Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-25

| losers come In battalions to raise the
| wherewithal to meet the only sort of debts
T. is held disgraceful to forget. Meantime
| he may hear through the partition, Good
| morning, my lord" and Sorry 1 can't
oblige your lordship today and the speed
| in-r of the parting guest. Finally. after
| more ceremony than Is required to pene-
trate the various strata of secretaries hedg-
| ing a British cabinet minister. he will he
ushered into the presence. The inner sane
| tum is a smaller room than the outer, fur
| nished with desk where sits the money
merchant, solitary engraving on the wall,
appropriately enough Frith's celebrated
4 ing spendthrift in the foreground scatter
ing his cash. and covering the opposite
| wall fat mahogany book case which Sc
| cretes the most remarkable library in the
| united kingdom.
| Visit to Scotland Yard.
The writer once had occasion to visit
Scotland Yard. There is superstition
| that this dismal bureau of English police
| Sc cretS cannot be approached by any ennis
| sary of the press, but letter from gov
| eminent official swung the doors inward
| for an official autograph bears more infiu-
| ence even than gold in Europe. He invaded
the den of Inspector Melville and asked in
formation concerning the French anarchist
| Louise Michel.
Mitchell" repeated the inspector. as a
librarian to whom the title of a book has
| been mentioned. "Ah-yes-M-M.'
He strolled over to a file like the letter
boxes in an American post office pointed
along NJ in the horizontal row to l. In the
| vertical row and picked out one from
stack of cards.
Louise Michel" he read, as a merchant
would quote the price of eggs. 'She is now
| in Paris. Monday she will go to Belgium.
/ weeks. then she comes to London, where
she will stop for four days at So Chelsea
| road. West Dulwich. and on the Goth she
will sail for the United States"
. III at, frr1f nad n
| to the last item, and that was checkmated
by the announcement from the treasury Of
| ficials that If Madame Michel voyaged to
American shores she would be promptly
consigned homeward.
Inspector Melville keeps card catalogue
| of anarchists. He knows not only what
each agitator has done, but what he in
| tends to do. Mr.. Lewis complies cata-
lcgue of the aristocracy on a similar plan
but SO comprehensive that beside 1t the
catalogue of the Congressional Library is
a mere crossroads sign board. 1t is related
how Won Moltke had drafted and filed
| plan of campaign for every possible con-
| flict which might befall Germany. and how
when the message came that Napoleon III
| had declared war he merely said to his
| secretary, Bring the third portfolio on the
second right-hand SHELF
A Catalogue of Nobility.
When one of the rising generation Of
Nevills calls Sam Lewis directs clerk to
| bring the Neville ledger. Therein he finds
detailed statistics of the Nevill fortune
| the funds and prospects of each member
Of the family the estates with their inevi-
table membranes, the manner of living
| of each Neviil, his virtues, his habits as
! to paying debts, the names and standing of
his intmateS and their dispositions in the
| way of extending help to a friend in need
The biography has been in preparation for
years on the certainty that its subject
would some day appear just as every we'll
fal,.
| Of Gladstone. Bismarck and the pope
awaiting the inevitable bulletin of their
death. Personally Lewis does not often
| require to study his library, because he
carries the details in his head, but they
are chart and compass for the guidance
| of clerks when he may be absent, telling
them infallibiy whether to lend an appii-
cant money and to what limit, and what
securities to require and what interest
whether 10. 50 100 per cent. Thus the
business is reduced to a science as exact
| as the law, and based on the same princi
pies as the writing of insurance policies
where a small premium is charged on the
new modern fire-proof building which adj
vances through the grades ii property to
| the rotten wooden hulk wherein no risks
are ventured.
With n Grand Air.
Sam Lewis can play his part with tie
grand air well his customers. One
| summer night he was seated at table at
| titled Briton whose argosies -ad gone
| ashore there came stalking up with a re-
quest for loan, as he would have ordered
drinks.
Sir replied Lewis. crushingly, 81 do
business at II Cork street, and my clerks
when / am absent"
He is no common money lender of the
kidney of those who enmeshed the son of
| an American minister to England and in
| return for TO and box of cigars extorted
| n note for fifty. which, by repeated renew
ais, was raised into the hundreds. Nor
Gees he drag his clients into court, for the
suit against young Clay was his first in
thirty years of business, though the fear
of such exposure on the part of the Gus
| toners and the ironclad securities which
Lewis, on his part, insists upon work to-
gether to this end.
Lewis asserts: II would not have sued
young Clay, but he went about calling me
a swndler and saying that the whole affair
was a job put up on me- l had my reputa-
ton to defend. If he had come to me and
said that he could not pay l wou,u have
torn up the notes and told lin that he
owed nothing.
That he would have done so is not incred-
ibe. An American, one Of the most con-
spicuous on the stage, never tires of telling
how Sam Lewis came to him at Monte
| Carlo, when the bank had swallowed his
last dollar, and he was on the frontiers of
ruin, and stuffed his hands full of bank
notes, saving; Go away from here and
Pay me when you can, and never mind the
interest"
The noble society that cheats its guests
at baccarat and procures money from it's
friends for it's little luXuries by fraud
sneers at such as Sam Lewis, calling them
Shylocks. AT least, it may be written down
in the credit column of his page that he
| does not always insist upon the choicest
cut from the joint when he comes to his
pound of flesh. r. NJ. c.
Santa Claus on an East Indiaman.
A. B. de Guerville in the Illustrated American.
Here is ship going to India, and Santa
Claus rests on the deck a moment. What
is this? Piano on the deck, music, every
one dancing and happy, loads Of good
things to eat and plenty Of champagne;
this is a royal Christmas, and the sailors
and servants, thanks to the captain. are
n, less joyous man the passengers. What
Is thatT' asks Santa Claus. stopping to
read one of many cards posted ABOUT the
ship. "Nightgown5 and pajamas will be al
iop ed on the Geek from pm till a M.
Very extraordinary" remarks the Cd man,
anC ne asks to explain. very