry. It was the old story, “Steal or starve.” And they stole and became criminals.
As long as you keep men and women busily employed crime is out of the question, but when they lose their job and feel the pangs of hunger, the criminal instinct comes to them with such force that they cannot resist it.
An ex-convict whom I have known for a number of years wrote me a letter of explanation after going back to the Penitentiary some months ago. “Sir,” said he, “there is no employment for an ex-convict. * * * * I was homeless and friendless * * * * * with me it was steal, starve or beg? I was too proud to beg. And I refused to starve in this land of plenty. When I could do nothing else I stole—when I suffered the pangs of hunger. What else could I do? And when placed in the same circumstances I will do it again.”
Not long since John Williams, sixty years of age, was arraigned in Centre Street Court, charged with larceny. He confessed his guilt. “I do not care what you do with me, Judge,” he said. “I was starving and it was either steal or die.” “Why don’t I work?” “Well, Judge, if you will get me a job, you’ll see how hard I’ll work. But nobody wants an old man like me.”
I knew a respectable man who resided in the vicinity of Tenth Avenue and Fifty-sixth Street; he was out of employment for about three weeks. By this time his family, which consisted of wife and five children, were in dire poverty. The fourth week he found employment at twelve dollars a week driving a truck. On Saturday the boss paid the man six dollars out of which he was to pay rent and feed his family for a whole week. The employer retained six dollars of his wages as security against loss while in his employ. In the middle of the week his funds were exhausted. When he came home Wednesday night his children were crying for food and he had none to give them. Then he remembered that he left a box of goods on the truck when he put his team in the barn. That night he broke the box open, took some of the goods out and pawned them and with the money bought food and fuel to make his family comfortable for several days. It is needless to say that before the week was out he was arrested charged with grand larceny.
A good Samaritan made an investigation of this man’s case the following week, found his family in great poverty and supplied their wants. Not only was it found that the man was no thief, but everything he said was true. He was driven to steal by his hard hearted employer who held back half his week’s pay when his family was in great need.
When all the facts became fully known the Court suspended sentence and sent him back to his family. The Monday following he went to work for an old employer who had always known him as an honest man.
When I spoke to this man about what he had done, he said, “I could not help it. My boss, who retained in his possession six dollars of my hard earned money, made me a thief. I did not want to steal but when I heard my children cry for bread it almost crazed me and I stole to satisfy their hunger.”
An old German, over fifty years of age, who some years ago was in business in Philadelphia, failed and lost all his property. He came to New York where he lived from hand to mouth for a month or two. He was often in the bread line on the Bowery to get enough to keep him from starvation. During that winter he went four days without eating anything. Then in his desperation he broke a window and stole an opera glass. For this he was arrested and sent to the Penitentiary for one year.
When he came out of prison he was determined not to commit another crime. He walked the streets for five days looking for employment, but nobody wanted him, he was too old. Walking along Second Avenue one evening he became exhausted, then desperate and broke a plate glass window that he might be sent to prison where he would get enough to eat. When he was discharged I met him at the prison door. I tried to get him employment but nobody wanted him, then I sent him to Newark on his way to Philadelphia among his friends who would save him from further imprisonment. In both cases poverty drove him to crime to get food. He was not a criminal from choice but only from circumstances.
This last case which I am about to relate was the most pitiful of all. The man lived with his wife and four children in the neighborhood of East Fortieth Street near First Avenue. He was a painter by trade and had been out of employment four weeks. On the first of March his wife gave birth to a child. On the third day afterwards his home was fireless and foodless. On the morning of the fourth day his children cried for food, then he became desperate. He tried to borrow money but nobody would loan him anything, not even a quarter of a dollar. That morning he stood at the Grand Central Depot ready to steal if he got the chance, but there were too many policemen there watching his movements. Then he walked down to Thirty-eighth Street and Park Avenue where he stood watching the people. In a few minutes he saw a lady come along dressed in furs. In her hand was a small wallet. He followed her down the steps into the tunnel, snatched the wallet and ran. But he could not run fast enough as he was weakened from lack of food and was soon captured. It was proved in Court that the man was not a thief; that he was driven to do the crime because of the dire poverty in his home. It was a social rather than a criminal question, but the judge thought he would make an example of this unfortunate and gave him ten years’ imprisonment. I asked him in prison why he had taken such chances; he replied, “I was cold and hungry and my family were in such desperate circumstances when the temptation appealed to me, I could not resist it. That’s all.”
