Evening star., 1902-02-01

service the law allows them-and the Mont
de-Piete pays them-under the denomina-
tion of "droitS de priSee, or appraisement,
80 centimes 90 cents) per 100 francs s20
of loan.
Now, as the law further stipulates that
the corporation of sworn valuers must
make good any losses which may result
from overappraisements, their natural ten
dency is to value certain classes of objects
very much below what an ordinary pawn
broker would risk advancing on them.
Take wearing apparel, for example. In the
eyes of these gentlemen one overcoat is
worth about much another. e.,
from So to S4. With respect to all objects of
small value they are pitiess. Their fee Of
10 cents on so amounts to a loan of three
francs to one cent and a half. To double
this cent and half by estimating the
article at six francs they risk losing sixty
centsI Exactly. Therefore they will value
the object at three francs, not at six francs.
This tendency causes the greatest injustice
to small borrowers.
The small borrower comes with, say. an
would advance 81 The sworn valuer
scarcely glancing al il, says, Eight francs
(Sl6o). The paWnshOp authorities them
selves have no discretion. Their rule is to
advance two-thirds of the objects appraised
value, so they say to the borrower Six
francs'-if they feel good-humored. Now
the poor man, who needs ten francs, has
two courses open TO him. He may take the
overcoat TO some ether branch of the Mont
de-Piete, on the chance of getting more on
it-a problematical and tiresome trip, or he
may put up the Mont-de Pietes ticket,
aux petits papfers," as they say in the
argot of the Faubourgs. This going for the
little paper Is the crying shame of the
Paris pawnshop system. 1t shows how nsury
will find way, in spite of every legislative
precaution, and how poverty will yield alb
insolent.
No other pawnshop enterprise Is permit
ted to compete with the Mont-de- Piete, 1t
Is monopoly, for the borrowers own good.
charging only . per cent year interest,
and bound, after selling the unredeemed
pledge, to pay any excess over the loan
and interest to the pledger, l. e., the holder
of the Mont-de-Piete ticket. No one else
In Paris may lend nc.ley on movable OBJ
Jects; but the law does not forbid me to
buy your ticket, does it? Nor does it forbid
me to lend you money on it.
Money on Pawn Ticket.
1t is here that the abominable abuse steps
in. The poor clerk who just has received
SIX francs and a Mont-de-Piete ticket for
his overcoat (on which a New York pawn
broker would have advanced twenty francs)
sees, up and down the street, on both sides
of the Mont -de-Piete, the Haunting signs of
half dozen "Maisons d'Achats de Recon-
naiSsanceS Establishments for the Pur-
chase of Tickets He knows, as every
body knows, that they also lend money on
tickets. He enters. Glancing at his ticket
the usurer sees that six francs has been
advanced on an overcoat: Now, the usurer's
conservative rule is to lend one franc on
five, or fraction thereof. Therefore he
ought to lend the poor clerk two francs
more on his ticket. The less he lends the
more margin there will be for interest to
run up to that critical point-the real SELL
Ing value of the overcoat. But If the bor-
rover insists he will lend him four francs
or buy the ticket outright for six francs
Mont-deP Piete. Jean Colly, the Paris mu-
nicipal councillor at the head of the pres
ent reform movement, declares that these
establishments find it to their advantage to
lend up to 60 per cent of the face value of
Mont -de-Piete tickets when the sum is
small, where they will not risk more than
40 per cent of the face value when the sum
| is large.
AS the usurious loan always takes the
form of sale with the privilege of buying
back again, the borrower has no protection
against the merchants" rapacity. Munich
pal Councillor Jean Colly has collected
cases in which 100 per cent a year interest
has been paid-and the object forfeited in
the end Thus it happens that in the year
1900 the Montatle- Piete, after selling all un-
redeemed objects. had 64S. 1874 francs to
hand over to the original owners of the
particular objects that had sold for more
than the sums Isn't on them. Of this sum
316,SSS francs went to the merchants"
Have Fifty Per Cent.
AT the present hour" sys NJ. Colly, at
is certain that more than so per cent of all
outstanding Mont-de-Piete tickets are in
the hands of these parasites When. there
fore, it is remembered that the large con-
tingent of well-to-do borrowers on jewelry,
precious stones. stocks and bonds never ap-
ply to them, it may readily be imagined
how great a proeortion of small borrowers
true unfortunates-fall their victims. This
probably explains the lack of enthusiasm
in the great public to profit by lhe liberal
fty of NJ. Santos-Dumont. the majority of
| those interested being no longer in possess
/ sion of their tickets
1t was kindly thought, new to the pres
ent generation; but there are examples of
1t in times past. In the early days of the
first republic and down through ,-e Ma
poleonic period 1t was customary every now
and then to make a kind of general iail de-
livery of such objects of first necessity
held in pledge by the. Mont de -Piete, the
| money for the purpose being regularly