The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1898-12-31
USURIOUS DESPOFISM.
shylock Methods Employed BY
Berlin Money. Lenders.
1ho~saads of Prassians Driven to 1nan
q Exile Every Year-MarTy-
a's%5E fng Tor Money the
ettH@ 8&if& Aoae Bem0dy. '% 1Sjsti

- fs.,t;i - -sss .----=s. u sls5sfessiI<
All Berlin s;ghs 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 uspry has
followed another, and the end is not
vet. In one OF these trials last fall,
saws the San Francisco Argonaut, there
were no less than one hundred and
twenty-seven defendants, and the num-
.ber of witnesses amounted to neerly
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 > number of the shrewd-
est and most dangerous had to be ac-
quilted fol lack of proof. The young
capital of the new German empire will
remain the most usnry-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 un-
translatable word ''standerstruecksich-
ten," by which is meant the thou
sand and one considerations which
Germans deem due to their rank, or
station in life. Prussia is q poor coun-
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 2 life,
their prominent position in the state
lead to never-ceasing conflict. q Their
peculiar code Of honor forbids them, to
engage in money-makinR 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 mea-
ger paternal acres All G.iE ~
The latter occupation-whichu used to
furnish to brothers, cousins and sons OF
such agricultural aoblemen the secret
wherewithal to live standesgesmaesl IL.
e., according to their rank) in BerlinAor
elsewhere-is becoming less and less
profitable, owing to cheap American
and East Indian wheat, cheap Russian
ry and cheap Australian meat. And
the pay of ,Prussian army officers or
government employees is still so wholly
inadequate thatit does not suffice even.
the most modest expectations mp 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 men
toned in the lexicon of these unen-
viable 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
Fusurer "a B&rFn HIS becomea Z power
of the 6rst mn gnitudes 8NH /
! Each year scores of cases occur in
Beriinof yonnR- hopefuls ending thsir
brief butterfly existence by we'll
directed 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 disappear
ing (and often turning up again in
miserable guise in some transatla
country from their old-time haunts,
and all this because the usurer ut 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
eof WiAehood and lhotherhopd SIMPLY TO
enable their lords OF the other sex,
their brothers in most cases, to cut a
figure for . stime, TO live standes8e-
macs, is fairly innumerable. These
poor girls, silent, accomplishing VIC
Tins of hoary prejudice, are the real
heroines in these tragedies OF life.
That is why Berlin il honey ycombed
with usury, and that is why usufy Is .
regular. protessionTor. rather, Z. ane
ssft. s.. - Il s.
Bicycle Affects Summer Resorts.
A new phase Eot thD bicycle fad has
come to light, says the New York COR
respopdent of the Pittsburgh Dispatch,
and itsbodes no Rood TO the hotel men
at the shore or at the mountains.
Thousands OF New York wage-earners,
as weA astmore favored ones, who have
heretofore spent from two weeks to
two mopthss in the country each snn-
ss31s 33ye thiS bpars btet4eh thair
savings in the alluring wheel and will
stay at home, speeding on the boule-
wards and through the parks of New
l.