Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-22
MAKE SMALL LOANS.
MEN WHO ADVANCE MONEY TO. WAGEWORKERS AT HIGH RATES.


 Manifestation Some Men Get Rich.
 Winter is the busy season of tho pawn brokers and other money loaners on per sonal property. The man who has been student in the summer schools of improvi- dence goes to his uncle at the sign of the three balls or elsewhere and recites his les sons.
 Tho pawnbrokers probably do the most of this class of business, but there are oth- CTS who do very large proportion of 1t. Every large printing office in the city, for instance has at least one man in 1t who will accommodate his fellows for good per cont with tho printers string as security. The printer gives the money loaner the proof slips of tho type ho has set pasted in ono long string" and the man of means slaves 1t, just as banker slaves n note, only more so He cuts so deop in fact, that tho unfortunate who resorts to him once is often forced to keep on going to him. Ho loses so much of what he has earned after few contacts with his friend of the dollar that he finds it an increasingly difficult task to catch up and start even with the world again.
 For this and tho natural antipathy be- tween man and the money loaner the un- cle of the printing office is seldom as pop ular as his general personal attractions might otherwise entitle him to be. The money loaner is not looked upon as is the doctor, who profits by our carelessness and imprudcnce of another sort, nor as tho lawyer is, who grows fat on our unbroth- erly quarrels and disputes. There Is feeling that not the money loaner's knowl- edge or skill Is earning anything, but his insensate dollars. Then there is a tacit confession of weakness in going to him at all. His prosperity is standing proof of our follies.
 It is therefore considered rather credita ble than otherwise to circumvent and oh at him. Sometimes this is done by in- serting "cold dupo'' in tho string-that is to say, tho printer puts in proof of matter ho didn't got along with proofs of matter which is rightfully his--but by tho time the pay day arrives and the banker comes to cash the string the printer has left town thereby, as did the austcre indi- vidual in tho Scriptures, reapiDg where he has not sown.
 If the money loaner is not printer, but does business outside tho office as money loaner pure and simple, ho is completely beyond the palo, and according to the un- written cpde, it is lawful to trip up and discomflt him by any style of gin or pit fall which ingenuity can devise. For ex- ample printer who is well known in all the Chicago offices went to Sbylook and offered to place money among the printers on the security of their strings and prom ised per centum which might havo tempt ed even less willing dollars out of their strong boxes. He secured $500, which he mt t1x,1 1oof hn n xxyapt hack frankly confessed and induced the Shylock to try him again. To prevent tho possi- bility of another misadventure he would bring tho borrowers to tho loan office and would personally vouoh for their standing.
 Yet the losses arc flow and small com pared with tho gains of this amateur bank ing business. A man who is in tho busi- Y ness any length of timo soon learns the curves of tho men with whom he has to deal Ono man who has been loaning money tohis fellow printers in Chicago for 20 years owns several houses on the North Side and has other real estate. He is said to be worth S100, 000
 Whenever mon como together in great bodies, thero arise among them few shrewd individuals who profit by the thriftlessness of their fellows. In every large telegraph office there is at least ono man out of the general mass of improvi dents who has money when the rest have none, and for consideration this money rnshes to fill tho vacuum in tho pockets of the needy Tho practice is drowned down theoretically, but in reality tho supern- tendent or tho foreman, as the case may be, doesn't know ono man from another when 1t comes to cashing vouchers.
 Among the printers, the operators and in large factories some ono of the en- ployeos accommodates the rest, but among railroad and lake men this perquiste falls to the boarding house boss The boarding house is the only place in which the men ever assemble where money loaning could be practiced. The disburser for the cor poration by whom the men are employed is supposed to pay money only to the man who has earned it or to his wife upon his written order, but if an order in hehands of his boarding house keeper is accom- panied by written statement that he is sick the voucher will be paid. Neither will the railroads funotionary pursue the subject with super1uous questions if the boarding house boss will make it to his interest not to do so. And whore is the boarding house keeper, male or female, who Is not diplomatist?
 One might suppose that if any class of young men could grasp the important idea of tho true value of money 1t would bo tho bank clerks It might be inferred that, being familinr with the strict busi- ness methods of these great financial ma chimes and being hold to the strotest ao- count in the handling of other mons money, the clerk would be careful of his own. But hoi not. Probably DO other class of young men arc so familiar with the science of money culture or could give you so many valuable ideas as to tho farm ing out of funds. Yet, with money as with other things, familiarity seems to breed contempt. Unless he has a natural turn for it the bank clerk will be no better con- servator of his own resources than, say. the dry goods clerk down the street.