In a large number of cases I have found that men and women were not thieves by choice. They were before the law guilty only technically for some crime, but were driven to it by social conditions and man’s inhumanity to man! When you come to judge all such “criminals” be charitable, and put yourself in their place and ask, What would you do under the same circumstances?
There is an organization in this city called the Charity Society. They receive a good deal of money during the year for charity! Mr. John S. Kennedy gives them free rent in his building. What charitable work they have ever done to aid the worthy poor we have never been able to learn. But some people have not a very high opinion of them. When I have urged people to seek relief from them (before I made an investigation for myself and learned what they are) they replied that they would prefer to jump into the river. Others in speaking of the society use red profanity which would not look well in print. Ask a policeman, priest, rabbi, minister of the gospel, mission worker. They may be able to tell what charity is given by this society to the poor of New York. I know the society for improving the conditions of the poor, the Children’s Aid Society and others that do a good work. Heaven bless them and fill their treasuries!
Copyright Pack Bros., New York.
Ex-police Commissioner Bingham, of New York. General
Theo. Alfred Bingham, born at Andover, Tolland Co.,
Conn., May 14, 1858. Graduated at West Point Military
Academy 1879 and Vale University 1896. For several
years he has been in charge of Public Buildings and
grounds in Washington, D. C. Was appointed Police
Commissioner, by Mayor McClellan, January, 1906. He
brought the Police up to a higher perfection than ever
before.
CHAPTER XVIII
HOW YOUNG MEN BREAK INTO PRISON
One of the most startling facts that face the present day reformer is the great number of strong, healthy and well educated young men that really break into prison, as that is the only way you can speak of it. Various reasons are given for this singular condition of things but which do not satisfactorily explain the difficult problem. We believe the question is worthy of the highest consideration which the State can bestow upon it. It is everywhere demanding a solution at the hands of Christian philanthropists and statesmen. When we think of the tens of thousands of young men in this and other large cities, who are leading prodigal lives, uncared for by their fellow men, and little sought after by Christian agencies, unless they are well dressed and have plenty of money; then the Y. M. C. A. and the Club will compete for their patronage. But if they are poor nobody cares for them, and if they happen to wander into a Christian Reading Room, they will be told that such a place is only for members, and not for them.
Many of these young men come from country homes in search of employment, and not finding any, after they have spent their capital, they eke out a precarious living by doing odd jobs or even panhandling. After a time they become seedy in appearance; sever all connection with the loved ones at home; lose all ambition of ever amounting to anything or securing employment. Then they mingle with criminals, who present to them some “rosy scheme” to get ready money without working for it, and when they seek to carry it out, find themselves in the meshes of the law. Now they have discovered by experience that “The way of the transgressor is hard.” If, however, they had sought steadily to do what was right by shunning the saloon and the companionship of evildoers, the result of their brief city life would have been different.
Some time ago a young man, twenty-seven years of age, was in the Jefferson Market Police Court. He had wandered to New York months ago from a New England home. Although a graduate of Yale, and a law student, filling many important and lucrative positions, yet he lost all by strong drink, cocaine and evil companions. As soon as he was sobered he found himself to be a moral and physical wreck.
It seems that when he had exhausted all his resources and his clothing became torn and tattered, the only employment he could find was to play the piano in a Tenderloin saloon for free “drinks.”
Perhaps the reason that so many young men really break into prison is that they have acquired sinful habits in their youth which have grown on them with the years. They refuse any longer the advice of friends and are unwilling to learn by experience, and like men void of understanding, they rush into crime, like the horse into battle, only to meet disaster.
