New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-05
SPITZEUER.

A German woman has just indicated the
right of her sex to engage in branches OF
commercial activity heretofore held among
the exclusive privileges of men. Fraulein
Adele Spitzeder has failed in business in
Munich, the Dachauer Bank, which belonged
to her, paying nothing to depOsitors, and the
fair fnancier having been condemned to three
years Imprisonment for fraudulent bankruptcy.
The story of her rise and fall is full of singu-
lar interest, as illustrating phase of human
credulity which it seems impossible to cure.
She was one of those clever and restless
women who so often proceed from an artistic
parentage, with expensive tastes and habits
which their slender resources give them no
means of gratifying. Her father was an actor,
her mother q singer, and Adele herself went
upon the stage in her youth, where she met with
little success. She was readily forgotten wher-
ever she went, except by those innkeepers and
tradesmen who had trusted her not wisely but
too extensively. Five years ago she found her
self in Munich, her professional career ended,
her youthful bloom all gone, her black dress
growing seedy and her one pair of boots worn
beyond all uses of coquetry. 1t was at this
time she was heard to observe that she wished
she could get into financial business.
1t certainly seemed rather grotesque for this
battered young woman of thirty-seven in torn
boots and q sailor hat, to think or speak of
financial career But before many years passed
she was moro thought and spoken about than
any banker in Bavaria. She adopted the
simplest and most efficacous scheme of kite
flying ever put in practice. She borrowed
small sums for short time from any one who
would lend, paying ten per cent interest in
advance, and covering her maturing bills by
new deposits. She soon found herself
in possession of a fourishing business,
and extended her operations with great
tact and audacity. She gave free roasts
and beer to all her customers. She bought a
hotel to entertain her clients while they were
waiting for their turn. which was often no
inconsiderable time, for though she had some
twenty five clerks there was plenty of work
for them all. To agents who brought deposits
to her bank she gave commissions of from
five to seven per cent This, added to the
enormous rates of interest which she
paid, sometimes amounting to ten per
cent per month, convinced all intelli-
gent people that her enterprise was
q
bility of her making profit in the face of
this unprecedented outlay. Besides her style
of living was lavish and ostentatious. She had
seen enough of poverty aud priyation when
she was young. While this golden stream of
other peoples money was pouring in upon her
she enjoyed 1T to the utmost. She bought q
fine house in the Sch6nfeld-strasse, and drove
span of ful-blooded horses. We may be
sure, also, that she revenged herself upon the
Munich shoemakers for the shabby CATERS she
had worn in other days. q
The press denounced her, and the legitimate
bankers predicted ruin for her. But the
peasants who received these heavy rates of
interest read no newspapers, and would have
regarded the warnings of the bankers as the
murmurs of envy. There was another power
full influence working in her behalf. 1t was
at the time when Dollinger and the Old
Catholics were causing great uneasiness to the
InialUblists Of South Germany, aud Frau