“The Shoplifter”

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19 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Set). “The Shoplifter” is a melodrama of the type that makes its greatest appeal to a small time audience. It contains all of the salient points that made the melos of a decade ago the popular entertainment for the shop girl and her beau. The plot of “The Shoplifter” smacks a little of the Horatio Alger stories. This has been modernized and placed into a set and environment similar to that of the first act of “Within the Law.” There is the mighty boss of the department close-fisted and grasping, the private detective, the shoplifter and all the attendant features that go with three principal characters of this sort. The department store has been systematically robbed for several weeks; the regular house staff of coppers cannot find the thief; an agency man is called in and he locates the crook. She proves to be the sister of one of the former employees of the store, who was injured while working and is at present in a hospital. There is a noted European surgeon visiting America. He is told of the boy’s case and although his fee is never under $1,000 he is willing to attend to this case for $300. Because of the fact that a jury refused to award her brother any damages for the injuries he received by falling down the elevator shaft in old flint-fist’s store, the girl starts stealing to get the required amount. She is caught and confesses and as she is about to be taken to the police station the proprietor’s own daughter is brought into his office in an unconscious condition, she having fallen down the same elevator shaft as the boy .At the sight of his own offering’s suffering the boss undergoes a change of heart and refuses to appear against the shoplifter. The act closed a strong favorite on the American Roof.

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