The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1895-11-29
UsURIOUs DEsPoTISM.
Shylock Methods Employed by
Berlin Money Lenders.
Thousands of PrussIans Driven TO Ruin
or Exile Every Year-Marry~
ing Tor Money the
Sole Kennedy.

All Berlin sighs under the despotism
of-usury. The government, or at
least the pillars of the government,
sigh and suffer the most. For the past
six months one huge trial for usury has
followed another, and the end is not
vet. In one of these trials last fall,
says the San Francisco Argonaut, there
were no less than one hundred and
twenty-seven defendants, and the num-
ber of witnesses amounted to nearly
four hundred. A number of the worst
usurers have been found guilty and
sentenced to terms of imprisonment
ranging from six months upward to
seven years, besides heavy fines in
money. Quite q number of the shrewd-
est and most dangerous had to be ac-
quilted for lack Of proof. The young
capital OF the new German empire will
remain the most usury-ridden city in
the world, where the vampireism OF
legion Of Shylocks steadily sucks the
life-blood Of the higher as well as lower
classes, and drives annually hundreds
and thousands into ruin or into exile.
The cause is expressed by the 1n-
translatable word ''standerstruecksich-
ten" by which is meant tbe thou
sand and one considerations which
Germans deem due TO their rank or
station in life. Prussia is poor couns
try, even to-day, after amalgamating
into its domain large districts OF more
fertile and wealthier regions, such as
Nassau, Hesse-Cassel, districts in Han
over and by the Rhine. The Prussian
nobility is the poorest of any civilized
country, with the single exception of
Italian But the Prussian nobility,
nevertheless, is as proud as the
Spanish, vastly prouder than the British.
Their poverty now and their claims to
consideration, their station in life,
their prominent position in the state
lead to never-ceasing conflict, Their
peculiar code OF honor forbids them to
engage in money-malsing pursuits,
least of all in trade or commerce, and
nothing is left them to live in accord
ance with the castiron notions OF their
mind but either to enter the army as
professional soldiers, to enter the gov
ermcnt employ, or else to till the mea-
ger paternal acres.
The latter occupation-which used to
furnish To brothers, cousins and sons of
such agricultural noblemen the secret
wherewithal to live standesgesmaes q.
o., according to their rank in Berlin or
elsewhere-is becoming less and less
profitable, owing to cheap American
and East Indian wheat, cheap Russian
rye, and cheap Australian meat. Aud
the pay Of Prussian army officers or
government employees is still so wholly
inadequate that it does not suffice even
the most modest expectations up to the
age Of forty or SO.
A money marriage Is the sole REM
edy left them to adjust their affairs
under normal conditions; but money
marriages, too, are becoming less and
less frequent, since the number of
claimants to each wealthy girls hand
is yearly becoming larger. The hunt
for an American heiress or for some
other exotic goldfish" is hence mem
toned in the lexicon of these unen-
yiable Young men as the dernier
rcssort. This rapid pen picture of the
actual conditions confronting nine
tenths Of the young prussian mobiles on
entering life is by no means camnlete,
But II will serve to show Why the
usurer In Berlin has become power
of the first magnitude.
Each year scores of cases occur in
Berlin Of young hopefuls ending their
brief butterfly existence by n WE'LL
directed bullet; of despairing fathers
quitting the service Of that state to
which they had devoted the best years
of their life ut a personal and financial
sacrifices of middle-nged men disappear
ing (and often turning up again in
miserable guise in some transatlantic
country from their old-time haunts,
and all this because the usurer at last
has drawn the net close about them
And the number OF poor, dowerless
girls of sisters and brides OF these
same young men, girls who OF their
own free choice abandon every hope
of wifehood aud motherhood simply to
enable their lords of the other sex,
their brothers In most cases. to cut
figure for time, to live standesge-
macs, Is fairly innumerable. These
poor girls, silent, uncomplaining vic
Tins OF hoary prejudice, are the real
heroines in these tragedies of life.
That is why Berlin is honeycombed
with usury, and that is why usury is
regular profession--or, rather, fine
art