The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-19
MORTGAGES. FOR THE COW MS
HOW SOME WOMEN GET
 THEIR
Most Splendid Apparel -Dressmakers
 Sure Go Be PRids

Dinner gown mortgages, or, to be ac-
 curate, mortgages because of the dinner gown, are now included among the | financial transactions of New York fashionable women. To the fashionable | dressmaker belongs the distinction of
 being primarily their projector and pro- moter.
 The fact might never have been gen. erally known had it not been for wis iting Frenchman who thoroughly i'm pressed with some interesting informa- tion on the subject gained one evening from a lady whom he had taken in to dinner, availed himself of the very first
 chance to talk it over at the club. Then the interested members hastened to pa- rade their knowledge before certain of their women friends, who in turn eager
 ly communicated the facts to other Wo-
 men not in the secret, and so the news
 spread,
 Like some other foreign visitors, the
 Frenchman, during his stay in New
 York, marveled at the superb dinner
 gowns which met his eye wherever he
 Went-maveled quite as much at the
 variety of them, each more splendid
 than the last, included in a society wo-
 mans wardrobe as at their apparent costliness; and before long he was ready to believe that in no other coun-
 try of the world is money spent so lav- ishly for Women's clothes as in Amer ica
 He noticed, of course, that in point of magnificence the dinner gown leads all the rest, and that, although the ball gown might be almost passe and com paratively inexpensive, the dinner gown of woman in society invariably reach ed a high water mark of newness of de- sign, rich materials and costly embel- lishments
 These reflections and others he con- fided with enthusiasm, and in his best manner to his partner at the aforemen- toned dinner, at the same time nalvely expressing surprise that SO very many American women were able to lavish such piles of money on one particular article of apparel
 The lady at his side listened beam ingly, and at the end of the champagne course became delightfully."- communica- tive. Said she:
 - If you will promise not to betray me. think I can let you into the secret of how some of the less wealthy women in the social swim manage sometimes to get several thousand dollars worth of dinner gowns in a single season. The reason is simply this: They give their dressmaker mortgage on real estate
 The Frenchman looked blank. The lady proceeded.
 inc American man, as perhaps you. know has got the habit of deeding over to his wife some particular bit of real estate, preferably a city house, not so much from an impulse of generosity as because the transaction may prove to be safeguard should financial dis aster overtake him later For that req son there is host of married of wo- men, as well as of unmarried ones, who own valuable realty both in and out of New York. I myself own the house I, live ina circumstance which my seems to know as well as I do.
 At any rate, not long ago when I went to her establishment to look at 2 lot of new French gowns just brought ''S't gnu III Noustuu6TlCe IOund 01ySeIf quite depressed because I could afford to order only one of them sent home she took me aside and conf1dentiallv whispered that I could order as many gowns as l wanted and be in no hurry paying for them, provided I gave her n return mortgage to their value on my house.
 T stared at her in amazement. and hen, of course, refused her offer point blank, whereupon she coolly remarked hat she was very particular to whom she made such an offer, and that al- 1 'eady several of her best customers had | purchased a quantity of evening gowns l Dn those very terms
 Strange to say, mortgages of this par | icular kind-which, by the way, seldom | un for more than one year-are not | Irawn up in strictly legal form. Never- | heess they are made out after a fash | on which gives the dressmaker a trong enough hold on a customer, who undoubtedly would rather pay the [ mortgage twice over than have the de- ails made public, !