WOMEN WHO PAWN CLOTHES TO GAMBLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 521, 26 November 1928, Page 7

WOMEN WHO PAWN CLOTHES TO GAMBLE

DEALERS’ RICH HARVEST “Where can 1 get a few moije francs so that I can continue to play?” is often the despairing cry of women holidaymakers who haunt the gaming rooms of casinos along the northern coast of Franca. The answer comes from an unexpected quarter, for there are wardrobe dealers from London —women — and men—who make the journey to Boulogne, Wimereux, Le Touquet, Dinard and other French seaside resorts to supply the need. Few women visitors travel without a full complement of clothes of every description. Many of them •'pinch” for 50 weeks in the year to have a “fling” on the Continent, and what daughter of Eve could resist the lure of dainty garments so as to compete with her traditionally more chic French sisters? This is the opportunity of the shrewd wardrobe dealer, who sees a woman without the necessary monev to continue the “play.” “Call on me at the Hotel to-morrow morning, and bring some of your clothes, and I’ll give you a good price for them,” she whispers. The temptation is too great, and the price paid is naturally only a tithe of the actual value. As the garments have been worn the dealer has no difficulty in getting them through the Customs, and she returns to her shop in the West End or the suburbs, chuckling, because she has had a free holiday and handsome profits in addition out. of the sale later of the frocks which were designed to adorn the diningrooms and dance-halls of fashionable French resorts.