FRENZIED FEMALE FINANCIERS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 282, 22 August 1908, Page 11

FRENZIED FEMALE FINANCIERS

Under this heading a woman who writes in an American magazine has a great deal to say that is amusing about tho freaks and foibles of women who do business at banliß, and she . illustrates her article _ with facsimiles of cheques that aro'almost inciedibly idiotic. Now' it is quito truo that coin" to a bank is, for the ordinary woman, a fearsome thing, and this probably becauso of her exaggerated revorenco. for order and routine. She knows that banks have many and various mysterious methods of doing business,and . she fears that the smallest infringement' of their unknown rules may prevent the success of her painful attempts to bank a sum of money or draw a cheque. And so she loses her head altogether, .and does the oddest things at first. But it is not to be supposed that many of them are as odd as this American lady says. She shows cheques bearing sucli notes as these "To Kate from Mother. Merry Christmas." This was the result of asking tho lady with the cheque tp endorse it. Another cheque, initialled, but not signed, has a postcript. "Don't pay. this until you hear from mo by 'phone." ' ■: A story is told of a wifo who was notified that her account had been over-drawn, but continued to draw cheques. Finally,. an_ official of tho bank, who was a warm personal friend of tho' depositor's husband, wrote a noto to him and explained the situation. The husband, genuinely provoked at such irregular business methods, called his wife rather - sharply to task. Sho listened to him quietly until ho had quito finished; then producing her cheque-book condescendingly,' sho replied that sho was about to provo whero.. both ho and his friend, the official, wero both at fault, and both duo with proper and abject apologies.. Forthwith sho. showed him, leaf by leaf, that she had not" used all tho blank cheques in tho book; that, indeed, she had eight or ten blank cheques ' loft. ■ The husband went to the bank tho nest morning and explained his wife's view of tho situation to'his financial friend. Ono woman holding a remarkably responsible government position that required a more than ordinary amount of brains to fill, caused a run on the bank through her anxiety jj. a ehequo marked "not sufficient funds." Sho told all tho women in her offico who banked there, that tho bank did not possess .enough money to pay her £3 cheque. They told their . friends and they theirs, and. they wrote and telephoned tho warning, and tho r result ' was that next day tho bank was besieged with a crowd of cxcited women demanding their money., Fortunately ..the hank was in a position to stand tho. strain. ; A president of ono of tho big banks in AVashington, whero tho

United States has ■**«<*" *>■"»• . large amounts on , ... deposit, takes the female financier situation in a strictly philosophical manner. His claim is that femalo financiering is.hereditary; for sinco the time of Moses, when Pharaoh's daughter found a little prophet in the .rushes on the hank, the women have, in one way or another, had small financial transactions oil the side. He declares that most women would rather have an overdrawn bank-account than a_ solid-silver purse filled .with golden coins °l 1 / e S"V . T l 1<?lr en ioyment is a littlo siiorb or hysterical when from "my bank" is received a neatly printed slip requesting ?« i* • i nc^ 0 * n rc S ar d to lier account, wiiicu appears to.be overdrawn two dollars and fifty cents."