The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-08-20
SKINNED BY USURY
Shylock Methods Employed by
Berlin Money Lenders
Thousands Of Prussians Driven 70 Rusp
OK Exile Every Year-Marry.
ing for Money the
Sole Remedy.

All Berlin signs under the despotisu
of-usury. The government, or a
least the pillars Of the government
sigh and suffer the most. For the pas
six months one huge trial for usury ha
followed another, and the end is no
yet In one of these trials last fall
says the San Francisco Argonaut, ther,
were no less than one hundred and
twenty-seven defendants, and the mum
Der OF witnesses amounted to nearl,
four hundred. A number of the wors
usurers have been found guilty and
sentenced to terms of Imprisonment
ranging from six months upward Il
seven years, besides heavy fines il
money. Quite number of the shrewd
est and most dangerous had to be &C
quilted for lack of proof. The youne
capital of the new German empire will
remain the most usury-ridden city il
the world, where the vampireism of a
legion of Shylocks steadily sucks the
Efe-blood of the higher as well as lowe,
classes. and drives annually hundreds
and thousands into ruin or into exile.
The cause Is expressed by the n.
transferable word ''standerstruecksich
ten" by which is meant the thou,
sand and one considerations which
Germans deem due to their rank ol
station in life. Prussia is Door coun.
try, even to-day, after amalganaating
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 Prussia 4
nobility is the poorest of any civilized
country, with the single exception al
Italian But the Prussian nobility,
nevertheless, is as proud as the
Spanish, vastly prcuder than the British
Their poverty now and their claims tc
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-making pursuits,
least of all in trade or 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 gov
erment employ, or else to till the near
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 Ii.
e., according to their rank in Berlin OF
elsewhere-is becoming less and less
profitable, owing ia cheap American
and East Indian wheat, cheap Russian
rye, and cheap Australian meat. And
the pay of Prussian army officers OF
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 hans: |
Is yearly becoming larger. The hunt |
for an American heiress or for some |
other exotic goldfish" is hence men
toned IL the lexicon of these unen- |
viable young men as the Gernier |
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
Insurer 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 a well |
directed bullet; of despairing fathers
quitting the service of that state to
which they had devoted the best years
of their life at personal and Gnancia.
sacrifice; of middle-agcd men disappear
ing land often turning up again in
miserable guise in some transa tlantic
country from their old-timc haunts,
and all this because the Insurer 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 eases, to cut
figure for time. to live staudesge-
macs, is fairly innumerable These
poor girls. silent, accomplishing vic
TINS of hoary prejudice, are the real
acroines in these tragedies of life.
That is why Berlin is honeycombed
with usury, and that is why usury is
regular profesSion-or, rather, . fine
a-t