The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-02-11
FAiR WOMAN AND HER BAaz.


have brought them forward in the
light of promoters and spectators on
a large account. Now the bankers
may take a more serious velw OF
woman's financial operation.
1t is only within the last twenty
years that women as rule have had
their own bank accounts and paid bills
with their own personal checks. Now
adays, though, it is the fashion for a
woman to have her own account
and her special check book, sometimes
with secretary to keep it in order.
The secretary is needed because
even clever women are lamentably
wanting when it comes to the man
agement of the smallest transaction
with bank. They have no idea Of
business and grow nervous aud ex-
cited over trifes.
So while banks have had to recog-
nize women as among the moneyed
ones of the earth, they have catered
to them very much as they might to
children. The rule of excessive
courtesy to women is nowhere so
strictly enforced as in the banks of
New York.
1t may not be owing to chivalry
so much as to the fact that the women
depositors are usually relatives of the
important men doing business with the
banks. A man gives his wife a bank
account as Christmas gift and the
cashier knows that he is good for a
large amount. So everything is done
to make banking pleasant for the wo-
man depositor.
At one or two New York banks
which cater especially to women there
is man to open the carriage door,
an awning on wet days and the dain-
tiest parlors for the transaction of bus
mess. At the same banks men must
stand in line waiting their turn.
These bank parlors are furnished
with rugs and palms, comfortable
chairs and little writing tables pro-
vided with good pens, ink and blot
tiers. There are retiring rooms with
maids in attendance. mirrors, powder
puffs and the toilet luxuries dear to
feminine hearts.
The woman who begins to manage
her allowance under these auspices is
often an interesting study. If she
were not such nuisance the clerks
could afford to be amused by her ab-
solute lack of knowledge of the right
way to do things in a bank.
Her account is increased monthly
by generous check from her husband
which keeps it running, no matter
what she may do, and so she remains
depositor in excellent standing, even
though she comes perilously near to
breaking all the banking rules. So
many errors are made that most of the
banks dealing with women have a
printed set of instructions, carefully
worded in the simplest way, explain
ing the necessity for indorsing checks
of filling out dates and signing the
same signature always.
Still, no matter how many mistakes
of this sort women make, they are
always explained away, sometimes
with tears. Then apologies are made
by the bank officials, after which my
lady goes on her way smiling, although
she may have entered in wretchedly
nervous state of mind because she has
torn up check she made out wrong
ly aud fancies that she has forfeited
the cash unless she explains.
Then there is the blase young wo-
man who drops in on her way to
luncheon or matinee and asks for a
hundred when she has only twenty
in the bank-or who wishes to pay a
bridge whist debt and must tell the
cashier all about it. In fact, the
woman depositor is the despair of
bank tellers and to a certain degree
laxity is permitted in dealing with
them which would never be accorded
to men.
Quite different, of course, are the
thewomen who line up every week al
the window of the downtown savings
banks, determined to save at all haz-
ards and with sacrifices to that end
we'll in evidence. There is little
courtesy wasted on these women, al
though bank clerks say that wo
men of the richer class and of bet
ter education are quite as stupid te
deal with in money matters.
"Women are hopeless in theil
dealings with banks" said the cash
ier of one uptown institution in which
many feminine accounts are ca rried
"The woman who will take $50 o.
500 in cash and handle it carefully
becomes ratified when she deals will
checks and does the most absurd ane
inexplicable things.
"In the first place, it is surprising
how many women are unaccustomee
to using pen and ink. In late year.
the telephone has done away with thu
necessity of writing much, and many
women of reasonable education don
seem to be able to write intelligently
that is to say, they don't know tn,
day of the week or of the month ane
disregard the calendar, they cam
sign their names properly, or pune
tuate or abbreviate, although as con
versationalist they are beyond re
proach.
IA woman will tear up six check
before she succeeds in making on
one. Then she will neglect to mum
Der the stubs, and the result is chao
when it comes to balance.
"a woman will be entirely uncon
scious that she has overdrawn twent,
or thirty dollars. Some of them ar
quite sure that we are approprlatinl
their funds and have no hesitation II
telling us so. There are others
though, who come in wild eyed t
make deposits when the bank doc
opens in the morning, thinking the.
are on their last cent, when the,
~aatf,, howe hundred or more to thei