TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13110, 8 May 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Sydney shopkeepers are The Wily complaining about the Shoplifter, increase in elhop-lifting, ■wihich. they say, is meanly done by rc&peetaJble-lookitug women, and even iby TOmea of (high social standing. Some of the methods of these piMerore are'decidedly 'artistic, if ewdh a word can be applied to such & subject. One woman- held her skints up tin such a peouliar manner thai suspicion, became directed to her, and uAfcimately suspicion became certainty. On 'being asked to step along to <bhe office, she smilingly assented. On her way eh© let her skirt lull, and a Qieap of leco and other material fell out on <tho floor, at which, she expressed great surprise. She had been accustomed to sweep email artdotee into the folds of Jmw skirt, and walk off -with thorn. The dhoplifter proves the trutih of tihe axiom that fortune favours the brave, amd the speotoolft of a woman walking out of i store with an exipeneXve stoian garment on her Ehoulders is not uoxcomonon. The case was stated of one pilferer who actuary walked into a ahow-axxwn, tried" on a complete co&----tume,. and walked out wearing it without causing suspicion. JBuik is not a drawback in an article. A woman his been known to actually conceal l and waiLk out with a 50 yards roll of silk. Children are often the innocent mediums of theftj for at is very easy to place a child on a counter, and, when lifting it off, remove a <juajLtity of clothing. Another track is to giv© achild ia itoy for its inspection, eoud aiHow it to keep the article if, tibe shopmaw does not lhappen to be looking. Such tOiieving is not xinkaiown among men, but, in the opinion of one shopkeeper, "it •takes a woman to do the job properly." The shopkeeper is beset with difficulties dn coping with the evil. A woman caught red4handed may give an explanation wihdch compels tie ehopkooperj whatever he may think, to admit that the affair is merely an mifortuna-to mdstako. And should a (person c3bairgcd with theft be jkToved' to bo inmocenit t!h-e dhopkeeper is in a decidedly unpdeasant ,posation. Hβ knows, too, that if a shop assistant shows his suspkaons to ■a customer that customer is not likeJy to come (back. Shopkeepers com>pla,im thit Mogistrat-es ere too lenient with offenders, and that repeated fines aro of 3ittle avail. The pundehment should be imprisonmont after the first offence, irrespective of sex or social) statue.

The proposal to collect Statiuo £200,000 far a memoriei or to Sha-kcepearo is not Theatre ? ihivdng a. smooth passage. A Diumber of ilaterary men aoid actors fear "that t!he pronjictt«?<m w.idl anake themselves ridiculous in offering a mere statue to tho memory of tthe world's greatest jpoet, three centuries after his dearth. There is a feel-ing that tiho long delay, followed by such action, may bo taken as m indication tihat tlho English ha-ve, so far, not 'been quite sure of the miomt and respeotaibility of their greatest writer, but are now conivinoxl that he cam be accepted at his proper worth in, his own country. "Many of the literary tmen of the day, humaliiited almost to (tears, aro trying to persuade the committee whsch has tho matter in (band, to abandon the banality of erecting a statue to <i man who built his own impeiishable memorial long ago," writes the London correspondent of the "Age," "and the-v urge that if public enoney is io bo ep<yiit it ought to be devoted to the «st«.bli*flimont of a national theatre, in which Shakespeare's works could be fittingly produced." Mr Piiiero describes the "notion of offering a tribute to Shakespeare iby dumping down a heap of statuary in Mar yifbono road" as ridiculous, i.nd Mr Henry Arthur .lon<?s adds the epithet heart-breaking. The author of "The Liars" talks of "a dead academic futility," and "'a grotesque monument to our own naive incompetence." Pirofeesor Ghurtan Collins regards the memorial us a "monstrously ridiculous 6iroeir fruity," e<nd-Mr Arthur Symons is satisfied that it will be 'i "public desecxat-ioai of Shakespeare's memory." "The English," Mr Laurence CJomnie ibitterly remarks,