Some of the larger Rescue missions of the city do a vast amount of good in caring for these young men. But many are “pauperized” and in the end become chronic panhandlers. And the same “bunch” is found in the missions from year to year and are no better.
Put them to work sawing wood or breaking stones or indeed anything, and if they are able bodied and refuse let them alone. Feeding them only prolongs their misery.
It is a sad fact, though nevertheless true, that many young men do not learn by experience. As soon as they are out of one trouble, they seem to rush into another, until Society is compelled to protect itself by sending them to prison a second, or a third, or even a fourth time. The reason doubtless for this is that the young criminal in a great number of cases gives way to the low instincts of his morbid nature, or he has acquired sinful habits in youth, which grow on him through life, and he readily gives way to them when tempted. The heredity of crime is simply giving way to natural depravity that has never been curbed.
It is safe to say that 70 per cent. to 75 per cent. of all who get behind prison bars for the first time are young men between the ages of sixteen and thirty. When the “rounder” puts in an appearance this percentage is reduced. Nevertheless, the great mass of all first offenders are young men.
I once wrote to Superintendent Brockway of Elmira Reformatory, whom I regard as one of the best informed penologists in the United States; I asked why so many young men are sent to prison rather than men of maturer years, and he replied: “Young men between the ages of sixteen and thirty are the most pushing, vivacious, alert, wideawake and daring.” But though this reply was not as satisfactory as I should have liked it, it explained much. I believe there are times when temptations to commit crime are greater than at others; for example, when one has been idle for a long time, young men who live in idleness, or have no trade, or are out of employment, or during the time of financial depression, or when under the influence of liquor, or when one has become improvident; of course, certain associations promote crime, such as bad company, bad books, bad amusements and bad homes; still young men are the first victims on all such occasions.
Among the great generators of crime to-day, among young men, I regard the gin mill, the pool room, the dive, the play house and the vile literature that gives its readers a detailed account of the daily murders, robberies and other crimes as the worst.
I am satisfied the Dime Novel and other yellow covered books are crime producers and generate criminal instincts. We have seen men who have become criminals in heart and mind by absorbing criminal ideas in bad books and papers. After reading the hairbreadth escapes of Jesse James and other noted desperadoes, or how some stage coach or express train had been “held up” by Western bandits, the mind becomes impressed, fear of consequences is driven away from the conscience, and the individual is ready to commit any kind of deed.
Hundreds of young men who are serving time in Elmira and Sing Sing to-day, lay the beginning of their downfall to bad books and papers that demoralized their nature. Modern journalism takes a hand in ruining young lives; for example, when a murder or robbery has been committed every detail is furnished by some of the morning papers. The ghastly work is gloated over, so that those who are morbidly minded, are for the time being hypnotized. The papers usually make a hero out of the criminal and hold him up before the people as one to be emulated, rather than shunned. Under such circumstances it is not to be wondered at that young men become criminals.
Thousands of young men work in this City as clerks, bookkeepers and salesmen in stores and offices. In most cases the salary is very small—enough barely to live on. Some of them, however, insist on going to the theatre and other places of amusement. Then they enter society, not necessarily what is called the “four hundred,” but society that is above their own social standing. They have an insane desire to dress like millionaires, and as they cannot do this on the small salary they receive, they feel compelled to steal their employers’ money to keep up a false appearance.
Many young men are in prison because they stole money to “gamble on margins.” For a time they used their own small salaries, when that gave out they forged a check or raised the figures on which to secure ready money. They tried to get rich quick.
There is the case of a young man in Jersey City who was arrested while he was being married, after having stolen from his employers $6,000. The marriage ceremony and the entire occasion looked as if he belonged to a royal family. The young man was a broker’s messenger on ten dollars a week. His work was to carry the daily balances to the Clearing House. On his way to that institution he was able to change the figures on the balance sheet and pocket the money. In a year he had over six thousand dollars in his own name. He is now in prison for his crime and has long since discovered that “The way of the transgressor is hard.”
