The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-06-03
#isfellauY.
~. From All the Year Round.l
THE LITTLE OLD GENTLEMAN.

I
~ r}s From All the Year Round.l
THE LITTLE OLD GENTLEMAN.
--t& fE ss,Ff
"Would you like to look at th,
Times, sir? Singular trial of Risk Al
lah Bey against the Daily Telegraph
The speaker was curious little olt
man, cleanly dressed, cleanly shaved
with short, crisp, white hair, and fac,
like red pippin, such face as is hard
ly ever seen out of this country, an(
even here rarely, save among farmers
game-keepers, and others who arr
sons. = This little for he was very
small indeed as to size-this little old
gentleman was encountered in first.
class smoking carriage on tie South.
western Railway.
"Curious trial before the Lord Chic
Justice" )" continued the old dgentleman,
as if he wished to promote further con-
versation. "I was once tried for mur-
der myself,"-with a pleasant. smile.
"Yes," said the old gentleman, "and''
docking pleasanter than ever) every
nearly hung too. did not get off free
was sentenced to transportation for
life; went through seven years of it ;
and then they pardoned me for what l
had never done. @
"You see, "said the little gentleman,
smiling more than ever, as the Ave
other smokers in the carriage stared at
him, "you see, / was for many years q
cattle merchant in London. My bust
ness consisted in receiving from abroad
from Holland, Germany, Normandy,
or wherever / could form connection
oxen, COWS, sheep, pigs, some on my
account, others to be sold on commits
sion for correspondents who sent their
animals to me for sale. The trade was
a profitable one. Every beast sent
over on my account was fully insured,
SO that, lift died on its passage, 1t came
upon the insurance company. l had
very few bad debts, and taking one
thing with another, may fully have
calculated upon realizing at least twen-
ty-five per cent. on my capital every
three months. In other words, l got a
profit of a hundred per cent. per annum
ON the money had commenced busi-
ness with.
"But with money comes the desire
for more. There was time before /
began to deal in cattle, when thought
myself rich if, at the end of the year, I
had couple of hundred pounds in the
bank over and above my expenses for
the past twelve months. Now it was
otherwise. lamented that [ had not
always an idle balance of fifteen hum
dred or two thousand pounds. / was
fond of money for moneys sake. /
could not make money fast enough for
my wishes on the cattle trade, and
therefore det Tmined to do a little i'm
the loan and discounting way.
at is nearly twenty years ago, and
/ have gone through a great deal of
trouble since. My system was never
to put too many eggs into one pot
never to lend very much to any single
person-but to lend many small
amounts to various people. l used to
answer the advertisements of trades
men in difficulties, and, if found that
a borrower had good security to offer, /
would lend him perhaps thirty OF forty
pounds, taking ten pounds for the ac-
cOmmOdation for a month, and much
more in proportion for longer periods.
One of my clients was printer with a
small blsiness, near what was called
the New Road, now Marylebone Road.
He had often borrowed twenty, thirty,
and once as much as sixty poHnds from
me, and had always repaid me to the
day. The security he gave me was al
ways the same, the joint note of hand
of his brother, grocer up Hackney
way. The name of this borrower was
Strange. He was in
a delicate state of health, always suc-
fering from his chest, and i'm severe
winters he used to be laid up for weeks
together with bad cough. He was
widower, without children.
"One day Strange came to me and
said he had an excellent offer to enter
into partnership with a printer who
had been established in business seve-
raj years. The sum required to be paid
for the partnership was e300, and he
asked me to advance him that amount
upon the security of policy of insu-
rance for $1,000 upon his own life. On
inquiry, l found that, three years before
had, ,when..a young and healthy
man, had effected an insurance upon
his life for G5O0, and afterwards in
creased it to $1,000. This policy he had
always managed to keep up, and still
wished that it should not relapse. As
it had been running OH for nearly twen-
ty years, and as he paid very small
premium, and was now in bad health,
the insurance company would have
been glad to purchase it back. There.
fore; after looking at the affair in every
possible way, came to the conclusion !
that the security was good, and that /
might safely advance the sum of G300
upon the security of the policy being |
endorsed over to me. This was done
and advanced the money! Gentle
men, the worst days business 1 ever
did in my life.
"In general, a creditor sees but little |
Of his debtors, whether they are few or
many. The man who owes money
avoids the individual to
whom he owes it. But it happened |
otherwise with Strange and myself
With the new business that he had
bought, he was not expected, nor even
wished by his partner to interfere; and
his own Indifferent health made it very
desirable that he should be ss free as
possible from the confined air of the
close printing rooms. The partnership
he had purchased secured him certain |
amount of income, which, together
with what he had besides, allowed him
to go about to divers parts of the coun-
try, travelling being much recommend
ed by his medical attendant. Know
ing that had to make weekly trips to
Harwich, and that / had often to go to |
in the way of business when |
looking after cattle, he asked me |
he could be of use to me as a
clerk. He asked for no salary, only |
his actual travelling expenses; and for
this he was to keep my accounts, write |
and copy my letters, and make himself
generally useful. The bargain was a
good one for both parties On the one
hand my business was increasing every |
week, and having to knock about a
great deal at fairs, and to see a great |
many dealers, had no time to look |
properly after my accounts, which |
got rather complicated. On |
The other hand, Strange had enough to |
i've upon, but not enough to pay trav- |
cling expenses with comfort. Having |
Teen friends for several years, when we |
together we always had our |
meals i'm common; and in country |
places or where the inns were very full |
we generally took a double-beded room
us.
After time I found Strange's assis-
.ance of such value to me that l was |
,ble to increase my connections very |
indeed. Being shrewd
man, he was able at the end of a twelve
months to make purchases and conduct
my business as well as could. This |
ed naturally enough to a partnership