New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-03-03
THE ROBBERS OF THE POOR.

There is a bill now before the Legislature oil
New-York to abolish the Pawnbrokers' business;
and accordingly we emphasize the fact, IN order
that the knights of the three golden balls may come
forward, according to their custom in such cases,
and prevent legislation from interfering with their
rich harvests. 1t is singular fact that all the
States Of the Union. 80 far as We are aware, have
enacted laws for their protection. The power
they WELD is greater than is known to the public
Numbers of men and amounts Of capital are In
volyed in their nefarious bus ness, unsupported BY
even the most intimate associates Of those engaged
In this city there are between thirty and forty
licensed pawnbrokers, Of which number the large
majority are Jews the rest being Irish, and only
enc. We believe. an American. Some of these
have followed the business for many years, and
have amassed fortunes. 1t is impossible to state
with certainty the amount of capital they employ
but We know sf pawnbrokers who issue
more than fifty thousand pledge tickets annually;
we have also reason to believe that persons not os-
tensbly engaged in the business, furnish the shops
with capital for which they receive cent per cent
returns. We know-and we state 1t here for the
benefit Of Lawmakers as well law breahers-that
the pawDbrokers calling as il is followed in this
city. is in no respect more honest or legal than lot
tery.deang. mock auctions, bogus insurance shops,
faro.dealiDg or any mode Of obtaining money under
false pretenses
By law the pawnbroker is authorized to charge
% per cent per annum upon all loans less than go
No higher rate Of interest is legal, however small
the sum. however short the time. For sums exceed
ing S25 he can legally charge but seven per cent;
vet they do not hesitate to charge three per cent
month, and for short periods more frequently MY
n.r cent per annum than less. Moreover, they are
in the habit of paving twelve copper cents for
shilling, and these, We ere told, they buy at ~
cents hundred
OF the customers of these shops, by far the
greater number are women and children, aud the
articles they offer are pledged at the arbitrary
valustion of the pawnbroker; this, for gold or
silver usually less than half its value i'll bullion,
and for wearing apparel less than one tenth the
actual value of the article When the pledge is
redeemed, the 6wner, especially if she bea woman,
must pay the fellows price; to object is to incur
treatment mildly described as brutal. If the arti-
Gle is not redeemed within the year--f the legal
limit be passed by but one day-she is sharply il
formed that il is forfeted that she can no longer
claim her own-althOugh the law requires that 1t
shall be exposed for sale at public auction. after
having been formally advertised for ten days, and
that the surplus shall be refunded to the owner.
But who ever heard u a case in which such sur
plus was paid over.
Excessive as the per centage charged may sp-
pear, il bears no comparison to the profits derived
from the sales of unredeemed property. We have
lately seen lady's gold watch, with gold chain and
key attached, the whole of which was pledged for
Sli; and which, but for the timely aid of friend,
would have been utterly lost to the poor widow
who owns them. We have also seen two new
silver goblets, very handsome, birthday gifts from
mother to her children in the days when fortune
was kinder to them; as well as two pairs of silver
knives and forks, and set Of teaspoons; the
whole pledged for so on Dec %, and redeemed
Oh Feb Z. On these the pawnbroker's charge was
sxty-three cents, when twenty-seven cents was all
that the law allowed. Here was thirty-three
cents stolen from widow who tolls like a slave to
maintain her helpless children. Well do these
yultures know that such as she will submit silently
to their inhumsn extOrtiOns rather than tho world
should know the strait to which they have been re-
duced; that they have been compeedto resortto aid
so degrading as that which pawnbroker's shop
affords, and to have communicating contact with
drunken men and impure women, yagabonds and
thieves for such are the pawnbrokers best
customers.
In fact, the whole system is, to use strong
expression, even more rotten than our
CITY Government, and needs not merely 10 be re-
formed but TO be swept clean out of existence Ne
fashionable gambling he'll was ever so cruel curse
to the poor as any one of the forty pawnbrokers'
shops in this city Mayor Wood has lately fshed
for the admiration of the unsophisticsted with
fine proclamation against the pawnbrokers, where
in he warns them that he shall severely enforce the
law which has been published in the city papers
Is any one so verdant as to hope that he will act
with energy in this matter We know that
within year past he gave his official promise TO
one Of the officers of charitable association that
be would not license single pawnbroker against
whom that person would produce evidence to con-
Wet him of having violated the ordinance regulat-
ing that business. Against twenty-n out of
thirty pawnbrokers, from whom that officer re-
deemed pledges, be furnished the Mayor and Cor
pOratiOn Attorney with reports of six hundred
cases of violation of the law, in each of which the
penalty is Sl00, making in all 100000 not one
dollar of which has been collected, nor has any
one of the culprits been refused a license Nor is
this the worst; every paper filed in the case has
hem destrnyed At least they are not 10 be found