Page images
PDF
EPUB

Women and Banks

Recently a number of stories have again been told about the original methods adopted by women in managing their bank accounts and check books. These are so amusing, yet lead to so many complications, that one understands why a large Trust Company in Brooklyn has issued a manual of directions to its "women depositors." These have not taken the form of a series of "don'ts," but give the instruction positively. It is stated that it is quite common for a woman to go to a bank and make her deposit as Mary Smith, and sign her first check as Mrs. John Smith. A second source of trouble to bank officials is the tendency of women to overdraw their accounts. Bank officials account for this by stating that women do not fill out their check stubs properly, drawing checks and making no note of it on the stub. Of course the story of the woman who was indignant when told that she had overdrawn her account, and proved the contrary by showing how many checks she had unused in her bank-book, has become folk-lore. One bank has found it necessary to print in the bank-book this bit of information: "This passbook, while kept by the customer, is really the property of the bank, and nothing should be written in it by the depositor. The custom of some persons using their bank pass-books as personal memorandum-books causes endless annoyance and labor to the bank clerk, who has to handle large numbers of these books in a short space of time." It is said that these directions were made necessary because one woman handed in her bank-book to be made up; in it she had put under the last figures made by the bank this memorandum :

[blocks in formation]

The bank official states that this woman was very indignant when told by the clerk that she should not use her bank-book in this way. The Lincoln National Bank, which has a large number of women depositors, has issued the following list of "don'ts:"

Don't draw a check unless you have the money in the bank or in your possession to deposit.

Don't test the courage and generosity of your bank by presenting, or allowing to be presented, your check for a larger sum than your balance.

Don't draw a check and send it to a person out of the city, expecting to make it good before it can possibly get back; sometimes telegraphic advice is asked about such

checks.

Don't exchange checks with anybody; this is called "kiting," and is soon discovered by your bank. It does your friend no good and discredits you.

Don't quarrel with the teller because he does not pay you in money exactly as you wish; as a rule he does the

best he can. In all your intercourse with the bank officers treat them with the same courtesy and candor that you would expect and desire if the situations were reversed.

Don't give your check to a stranger. This is an open door to fraud, and if the bank loses through you it will not feel kindly toward you. When you send your checks out of the city to pay bills, write the name and residence of your payee, thus: "Pay to John Jones & Co., of Boston." This will put your bank on guard if presented at the counter.

Don't commit the folly of supposing that because you trust the bank with money the bank ought to trust you by paying your overdrafts.

Don't suppose you can behave badly in one bank and stand well with the others. Remember there is a Clearing-House.

Don't think it is unreasonable if your bank declines o discount an accommodation note. If you want an Accommodation note discounted, tell your bank frankly hat it is not, in their definition, a business note.

The Household Economic Association The National Household Economic Associaion has organized a branch in New York City. The organization does not expect to accomplish anything this spring beyond organizing for work in the fall. This Economic Association will take up the study of the chemistry of cooking, food adulterations, house sanitation, and physical culture. The beginnings of the Economic Household Associations are usually associated with the Columbian Fair, and are believed to have grown out of the work done at the Fair by women. The idea originated fifteen years ago; it was presented before the famous Chicago Women's Club in a paper. Nothing was done until the Columbian Exposition, when the National Household Economic Association became a fact. Among the many subjects which will be treated by this Economic Association is the domestic servant question. The majority of the members of the Household Economic Association believe that this problem is to be answered through the establishment of training-schools for servants, and this will be made, to a degree, the purpose of their organization. They also go a step further in believing that mistresses must be trained. One of the directors believes that much of the confusion in the domestic servants' problem is due to the lack of standards on the part of mistresses who take into their households servants who cannot read or write, and that it is impos. sible to have intelligent service performed by women too ignorant to read or write.

An Interesting Question

Letters were sent out by Stanford University to seven hundred girls attending the public schools in San Mateo, St. Paul County, Califor nia, asking for answers to the following question:

"What person of whom you have heard or read would you most like to resemble, and why?" The aim of this question was to ascertain the effect of history and literature as studies on the imagination and characters of the students. To the surprise of the educators who tried this experiment, the majority of the seven hundred girls who answered the question desired to resemble some great man. A considerable number

expressed the desire to be strong and brave, rather than to possess the qualities regarded as feminine. A girl of thirteen wrote: "I believe that I would rather resemble a man than a woman, because the deeds of women, although sometimes great, self-sacrificing, and brave, sink into insignificance when compared with the valorous deeds of men. Napoleon Bonaparte, in my fancy, is a hero of heroes." Another girl

wrote: "I would like to resemble Barbara Frietchie because she was such a brave lady, and you know there are not very many brave ladies." The teacher who conducted this analysis urges that it is the duty of instructors, and those who are attempting to form and guide the character and minds of young girls, to place before them historical material that will represent brave, true women, as this desire to emulate men must, in the end, if continued for a long period, eliminate those attractive feminine qualities which, after all is said, are the chief charm of all women.

