Lived By Her Wits

"There have been many extraordinary storfes told of the ingenuity of thieves in the pursuit of their nef arious calling, but a case which occurred while I was at Chatham recently beats anything 1 ever heard," remarked a newly-arrived Englishman to a Philadelphia Inquirer man. "A girl was brought bef ore the pólice court on the charge of robbing milliners' shops. She was only fourteen years of age and of very innocent appearance. What puzzled the magistrate was that none of the witnesses ever saw her take anything, or at least they would not swear to it, although after 6he had left a shop where she had been making a purchase articles of value were missed. When arrested nothing was found upon her. The mag-istrate said he could not conviet the girl upon mere suspicion, and then began to crossexamine her himself in a kind, fatherly way which touched her henrt and she broke down and confessed that she was guilty and explained her methods lo the astonishment and amusement of the court and spectators. It seems that she had a tame white rat which she oarried about with her in a muff. She would enter a shop full of firls and womcn and ask the price of some article, and while looking at it contrive to drop the rodent on the floor. Any one can imagine the result. Those near the door dashed into the Street, while the employés jumped on the counters and chairs, wrapping their petticoats tip'ht round their ankles and 'screamed like mad,' as the prisoner expressed it, amid the laughter of the court, in spite of the assurances that the rat was quite tame. In the scrimmage she would quietly help herself to what she wanted, catch the rat, put it in her mufï, apologize and walk off. The magistrate said that on account of her youth, and as she had voluntarily coniessed to the thefts, he would give her one more chance, and bound her over in the sum of fifty pounds sterling - two hundred and fifty dollars of your money - to come up for judgment when called upon. Of oourse her friends soon entered the required bonds, and Mary Barton will have to find some other place to practice on the weakness of her sex. The tame-rst dodge won't work in Chatham any more."