Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-08-22
USURIOUS METHODS IN BERLIN
Thousands of PrussianS Driven tt
Ruin or Exile Each Year.

Thousands of Prussians Driven to
Ruin or Exile Each Year.
All Berlin signs under the despotism
of-usury. The government, 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
yet. In one Of these trials last fall
there was no less than 127 defendants,
and the number of witnesses amounted
to nearly 400. "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 a number of the
shrewdest and most dangerous had to
be acquitted for lack of proof. Just
now two trials en- maSSe for uSury are
proceeding, and some additional trials
are to come, but all that will not much
change the complexion of affairs in
Berlin. The young capital of the new
German empire will remain the most
usury-ridden city in the world, where
the vampireisn of a legion of Shylocks
steadily sucks the life blood of the
higher as we'll as lower classes, and
drives annually hundreds and thou
sands into ruin or into exile.
The cause is expressed by the IN
translatable word ISLANDER struck
sichten,'' by which is meant the thou
sand and one considerations which Ger
mans deem due to their rank or station
in life. Prussia is a poor country,
even today, after amalgamating into
its domain large districts Of more
fertile and Weather 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
the Italian. But the Prussian nobility,
nevertheless, is as proud as the Span
ish, 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 a never-ceasing conflict Their
peculiar code of honor forbids them to
engage in money making pursuits,
least of all in trade OF commerce, and
nothing is left them to live in accord
ance with the cast-iron notions of their
mind but either to enter The army as
professional soldiers, to enter the
government employ, or else to till the
meager paternal acres.
The latter occupation-which used to
furnish to brothers, cousins and sons
cret wherewithal to live standesges-
macs ii. e., 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 Aus
tralian meat. And 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 40 or so.
A money marriage" is the sole rem
edy left them to adjust their affairs un-
der 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 mel
toned in the lexicon of these unenvi-,
able young men as the dernier resort.
This rapid pen picture of the actual
conditions confronting nine-tenths of
the young Prussian mobiles on entering
life is by no means complete. But it
will serve to show why the usurer In
Berlin has become a power Of the first
magnitude.
Each year scores Of cases occur in
Berlin Of young hopefuls ending their
brief butterfly existence by a well-di-
rected bullet; Of despairing fathers
quitting the service OF that state to-
which they had devoted the best years
of their life at a personal and financial
sacrifice; Of middle-aged men disap-
pearing land often turning up again in
miserable guise in some transatlantic
country from their old-time haunts-i
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 and motherhood simply to-
enable their lords of the other sex,
their brothers in most cases, to cut q
figure for a time, TO live StandeSge-
macs, is fairly innumerable. These
poor girls, silent, uncompla ming vic
tins of hoary prejudice. are the real