Why Do They Do It?

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIX, Issue 21, 21 May 1913, Page 6

Why Do They Do It?

the New Vork Times is responsible for the statement that the baggage of women is regularly searched at the leading metropolitan hotels in order to recover the towels and linen that the guests have stolen from their rooms. The trunks on their way down are carried on as though by accident, to the basement, and there they a’l-e opened by the house detective, who carefully removes the purloined property, repacks and relocks the trunks and returns them to their owner. Nothing is said to the guest, who iis allowed to go upon her way and presumably to wonder what has become of the loot when she unpacks her baggage. The hotel people assume that the woman guest may steal if she gets a chance, just ais a magpie will steal. They do not resent the theft, but they will quietly recover the property. The stealing of silverware is treated differently. The duty of detection is laid upon the waiter, who knows exactly how much silverware has been placed at each plate and who notices instantly when a piece disappears and reports the loss to the office. The value is then added to the bill, the entry being made without evasion or concealment. The lady’s escort can challenge the bill if he likes, but as a matter of fact he never does. ■He pays up as though he had not observed the incriminating entry. Possibly he talks to the lady afterwards, but that would naturally depend somewhat on their relationships. And these little occurrences are by no means rare. They happen on an average once a day in every large hotel in New York and with almost astounding, frequency in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

What ma ken a woman stealt No one seems to know, except that “it is their jiature to,” as -the hymn sayn. A house detective of a big Broadway hotel says: The trunks we have to riile to rescue the house linen belong to women that in nine eases out of ten could buy up our whole supply with one day’s pin money. They don’t take things because they need them. They will steal a flvecent towel from a hotel to cover thq skirt of a Paquin gown. They just seem to ios? sight of property rights in •the matter of hotel linen.