The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1861-04-04
Fayv rOEAcrS---TEaeE Origin
and Progress.


Somebody, with more money than
brains, asked philosopher, in derision,
how ii happened that men of wit were SO
frequently seen at the doors Of the rich,
and that the rich were never seen at the
doors of men of wit. because" retorted
the sage, "men of wit know the value Of
riches; but rich men do not know the
value of wit Necessity, the mother of
invention, teaches the needy devices and
resources in their many hours of trial,
which the affiuent scarcely know the names
Of He who has never known want is un-
likely to provide himself, beforehand, with
weapons TO combat it. The supply will
come to him from somewhere; if TIE earth
and the sea fail, the skies shall rain man
ma. The poor man with his hungry fam
lily has no such expectations. There are
hundreds of thousands in the great cities
of the world, who srbsist upon what they
can earn, hand to mouth, from day TO day
or week to week Their toll is like that
of Sisyphus, and apparently as hopeless.
Sad enough it is to see so many such cases,
and our only consolation lies in the fact
that those bred and Injured to constant
physical labor, carry the burthen less con-
sclously and painfully than others. We
speak rot now Of the class q remove above;
that which owns the ten millions in the
Philadelphia Savings Bank, and who, at
the end of the perspective, see an old age
of comfort in competency. Whoever can
save even dollar week from his shop,
his bench, or what not, need not despair
Of the latter good fortune, as events have
proved Not so with him who. earning
dollar, is compelled by incxora5le necessi-
ty to spend hundred cents, for his own
sake or others, for food and fuel and rent
and covering. Then, if the time comes
that his handiwork is in poor pay, or
worse, not wanted at ali, or If the over
taxed body gives out for a season, and can
die or grind no more till convalescent,
where is the remedy, and whence comes
the bread? Here they seek the resource
which the rich know little of. The poor
wife in her scanty shawl and faded bonnet,
or the meagre child in worn out shoes and
pieced out garments, takes the spoons, the
best dress, Sunday coat, the few bits of
poor old jewelry, and hurries around tho
corner to the sign of the three balls-the
pawnbroker's.
Sometimes people much higher in the
social scale have recourse to the same IA
cility for temporary relief; yet SO seldom,
comparatively speaking, that we can re-
gard their cases as exceptional, and the
pawnbroker's institution more especially
the convenience or necessity Of the poorer
classes. Now, the misfortune is, that the
more people require a certain convenience
+Io kba
pay for it rule which applies with great
severity to unfortunates requiring small
sums Of ready money. In the absence of
legislative interference, therefore, and
sometimes in spite OF it, the interest charged
for sums advanced on pledges has been
cruelty exorbitant. The class of persons
in whose hands the peculiar business APP
pears to have legitimately fallen are, I'M
fortunately, not distinguished for breadth
of generosity in pecuniary dealings, any
more than for exalted estimates of relative
values 1t has followed that those, of all
others, who can least afford to pay high
price for temporary accommodation, have
been made the victims OF an usury quite
unexampled ia other contingencies. \
further grave objection to pawnbroker's
shops has been found in the temptation
they afford to thieves, from their facility
of disposiag Of booty, the risk being IN
demnifed, in a manner, by the extent of
profit In view of these considerations,
we must regard as a public benefit the
success of the new Pawners Bank of Bos-
ton, which has now been year in success
fuloperation This institution is designed
to furnish small loans on collateral security
at a moderate rate of interest, ald, from
the condition of It's existence, initiates di-
rectly against the objections we have sta
ted. The directors are permitted to charge
'sone and half per cent month on adj
vances equal to two-thirds of an auction
valuation of articles pawned for any time
up to six months" They are only per-
nitted to declare eight per cent dividends,
and any profits remaining yearly, after
such declaration, are to be distributed IN
the form of fuel to needy persons during
the winter months. Thus the extra inter-
est which may be collected finds its way,
in some degree, back to the class from
which it IS drawn-certainly most excel
lent method.