The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-01
I(TsO Q get spending money many rich
 women resort to most extraor-

women fcSoft 10 most eAtTdoI- dinsry schemes. was state ment that appeared recently in a north ern paper, and which naturally caused surprise and some curiosity Expressions of denial have been heard regarding what is said to be the most popular method" in vogue for women to increase their allowance According to this northern paper there are women who form an alliance with their dressmakers to have an overcharge of from $25 to s100 extra put on the gown so that they can get the difference in money handed to them when bills are settled
 Says the writer: "One woman, whose husband Is a millionaire, practices clever ruses all the time to get an extra al- lowanee because she considers her month- ly income too small for her needs. She not only has an understanding with her tailor, but with the shoemaker and in all the shops where she buys that her bills are to be made out with extra charges, the surplus being remltted to her. In this way she gets from $150 to s3oO a month more than her regular all lowance to spend.
 Because her husband is dry goods merchant and not only knows the value of dress materials. but also the cost of hay ing them made, another wealthy wom- an gets her extra spending money by an agreement with the grocer and the butch CT. Every day from one to two extra pounds of meat are charged, fruit is put on the bills that is never bought, and the same scheme Is praetced with all the other varieties of food When the account is settled each month the shop keepers send her checks for the balanees and, as the butler does the buying by her orders, there Is no reason why her hus- band should ever suspect her plans" What Is given as another sure" way woman has of getting more than her husband allows her Is in the large and pretentious establishments where ser wants are employed at from five to teE dollars month extra. The woman keeps an account of what each employe gets and in presenting this to her husband for payment she afterwards In settling with her servants, deducts her own extra charge, which amounts frequently to one hundred or one hundred and fifty dollars month, especially when there Is long list of servants.
 But of all the different methods the one of oyercharglng the tailor is said to be most commonly practieed by women whose husbands are wealthy In emphas- izing the opportunities presented for this new method of graft" it Is pointed out in this article that often tailors have bills against women for $400O and $50OO for six months, and this gives an excel lent chance for the patron to get several hundred dollars extra when the accounts are settled. Ordinarily, unless a woman S husband has almost unlimited wealth, tailors do not let the bill for one season get much larger than from $500 or 5000, before they ask for a settlement Sev- eral years ago some of the smartest dressmaking establishments frequently carried from $3o,OOO 10 $50, 900 indebtedness for a year because the wives of million aires were slow to settle accounts, and would pay all bills but once year, as the custom with so many of them Now, without a written understanding as to the average credit limit, most of the big tailors draw the charge line at 5000 and send in bills constantly when 1t gets that large.
 Birmingham woman who is wealthy in her own name, and whose husband is in group of very rich men, was asked If she believed that women with rich hus- bands would resort to such schemes to increase their allowance
 Well" she said, T think you should ask woman who has to be satisfied with what her husband does, that Is one who is entirely dependent upon her al- lowance. I have my own income, iude- pendent from anything that my husband can say or do, but of course l also have an allowance from him. So far l have not had any annoyance about my allow ance, but 1 certainly think that a woman could possibly enter into an agreement with her tailor to overcharge in order for her to have more spending money If my husband did not give me an ample allowance l would not for a moment re- sort to any kind of a scheme for getting money from him. 1 should feel as if 1t