The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-07-18
ExTRAvAGANCE OF BRITISH
 WOMAN MONEY WkSTER
 ECLIPSES NOTED SPENDERS

New York, July Is - "Is it the spender Or the miser who makes the world go round?"
 Thus demands Mrs. Smith-Wi1kin- son, of a bewjldered world.
 Truly the English spendthrift has made heads, at least, go around in that dear Paris, where she spent five million in two weeks.
 The lady is surely careless with coin- Not content with the hats to be bought along the Rue de la. Pa1x,
 Madame Monte Carlo,' as the stun ned citizens of Paris dub her, found d bargain in useless crowns, this especial one being that of the ill., fated Czarina, the price s3,300.o0O.
 Among other trinkets she picked
 up in France were the Shrewsbury pearls, price half a million. Then gowns, loose diamonds 10 sew on her
 dresses, reupholstering of autos and of private suites ran into millions And this strange woman defends herself with the plea that she can not spend her income, which reaches thirty millions.
 Some Other Noted Spenders. Though apparently champion of the spending ring. Mrs. Smith -Wilk- | inson is not the first person to enjoy wasting money. There have been those who blazed the trail for her and who esta blished precedents and high marks for wasting long before the gay Britisher came to dazzle the l Continent.
 There was our own Coal Oil John ny, who at the age of twenty-one 1 left the oil fields of Pennsylvania to visit New York and show the old res idents what a large evening looked | like.
 John W. Steele-his real name l had a nice little way of getting what | he wanted He selected not only 1 ss,000 worth of clothes of a fine
 morning. not only bought cabs to 1 nr,t hut
 perfectly willing to purchase such things as revenge, for instance. Staying at a hotel during his sen
 sational visit to New York, he found 1 that a certain clerk was too indif- | ferent to him importance. Johnny l bought the hotel. fired the bored
 clerk and opened the doors to the l public. to let who would enter, eat
 drink or dwell there. in. This cost
 a million dollars that one day. i Alas, in four years Coal Oil John ny became bankrupt. He had to go | back to the labor which had formerly
 netted him but s2 a day. When he | died, at seventy-seven, he ha d been
 earning $50 a month.
 make our Pennsylvania lad look like
 tightwad?
 And yet there are other women whom we thought wild wasters until
 we heard of the golden blaze that has i come out of England.
 Mrs. Anthony Caused Stir.  There was Mrs. Charles Anthony, 1 o1s Muncie, Ind, who went in for gold | watches on evening slippers. diamond | heels, armlets gleam.ng with gems. l When visiting here a few years ago | she wore a contra ption that looked
 like diamond handcuffs. It dazzled ] Peacock Alley dizzy.
 1 And she was considered a wild | spendthrift.
 Not long before that time the mur- | der by his wife of Jacques Le5audy, 1 self styled Emperor of the Sahara ,'' 1 brought out the story of his ezcesses l and extravagances, which often took | un amusing turn.
 l Lebaudy was believed to be insane. | He was at times placed in sanitar- ] iums, Perhaps this explains the odd | and spectacular nature of his expen- | dttures and escapades. Son of Jules
 Lebaudy, late sugar king of France. | the Emperor" in 1903. went to Lon don. There he had fitted up for his
 use a ma gnificent suite in the Savoy. He called himself by the royal title mentioned. He made appeals to diff