ENTRE NOUS.

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 723, 9 May 1914, Page 10

ENTRE NOUS.

THE English suffragette ladies are . engaged with increasing activity on their agitation against the last. In this respecit they are doing excellent work % and so-called advanced women in Maoriland would do well to consider it. The lash is barbarous as a punishment and useless as a deterrent. It belongs to the age of the thumbscrew and the rack. All the leading criminologists of the. world are utterly opposed to it. * * * ' * The latest in the trust line is a pickpocket trust, which, according to a New York city. magistrate, exists and flourishes thereabouts. He says, it has unlimited capital, an invisible _ -board of •directors, permanently retained senior , counsel, and junior counsellors galore. It can give bail at'a moment's notive, and individual sureties ad libitum. No 'trust ,is better organised—a perfect system prevails. Each member has his own territorial district laid out for him to '/'work/' and he "works" it for all it is ;worth.... Rosinsky, Smith,, and Davis, for instance, are assigned to a subway station in • Forty-second-street. Rosinsky enters the car; close to him, sometimes behind him and sometimes alongside of him, are Smith and Davis. Rosinsky has picked out a man that "looks good" to him; the car is crowded, so he touches the side pocket of the passenger, fut "feels"- nothing. He then passes his hand deftly under the passenger's coat and feels his hip pocket. Yes, there is 'something thick there; Rosinsky feels sure it is a. wallet. The train is now slowing; in a moment lt_will move again, and then jerk, and Rosinsky knows well it will give this sudden lurch; that is the psychological moment. As the lurch comes, Rosinsky "accidentally" falls against his victim, and the wallet is his. It is immediately passed over to Smith, and Smith is gradually but surely moving away.. The train moves into the .Grand Central station, stops, and all three pass out. The trick has been a success. Smith, Rosinsky and Co. count the amount contained in the wallet, pass the wallet and contents to a fourth confederate, who leaves for headquarters. * * * * Rosinsky, Smith, and Davis are now ready for the next "touch," or "dip." The Grand Central is a hotbed for jostling. Here are met lambs from all parts of the country, and they come with thick wallets, bent on having a good time and painting the town a rich vermilion. Our worthies have spotted the real thing, who has come in from the waybacks to have a good time. Rosinsky is right behind him. and has felt his fat wallet, which sticks out from the right hip pocket. Again the car is packed. Smith, who is standing to the left of the "hayseed.," suddenlv taps him on 'the shoulder, and says. "Excuse me : is

this an express or a local train?" to which "hayseed" replies: "I don't know what it is,' but I know it stops at City Hall, for the sign on the window says so." By that time the train has stopped and Rosinsky get off. While Smith has asked the question and diverted attention, "hayseed's" pocket-book was 'lifted," but the victim was to interested in answering Smith to notice it. Soon the visitor misses his wallet and yells: "My pocket-book is gone ! Some one here has it.' Smith, among others, sympathises, says it is dreadful, takes a deep interest, proffers all kind of sympathy and help—and gets off at the next station, advising "hayseed" to see a policeman. Rosinsky and Davis, having ascertained the amount in the wallet, hand it over to a confederate at the station and then cross over to return to the Grand Central Station. In cases where they are caught red-handed and "run in," bail is immediately forthcoming, and to show the strength of the trust it is said that, complainants are frequently "got at" either with offers »f money, ranging from £1 up to £1000, and, failing these, with threats. ■*, * * * The police arrested a' Melbourne woman the other day. She was. loitering about, and refused to go home. "My husband has such a terrible temper," she said, "that I thought it would be safer for me to be locked up." And still they come. * * * * American papers show that the tango is as popular as ever in New York society, even in mid-Lent. Another moist popular dance is the Maxixe, which is said to be far more startling arid energetic than the tango. It rather looks as if society. is defying the Pope and the Presbyterians, and this is surely very wicked and sad. At the same time, society women are sewing for charities. This is a great Stupidity. U a society woman spends a pound on charities for the poor, the poor is likely to benefit more than if she sewed for the year; and if she paid the poor properly to do her own sewing, the poor would be better off still. * * * • * The Independent Salon in Paris this year wins derision as a jumble of freaks. The Futurist statuary is like nothing human, and people stand and laugh at it till they feel ill. The Futurists are said to get every week closer to the avowal of open lunacy. * * * * Time will mellow* the decorations of the Grand, Opera House. For the present they are too varied and too vivid, and the effect on the eye is tiring. There is no point of rest : The horrid little electric lights that stibk out like pimples from the fronts of the boxes should certainly be removed forthwith. In other respects the big new theatre is very satisfactory. It is remarkably free of draughts, its acoustics are excellent, and there is no echo. A word spoken on the stage can be heard distinctly the far?thest corner of the house.. It is a comfortable theatre in the main; but the 'orchestral stalls are too narrow and too cram-ned. * * * * At a recent meeting of New York hotel ■ proprietors, some interesting-facts cnrre to light: One woman was disoov<*v*r\ to hove visited'five hotels on five <;no!poja=ive evenings, and in each ■ in-

stance caused a bowl of soup to, be upset over] her gown, for which she claimed damages.- Other proprietors brought forth evidence which showed that a large number of !New York women, whenever they required a new dress, just victimised an hotel by "deliberately jostling; a waiter so that he would _ spill food upon them!" This evidently is the same type of individual who will actually court danger, and wilfully obstruct and be run over by a motor car, and then claim damages for a good round sum. An easy way of earning money, certainly,' but perhaps a trifle risky. ■***■*. Victoria is crowing over a world's championship it has just won. This is by six white Leghorn hens, the true white hopes, which have laid 1668 eggs in twelve months, and-1668, not out,\is the highest score ever compiled in one innings by six hens in any part of the world.