Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-10-01
FRENCH PAWNBRoKING.
The Famous tIont-de-Piete of Paris and How It Is Conducted.


 tratlon, says the Epoch, is placed under the control of the Minister of the Interior and the Prefect of the Seine. The director Is appointed by the Minister, and is assisted in his duties by a council composed of various city officials. Besides one general headquar- ters, there are two large branch offices and twenty-one smaller ones scattered over the city. The Mont-ds Piete has no fixed capital, no endowments and no subsidies, and yet 1t does business of over SIS, ,OOO, ,OOO year. The way it accomplishes the miracle is to borrow with one hand and lend with the other. It issues each year, according to it's needs, two and one-half and three per cent. bonds, and they are considered such good invest mentS that the company often refuses offers of capital from persons who wish to lend. All the reserve fund of the Comedle Franchise is placed in these bonds. The Government pawnshop accepts as pledge every thing in the way of personal property except paper securities, stocks, bonds, etc. Its smallestloan being sixty cents. it neces- sarily receives an astonishing variety Of objects; one day it accepted the wooden leg of cripple who was hard up.
 The frequenters of the Afont-de-P Piete are composed of all classes, from the poor devil Qrwhom the pawnshop is the last resource to the high-born lady of the Faubourg Saint Germain, who, in a moment of temporary deche,. sends her jewels to ''her aunt" by her chambermaid. If you look into one of the branch offices you will see representatives of all socia! strata but it is evident that you will find more seanlstreSses than Duchesses, and more workin g men than bankers. It IS not only the really poor who avail them selves of the facility offered by the Govern ment pawnshops; among the most frequent borrowers are the short-sighted and giddy persons who raise money for the purpose of having lark now and then. Small trades people are also good customers. and when they have notes to pay or are in need of ready money they do not hesitate to pledge their merchandise-or even their wife's best cloak.
 Every borrower must prove his identity by papers, such as an electors card, rent bill, tax receipt or some other kind of official document. Once these proofs are accepted, the Mont-do-Pietc is not amenable to prose- cution for having received stolen property. The loan IS made for one year, but the pledges are usually kept fourteen months if not redeemed. The borrower can renew his loan at the end of each year as often as he likes by paying the interest at the rate of seven per cent. and expenses of storage, etc. There are objects in the MOat-de-Piete which have been renewed year after year for the past fifty years, and for which the interest and expenses have long ago eaten up the material value of the gage. These renewals denote, in most cases, that the borrower, or his descendants, has always had the secret hope of redeeming his pawn, and, while he has raised enough money to pay the annual interest he has never suc- ceeded in amassing enough to recover the article.
 The value of the objects offered for pawn tad ficial auctioneers and appraisers, a highly, privileged body like the notaries and stock brokers. There are eighty of these apprais- CTS in Paris, and they have charge of all public sales. Fourteen of these eighty are specially detailed for the Mont-de-Piete. They receive two per cent. on their valuations and three per cent. on the sales-all of which is paid by the borrowers; but when the articles pledged and unredeemed are
 sold, if they do not bring the estimated
 price, the appraisers are responsible for
 the difference. This responsibility makes | them careful to estimate the article pledged
 at much lower price than it is really
 worth. One of the evil consequences of
 this undervalvation is to drive away GUS
 toners, thus compelling them to resort to the clandestine usurers and sharpers, who make large fortunes by openly trading in | pawn tickets. Hero is how the matter works: A man in needy circumstances takes to the Mo1lt-de- Piete an article which he ex- poets will procure him loan, say, of S20. The appraiser offers him SIP. Having ab- solute need of the other s. he carries lis pawn ticket to a brocanteur, sort of broker, who buys it; but, as the borrower does not wish to part entirely with his ticket, hopin z ] some day to redeem the object pledged, he
 sells it to the broker rcn.ere, that is to say,
 with power of redemption. This fictitious 1 sale is made to get around the law, which l prohibits any one except the Mont-de- Piete l to lend upon gage. The broker says to the | borrower: II will keep the pawn ticket in
 my safe for nine months; if, at the end of | that time, you do not buy it back, I will sell l it." Only, if he sells it back to it's owner, | he adds on 10 or 12 per cent. interest a | month to the sum advanced. It generally | happens that the poor borrower is unable to
 buy back his ticket; in which case the
 broker keeps it until the end of the year
 and collects the difference on the article
 when it is sold, or he redeems the object from pawn and sells it himself, thereby get l ting usuriouS interest on his money and 1 making profit on the article.
 l These pawn-ticket brokers have largely l increased in number during the past eight
 years, and now there is at least one, and | sometimes more, by the side of or near every branch office of the Nont-dc-P Piete l A great many of them deal in the articles l they redeem from pawn or buy at the auction sales. Several of them have their store-fronts painted in blood-red color, prob
 ably as 8 symbol of the blood they suck l from the unhappy wretches who fall into their hands. The windows of these brokers
 are full of diamonds and other jewels, each object being ticketed as having cost so much | but will be sold so much less, as it was | bought from the Mont-de-Piete. l The number of loans annually made by
 the IHont-de- Pietc is about 2,500, ,0OO; of this total sOOOO0 are productive and the rest
 cause loss. There are no profits, strictly speaking, for the concern. Itpays fixed rate of interest for the money it borrows then the surplus of it's receipts, after the payment of this interest and the working 1 expenses, is handed over to the public
 charity fund. Last year this balance was
 $95, 900.
 California's Fir Trees.
 l They have big fir trees in California as well as redwoods, if the following item going the rounds of the press can be given credence: A citizen of Alma, Cal, has fin | iShed working uD fir tree which grew on