From a Housewife

Dear Outlook: Your article upon the duties of a "Hungarian housewife" we read and enjoyed very much. The much-talked-of theme of "domestic" is not exhausted, and, as you say of business men, "there must be failures." The great trouble is, as of old, inexperience on both sides. I have heard it brought up against Carlyle that he did so enjoy the wonderful household order"as though all the wheels were oiled "-of the Royalty of England. Order, "the first law of Heaven," is enjoyed by all. There is a charm about it to which we are all susceptible. It can be obtained only by experience and training on both sides. "The art" of housekeeping cannot be born with us any more than any other art. As every home is a little kingdom of itself, so every wife is supposed to be its queen. History tells us all queens have not been like "Victoria the Good," who has made it the business of her life to live for the good of her peoples and their homes. In an article on "Madame Mohl's Salon" in "The Atlantic" some years ago there was this interesting little incident of the Queen: Madame Mohl was visiting at the Dean's, and Lady Stanley, knowing that Madame M. was so unconventional, was hurrying to get into the room before the Queen came and met her guest; she came down and found them seated together and chatting like two school-girls. After the Queen left, she, Lady Stanley, asked Madame M. how she

introduced herself. As the Queen came in, and Madame M. rose to meet her, she said, "So, your Majesty, there is to be no war?" "No, thank God," said the Queen, and they were en rapport at once. Their hearts were "in the right place," and there was sympathy.

To keep house with one servant at the present day, "receive" and "go out " even in a quiet way, is no small thing to do, for housework is a continual round of work; but so is the work of a factory. May it not be that a great trouble is in what I heard a young woman once say, "I like a girl that I can go into the kitchen and find fault with sometimes"? If, like the Queen, we were studying how to rule our little kingdom in the right way, we could see things from both sides and not just from our own. How many of us would be willing to have our daughters go out as servant-girls in the very best family we can think of? When we are inclined to find fault, let us try to fancy our own child in some one's kitchen; then we may be able to practice the "Golden Rule."

A Question for Mothers

M. A. B.

Dear Outlook: I was surprised to find my letter in reply to "A Question for Mothers" in your issue of the 3d, yet was ready to pardon its publication since you deemed it "practicable and suggestive;" but I take exception to your remark that "no one has pointed out a way for a neigh bor to reach the child and help her without appearing to interfere with the mother," etc., etc. Now, this was my intention in the plan suggested -namely, that whenever the child should show this "grief" (or jealousy) in the neighbor's house, something should be done, carefully, judiciously, to put some better feeling into the child's heart. It may be done by a game, or a story with a moral not too sharply emphasized, yet bearing closely upon the failing to be dealt with. Use your powers of mimicry (if you have any such)—this always pleases children as you tell them of some little pigs or dogs who develop the human traits of stinginess, generosity, willfulness, gentleness, jealousy. Ask the children their favorite character in the tale you may have told in this lively way. Tuck in your little bits of moralizing here and there warily as you talk over the story. A too obvious moral is as obnoxious to little folks as to big ones. Will not the child be helped in this way? And is the mother interfered with in the least? I hope some one may give a better suggestion for this particular case, "hit the nail upon the head" more directly and forcibly, than I

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]
[ocr errors][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

This figure in Red on every box.

Your Kitchen Maid whether competent or incompetent, can clean your silver, do it easier, quicker-giving it the silversmith's brilliancy if she uses

ELECTROCON

and your gain is two fold, for she
cannot injure it. Electro-Silicon
never scratches, never wears. It's
unlike any other silver polish. Ask
your grocer for it.

Trial quantity of us for the asking.
Box post-paid, 15 cts. in stamps.
THE ELECTRO SILICON COMPANY, N. Y.

0

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

"Built Like a Watch"

Of all things in the world that should be good, your bicycle should be the best, for it is a friend and companion that will be

taken on many a journey.

The best is none too good, and to have the best you must get a

STERLING

It costs but a trifle more than inferior makes, and it lasts.

SEND FOR CATALOGUE
AGENCIES IN ALL PRINCIPAL CITIES

STERLING CYCLE WORKS

CHICAGO, ILL.

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]
[ocr errors]
[graphic]
« PreviousContinue »