Huntsville gazette., 1886-08-14

SdtlSHeu yourself from the records that
he has pursued his usual course in your
case, you come to me for loan on the
furniture. l make you the loan and put
the mortgage which you grant 7on
record. Now, if you fail in your pay
ments the law protects me in foreclosing
the mortgage and seizing the furniture
for the simple reason that had the pru-
dence to record the mortgage. Mr..
Brown, to whom the furniture rightly
belongs, can whistle for what he ever
gets out of it, having olegal standing
owing to his failure to record. All that
Brown can do is to clap you in prison
and have you tried on a charge of false
pretenses or wrong disposal of property.
It's the growing knowledge among
chattel- mortgage men that SO many
crook are thoroughly posted in these
matters, that makes chattel-mortgage
men and time-payment men now record
almost every mortgage. AS matter
OF fact we can beat the piano and sew
ing-machine men every time when they
dom record"
The chattel-mortgage mans state
ment received ample confirmation from
the records. The increase in time pay
ments for the first six months of 1886
over the corresponding period of 1885
was found to be extraordinary. During
the months of April, May and June it
was not an uncommon occurrence to
find one single firm recording from fifty
to sixty mortgages in day on account
OF furniture bought on time payments.
The startling growth of this method of
obtaining goods goes long way to ac-
count for the increase of 25 per cent.
during the expired portion of 1886. and
to offset the causes assigned by Brad
streets for the doubling of chattel mort
cages in the last six weeks. The infer
ence that a strongly marked increase in
chattel mortgages is necessarily an ind-
cation of poverty and hard times is fall
lacious and misleading, for if the in
crease be in the direction of the acquire
ment of new furniture, pianos and sew
ingmachines, it must rather be accepted
as a sign of prosperity. The mOrtgageor
in these cases has to pay from so to
S25 down-a thing that very hard-up
man would not be able to do. The
records show that there has been an un-
precedented increase in this kind of
chattel mortgage, and this, with the
more general practice of recording,
must be held to be much more largely
accountable for the increased number
OF chattel mortgages that the blighting
effects of the labor troubles.
''What more useful or welcome pres
ent, said the chattel-mortgage man to
the reporter, .'can young man make
to his best girl than a ew piano? I'll
tell you story to show how the thing
works. A respectable young man in
the wholesale dry goods business, wish
ing to give his intended wife Christ
mas surprise, bought a 1915 upright
piano from friend of mine on the West
Side, paying $25 down and giving
mortgage and notes for the payment of
the balance in monthly installments.
The young man, still further to CRAFTY
his inamorata, sent home the piano to
her fathers house on the South Side,
with receipt in full for 1915 made out
on one of the regular account-form
blanks of the piano dealer The pres
ent that presaged eternal harmony be-
tween the happy lovers was looked at
by the parents from a more practical
business point of view. They were
hard up, and thinking it no wrong to
realize on their daughters personal
chattel, negotiated loan of S120 from
me on the instrument | examined the;
records, but failing to notice the
address to which the piano had
been sent, could detect nothing
crooked in the transaction. The
mortgageors, however, soon gave me
the slip without taking up single note.
discovered after considerable trouble
that they had removed to a well-knOwn
suburb on the Rock Island Road, had
plevined the piano from the railroad
company. When the piano wasSsafe in
my storage warehouse | happened to
meet my friend, the piano dealer, one
day and. with a knowing smile which |
had observed on his face several times
before, he said: i thank you for look
ing so well after my piano. | never
had less difficulty in tracking one in my
life Itumbled to the racket and found
out that had no power over the piano,
the first mortgage having been duly
recorded with the address to which the
piano had been sent. My friend knew
all along that l had made a loan on the
piano, but as the young man honestly
and promptly paid up his installments
he die not think it worth while to inter-
fere in the old folks business. The
parents ultimately paid up the amount
of the loan and recovered the instru-
ment, but it now stands in the house as
melancholy reminder of how court
ships chords can be rudely disrupted
by the chattel-mortgage fiend."
In looking over the records Of chattel
mortgages, it was deeply interesting to
read the necessities of social life and the
seamy side of the current history OF
some local celebrities in the odd and
various chattels that had to bow before
the mortgage tyrant, Joe Mackin' $
furniture in the Palmer House and else
where made over to August Mette, Pat
Sheedy's faro-tables, chips and checks,
the University Library, chairs, chemi-
Gals, ETC., for unpaid salaries to Pres-
dent and Professor, form items in the
years catalogue of catastrophes. Men
mortgaged their barber-shops,. their