New-York daily tribune., 1858-10-13
THE BLACK CAT.

Translated rom The Gazette de, Tribpnauz fr he
benefit money ends usurer brokers' Sc
In the Village of Carnot, in the neghoorhood OF
Lorient, there lived few years ago poor WIDOW by
the name OF Roperch. She cultivated d Small iaIin'
for which she paid yearly rent OF J francs, ana the
proceeds of which afforded her scanty hving' Al
that time she Wa in want Of 10 francs, and borrowed
them and repaid them punctualy Some weeks later 'he
borrowed again 60 francs in order 10 purchase COW
When those GO francs became due she found out OF her
power TO repay them out q her earnings and borrowed
the money a somebody else, who charged her very
high rate Of interest The heavy obligation which she
incurred by this transaction did not trouble her mnd
much she took it easy having discovered that in
order to get along and perpetua;e ths situation II
was sufficient to borrow larger and larger sums and to
repay capital and interest by the proceeds Of loans
She took this course with WILL and continued in ii
for ten years with uncommon success.
Her very neiehbors who had been her first lenders,
commenced soon to build up strange reputation for
her As they always and regularly received back the
sums they had lent her. with big interest they offered
new loans on their accord and spread the report
that the widow Roperch borrowed Of everybody never
refused an offer Of money, settled promptly and paid
large interest II did not take lorg before the widow
Roperch was spared the necessity of making step
across the threshold in order to obtain money; the
Accommodations fOcked in spontaneously, uncaed for
and brought sums, which grew larger and larger. AT
that time the interest charged per cent month;
at later period lenders took much as 10 per cent
month.
Now, you ask how could this poor woman inspire
her numerous clients with any confidence II is really
hard to tell. part Of them seem to have been Sc
duced by a ridiculous superstition. They believed
that the was in possession of the back cat.
The common people in France believe that the black
eat is the money devil and full cousin OF the supreme
devil himself, and that he who owns 1t can
command as much money as he pleaSeS and las
il in his power to make his friends rich he wishes
them to be. SO the few words, " She has the black
cat ." were n sufficient explanation of the loans she
made and the interest she paid, and quieted every
misgivng. Ii appears that the widow carefully nursed
this stupid credulity. 1t is true, that her cat was
,rLifc and not black but the other hand, when u
terrogated, she never denied its magic powers, and
did not even object to being called the black cat
herself Whenever she received oan she made II
point to pay always months interest in advance at
the rate of from GO to 100 per cent year but she
always took care TO take this nterest-money out of
particular bag which lay invariably under the cover
at the foot of her bed and this maneuver of course
confirmed the belief that she drew money from a
secret
Other lenders strong-minded free-tbinkers, who had
no faith in the backcat-story, believed firmly, that
the widow was connected with powerful company,
or that the money borrowed by her went to the Gov
e1ment and was used in the public works. The
widow never contradcted these reports; she even
spoke several times of "ber partners but, on being
H. hat linz nf bnaip
constantly answered, - that is my seoret'
The excitement of the lenders was kept agoing prn-
cipay by the interests ii natural for them not TO
insist upon the discovery of the secret Of borrower,
who paid the interest in advance at the rate of and
10 per cent month, and who always repaid the prin
cipal on call. Fortunes accumulated rapidly in Car
not day laborers became capitalists vegetable vend-
els bought country seats. Money rushed upon the
widow from all sides. However, she did not use II 10
improve her way of living her outside appearance;
she continued to work her little farm, and went to
market as she always did before, to sell her milk and
butter. There in the market many offers of money
were made to her; many lenders would place in her
hands or in her basket, considerable sums, without
even stipuating any terms, and without telling
her their names confectoner handed her 1900 aLcs;
others gave her even much 10000 francs IN one
sum. The giving of receipt was always out of the
question, as the widow could neither read nor write
She always paid upon her simple promise
Greed at last knew no limits. One lender stated
that in consequence of these loans he already enjoyed
an income of 500 cs but that he would not be salts
fed until he could raise i; to 2i,0OO francs year.
During ten years these operations continued without
Interruption But in 1857 the restitution OF the small
sum of 400 francs being her, she could not
IT, and in the despair Of the embarrassment rose from
her chair and attempted to jump into the well. The
bystanders prevented her succeeded in quoting her
mind and no suit being commenced on this occurrence,
her credit with the lenders was repaired. The
,nor spread that the officers of justice protected the
black cat and new loans effected. But at last
the bubble burst. She had again to repudiate some
payments was tried in the cy and criminal courts,
end convicted.
Though very conceivable feeling of shame pre-
vented many lenders hom fling their claims, the
number of the victims who presented themselves was
quite large and the deficit proved amounted to 20 OoO
francs. Then violent evaporation seized the greedy
lenders, who saw their usurOus hopes destroyed.
Even before her arrest the widow had to call upon
the gendamerie for protection against furious mob,
who threatened her life. Her garden was raveced
and dug up to the depth o several feet in order to lind
the hidden treasure but in vain; aud now after
tie trial over it is neither proved nor probable that
the widow has made single sou by her operations.
Tie trial of this affair before the Court OF Lorent
lasted thirteen d-ys The Widow Roperch has been
, sentenced TO five years imprisonment.