of the _finesse_ by which, in spite of
the Argus eyes of the watchers, clerks, visitors and customers, the
thief generally contrives to escape detection. It goes without saying
that there are adroit and dexterous shop-lifters of both sexes, while
the manner of conducting their operations is as diverse as can well be
conceived.

The annual thefts of goods from the retail stores of this city alone
aggregate an almost fabulous sum. It is very difficult to reach a
reliable approximation of the total amount thus stolen, because
store-keepers are naturally averse to having their losses from this
source known. As a prominent Sixth-avenue gentleman once remarked, "If I
should tell how much I annually lost through thieves, or suffered by
shop-lifters, I would have the entire band occasionally paying me
visits, thinking I had not provided myself with the usual safe-guards
against them." Nevertheless, it can be stated as an absolute fact that
not less than half a million dollars' worth of goods yearly disappear
from the stores through shop-lifters, embracing all kinds of articles,
from diamonds to penny fans.

The professional diamond and jewelry thief, however, is not to be
confounded with the shop-lifter, for the former employs quite a
different _modus operandi_ in capturing his illicit goods. The diamond
thief has been known to display the most fertile ingenuity in devising
schemes to rob the unwary though generally alert jeweler. An instance is
recorded of a thief entering a jewelry store, leaving his "pal" outside
to look in through the window, asking to see some diamond rings. While
pretending to examine them with severe criticism, and keeping the
salesman engaged, he cleverly attached one end of the string, held by
his confederate outside, to several of the most valuable, and quietly
dropped them at his feet. His "pal" then quietly pulled them along the
floor, out through the door, into the street and decamped. A search of
the thief who remained behind disclosed nothing and, as proof was thus
wanting, he had to be discharged.

The female shop-lifter is generally a woman well known to the police, as
her picture will, in nearly every case, be found in the Rogues' Gallery
at Police Headquarters. Usually, when she discovers that her actions are
watched and her movements shadowed, she quietly folds her tent and
proceeds to some other city where she is comparatively a stranger, and
where, unsuspected, she can ply her nefariou