Another young man who was the assistant teller in an uptown bank stole $40,000 and the only excuse he gave was that others were doing the same thing. He afterwards confessed that he had to do it in order to keep up “style;” he lived like a millionaire in fine apartments on the upper west side; his wife dressed in the best furs and jewelry that his ill-gotten gains could furnish.
Another young man stole over ninety thousand dollars from a city institution and fled to parts unknown. When an investigation was made it was found that he had lived in an elegant apartment on the West Side and besides kept a team of horses and a woman whose diamonds were a marvel to the community.
Another thing that imperils the prospects of the young men, is bad company. The old saying is still true, “A man is known by the company he keeps.” “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Every self-respecting young man should shun the idler, the loafer, and the skeptic. During the past few years, I have asked hundreds of young men, whom I have met in prison, what led them into crime, and they invariably replied, “Bad companions.“ When the police of New York are asked to look for law breakers, they usually find them among the gangs of loafers and hoodlums that hang out around the saloons and other vile dens in the city.
There are five hundred thousand young men in New York who at present seem to be beyond the pale of the churches and the Young Men’s Christian Associations. But they are not hopeless, nor are they beyond the reach of kindness and the gospel of Jesus Christ. But there seems to be no particular agency at work trying to reach this class before they have become tramps and criminals, except the rescue missions. It is true there is an eternal struggle going on between good and evil and it is becoming more intense every year, but the church should take part in it and seek to save the young before they become law breakers.
Once upon a time the Young Men’s Christian Association was a moral force in the community and aided young mechanics and store keepers and clerks to rise to independence, but not now. They are now working mainly to reach rich men’s sons. In some Associations rich young “bloods” go there simply to play pool and when the place is closed at night retire to some gin mill where they can finish the game. But what about the tens of thousands of young chaps who hang around the gin mill, simply because they have no money to pay the steep price for a membership ticket in the Y. M. C. A. or respectable church club?
Would to God some Andrew Carnegie or Morgan or even a John D. would put the money up to erect a half a dozen of such places for poor but honest young men? Make them like the Cooper Union with a gymnasium attached. Serve meals at cost, have an employment bureau, throw out a shingle inviting all young men to come in without respect to race or creed. If you speak to some of these young men about the twentieth century church, they will swear at you. You know the Church is closed as tight as a clam six days in the week. What some of these young men want to see is persons that love God and their fellow men, and then show it by helping them into a better life.
CHAPTER XIX
OUR POLICE GUARDIANS
This is a practical age, and the people demand of their servants, the Police, practical up-to-date methods in the prevention and suppression of crime, and no matter what other virtues our civic guardians may possess, the old adage that “Prevention is better than cure,” will always remain the true motto by which our police will be judged as the real protectors of our city.
Under the bi-partisan Commission which controlled the Department for many years, the practical work of the force was intrusted to an experienced officer known as the Superintendent. This man knew every detail of the department and could not be deceived by any one, as he grew up with the system.
During the past fifty years New York has had some of the brainiest and shrewdest of Superintendents, but they could not bring about needed reforms because of the controlling power of politics. They were Superintendents only in name! The entire inefficiency of the police the past fifty years must be laid to politics and graft. Rid the Department of these two excresencies and you have one of the best police systems in the world.
During the past year the sickening game of politics has been played to an excess never before known, so as to keep in power for four years more a gang of mean grafters. How long it is going to last no one can tell.
From “Harper’s Weekly.” Copyright. 1909, by Harper & Brothers.
Police Commissioner Baker. Appointed July 1, 1909.
It is an undeniable fact that for forty years or more 300 Mulberry Street has been the “happy hunting ground” for politicians of every creed. Some went there to exercise the power of a “pull,” while others had axes to grind. Here the ward “heeler,” in the language of the Roman Tacitus, “could exercise the power of a king with the temper of a slave.” And often removed faithful officers who would not do his bidding. It is not a great while ago when if a policeman dared to do his duty by arresting a saloon keeper, a gambler or a dive keeper he at once became a marked man. Some politician at once became his Nemesis and “for the good of the service” had him removed among the goats in the upper Bronx, or, since the union of the five boroughs, he might be sent to Far Rockaway or even to Staten Island. If, on the other hand, he wilfully evaded his duty as a policeman his superior might prefer charges against him and if found guilty he would either be fined or dismissed from the service. The life of the faithful officer, therefore, has been a hard one. He was like the man who was between the Devil and the deep sea, when he did his duty he was persecuted, when he did not, he was “broke,” provided, of course, he had no “pull.”
