Feminine Interests

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 599, 27 February 1929, Page 5

Feminine Interests

I Mundane Musings

Getting an Overdraft For years I have had au unfulfilled i wish. I know it sounds senseless, but • I have wanted to have an overdraft, j or rather to be able to have an overdraft. Looking at it sanely, it seems rather like the infant passion for squeaky shoes, which in the light of later years j are a bugbear and humiliation. But 1 until I have one, I do not believe that S I shall ever get that nagging desire j out of the subconscious mind. Once it happened, but only by I chance. At a distance of 3,000 miles i front the base, or source of supply, I i was carefully giving cheques on the I understanding that certain moneys I due were being paid into my account regularly to date. On this occasion | the bank, having known me for some years, saved my credit, but wrote me I : a grandfatherly letter telling me not ■ !todo it again. , And it didn’t count. Any ovefdraft that is worth while having must be had for the asking, and not by chance. For it to mean anything to me, 1 would have to go into the bank and say carelessly, "I want an overdraft,” and then for the bank to say deferentially, ‘‘How much do you want?” Probing into the intricacies of high finance, X found that overdrafts are not given for love of anyone’s due eyes, or even for the superior magnetism of any aspirant with a passbook. You have to have an equivalent deposited in stocks or shares or something of that kind. On this certainty the money is lent. Bankers and Women Women who behave as if they have bankers who give them whatever they ask just because they are they, are simply trying to get away with something that Is not theirs. I used to be jealous. I know now that the banker, most passionately affected by their superior charm, would grow cold as a stone under an application for au overdraft without the necessary deposits to merit it.

Magnetism is one thing, but finance is another. Banks have no pulses to be stirred. They are slot machines, and they won’t give out anything un-

less you put something in. You don't have to live very long to learn that. I do not believe that I shall ever— ! unless I accidentally stub my foot I against Golconda, and am forced to make investments—go in for speculation. It is not. in the family, although there is one dramatic instance of a female member buying one share without paying for it, making 100 per cent, on the transaction, and augmenting her income by a goodly amount in 24 hours. I feel that my money-getting will have to be done steadily and legitimately, and that my system of banking will be as simple as that of the man who, when he was asked how he kept his accounts, opened a drawer and said: “You see that money? That’s what I make. You see that lot of bills? That’s what I owe. What’s left over when they’re paid belongs to me.” There are women who pretend that overdrafts come to them naturally, and that with empty hands and yawning coffers they can go into a bank and say, “I have no money,” and get all they want. On days when this is

The little sleeveless coatee is more than decorative; it is a real protection in the dance room, where it can be donned between dances. This one is developed in white velvet; it has a deep border silk-embroidered in various bright shades, and a heavy silken tassel each side the quaint strap fastening.

too difficult to bear, I use a word ou them that makes them wilt. Another word for stock is collateral. Few of them know this. When they begin to boast, I say gently, ‘‘Yes, but no. overdraft is given without collateral.” It’s like sticking a pin into a balloon, or as if they were swanking easily about in shallow water, and put one leg into a deep hole. An Experiment Not wishing to go from the banker, who for 14 years has listened well and kindly to all my intimate and private affairs, and who has lent grave dignity to the disposition of my almost invisible capital, yet wanting a friend around the corner, I arranged to draw a certain amount upon a branch office. Once there, it struck me that ~ might open another account under another name-—yet my own—for business reasons. No sooner said that done. I interviewed the manager. 1-Ie was suave and charming. I suddenly felt it incumbent upon me in my new venture to make all the money I could, not so much for my own benefit, as to justify the welcome given me. No money was produced by me, but nevertheless I was received as a potential merchant of obvious standing. This was diplomacy of a high order.

Shipping companies might well take lessons from these masters of finance. I was not asked any of those blistering questions without the answering of which one may not take the cheapest or the most expensive passage anywhere. The manager did not want to know how many teeth I had, or what my age was. I was simply taken for granted as desirable. Then came the matter of equipment. Without a cheque-book of that branch I could not have an account. A nice, clean, corpulent thing in a blue cover was presented to me. This I knew would cost money. X produced my purse.

“You need not pay for it,” said the manager. “You can start with a debit account.”

If those were not the words, they were something like them. My mind, quick as lightning, flashed a signal to me. Here was one thing that I had longed for—an overdraft! To be given something which cost four shillings when one had not given four pennies to meet the expense was most surely and certainly being given an overdraft. Anyhow, it is good enough to boast on.