The Portland daily press., 1895-07-20
TWELVE PAGES.
FEMALE MONEY LENDERS.
They arc Worry Common Among the Poor
of London.

Ihey arc worry common Among the Poor
of London.
Perhaps you will be surprised when /
sell you that there are such people at
women money-lenders, as some of my
poor Pensioners know to their COST re-
marked a hard working London curate to
the writer recently.
These women-there are two in my
parish-out-Shylock Shylock. Two pence
is the usual charge for the loan of
shilling for q week, or, rather often it is
not week, but for shilling borrowed
any time through the week Is Sd is ex-
pected on the following Saturday.
Women are their only customers, and
they make very few had debts, as those
who borrow generally do so without their
husbands knowledge, and consequently
are only too anxious to repay as soon as
they are able, or else the lender would
soon threaten to ''slit" to their hus-
bands. Besides, some of these people are
SO in the habit of borrowing two or three
shillings every week that they are afraid
if they did not repay the borrowed money
on the Saturday, their borrowing powers
would be at an end,
For sovereign lent shilling week
interest is charged until the money is all
repaid, and not less than two shilings a
week is taken by way of installments
towards repayment of the loan. If any
week the installment is missed. the in
terest must be paid, and no reduction Ia
made in the interest as the pincipal is re-
duced.
A woman is often cajoled into taking
some article of finery from the irrepressi-
BILE tallyman, thinking she will be able to
pay for the article by the easy install
ment plan, so glilby explained to her.
Getting behind for swo or three weeks in
her payments, the credit draper threatens
to summon her husband. To avoid this.
the woman goes to the money lender, who
"obliges" her with a sovereign, on con-
ditlon that she repays three shillings a
week for ten weeks. One case came un-
der my notice where woman borrowed
thirty shillings to clear off tallyman.
This happened in January, and it was
not till tho woman received some Noaey
out of club the following Christmas
that the principal was repaid AL this
time the money-lender had been in re-
ceipt of eighteen pence weekly in the
shape of interest.
It is not often that these female usurers
will lend more than sovereign at time
However, in the case of person dying,
and pending the benefit of insurance
money being received they will Elend
three or four pounds to the bereaved
family, frequently demanding as much
as q pound for the use of four for week
One of the mony lenders to whom re-
fer deals only with female hawkers and
street-sellers.. Owing to the precarious-
ness of their calling, these people con-
stantly find themselves without the
wherewithal to purchase their stock in
trade. On Friday evening as many as
ten to fifteen women will borrow sunni
varying from FIVE to thirty shillings in
markets on the following morning. On
a Saturday evening towards mianight,
the money lender makes the rounds Of her
clients stalls, often taking every penny
from the tall-holders, which forces the
hawkcrs to trade on Sunday morning.
think the only time q female money
lender is really appreciated is when she
goes to Court to pay the fine Of some
termagant, whose presence before the
Magistrate policeman has thought nee
essa1y to the well-being of the neighbor-
hood. In such cases the lender gets q
promise from the unf ortunate woman's
husband to repay the money borrowed
and interest She also demands fee of
a shilling for her expenses attending the
| Courts before she starts, so that in case
the delinquent is discharged or sent to
prison she will not be out of pocket.
| 1t hardy seems credible, but one Of these
mon ey lenders can neither read nor write
keeping account of all @:Eney due to her
in her head with g:fs@ling accuracy.
| This woman is an unbeliever in the sta
bility of banks and always carries her
stock-in trade on her person; a not incon-
siderable sum, seeing that one week, she
told me, she had lent S135 in odd shillilgs
Boston Post