The Lexow Investigating Committee showed that many police officials from Commissioners down to patrolmen were in the business for “graft.” In those days nearly all promotions cost money. An inspectorship meant a fortune for some man, a captaincy cost as high as $20,000 and even higher. But the bi-partisan Commission was mainly responsible for this shameful corruption. Many high officials were involved in the scandals, while the rank and file were more or less affected. It is our firm opinion that if the police were protected in the line of their daily duty, freed from the domination of the ward “heeler” and given to understand that they could be promoted only on the ground of efficiency and meritorious conduct, no body of men in the world would be more faithful to the public interest.
The result of the Lexow investigation was that nearly fifty Police Inspectors, Captains and wardmen were indicted for bribery and other offences against the law, but only one man suffered imprisonment. All the others fought for vindication in the Courts and succeeded in having the indictments in every case dismissed.
It is a foregone conclusion in the minds of those best able to judge that the man who is to rightly control the New York Police must be one of their own number, an experienced officer, paid a good salary so that he may be honest in his relations to the City Government, and just to the men under him. Indeed, the only way to keep the police situation within proper bounds is to put the entire force in the hands of a practical, level headed honest man. Give him a free hand and hold him responsible for keeping the city clear of crime. Then let this official put the crime of the city up to the Inspectors, holding each of them responsible for his own district. In turn let the Inspectors hold each Captain responsible for the condition of his own precinct. When the Captain of the Precinct finds that he cannot shift the responsibility on somebody else he will do his duty or get out. Only in this way shall we have real police efficiency.
Since January 1900 the police of Greater New York have been in charge of single-headed Commissioners; each in turn ruled the department, viz: Ex-Senator Murphy, Col. Partridge, General Greene, ex-Congressman McAdoo, General Bingham and Commissioner Baker. They were all good men in private life but some were sadly deficient in the experience that pertained to police matters. Each Commissioner made serious mistakes from start to finish which would not have taken place had he been familiar with the routine of the department. And each Commissioner in his turn complained that he had been grossly deceived by the higher officials of the Department when he tried to bring about any lasting reforms. Had these men been practical policemen it would have been impossible to have deceived them.
If you put an inexperienced man in charge of a railroad or a large factory in two years it is more than likely that one or both will be in the hands of a receiver. And every time you put an inexperienced outsider in charge of the Police Department he will fail utterly to do the best work.
On the first of January, 1909, the Police force of Greater New York consisted of 1 Commissioner, 4 Deputy Commissioners, 17 Inspectors, 25 Surgeons, 91 Captains, 627 Lieutenants, 585 Sergeants, 8,239 Patrolmen, 70 Matrons, 194 Doormen, together with 10 others who are classed as telegraph men and boiler inspectors, making a grand total of over 10,000 in the Department.
During the past year or two Commissioner Bingham asked for several hundred men and $50,000 a year for a Secret Service. It goes without saying that these Secret Service men would be used not only to watch some of the men now in the Department, but the blackhanders, anarchists and other criminal conspirators that hang around the city. But it is not more policemen the city needs as much as the system thoroughly reorganized.
The Parkhurst Society with a dozen of men has often been able to do more for the city than a whole platoon of policemen.
There is room in New York for hundreds of plain clothes men, to deal with certain kinds of crime, like the Secret Service men of the United States Government. It is not necessary to keep policemen in uniform patrolling the city. Much more crime would be discovered if they went about in citizens’ dress. We would like to suggest to the Commissioner the propriety of selecting a hundred strong-minded women detectives with full authority to make arrests, and putting them in those localities that are now infested with the worst female characters. We believe before long they would put such women crooks out of business.