The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-13
FOR LACK or $40.
Misfortunes of q Man Who Fen Into the
Hands or Loan sharks.


The romances of life may hinge on love.
said Miss Annette {, Fiske. attorney OF the
bureau of legal a ivice in the Charti s
Building, "but the tragedies of life, be-
lieye. more often hinge on money. And
among the poor, even the thrifty. hard
working poor, pitifully small amounts are
sometimes enough TO change the whole
current of a life.
-Yhe bureau has case on the docket
nov; whose history includes the loss of a
life position, the loss Of childs education,
four years of poverty and hardship for a
whole family and the degeneration Of a
man to almost the status OF tramp. all
through the loan OF ten-dollar bill,
-Four years ago conductor for the
Manhattan Railway Company was living
in q little village on log Island. He had
held his place for fifteen years, which argues
that he was man OF good habits.
His two-year-old child was taken III
and died. He had only s25 to provide for
the funeral There was only one under
taker in the place, ard he demanded a
deposit Of SIS.
"A funeral is a thing on which people feel
themselves justified in spendir & morey.
The conductor went to loan company
downtown and borrowed $40. He vas 10
pay Il back at the rate of - a week for three
weeks, the company charging him 81 for he
use Of SO for three weeks. To secure the
loan he assigned his salary.
During the following week. he was
i'll himself and lost some line, and with the
unusual expenses Of illness ard death to
,.,l,;o ~ ka hoI Ia tal ha haA
81 instead OF 81 to take to the loan COM
pany. The loan company refused to ac-
cept the 81, but instead went Immediately
TO the railway company and demanded the
mans salary
"The company responded by discharging
the man instantly. There, they said, the
man is no longer an employee OF ours
Now you can settle it with him
This may seem harsh but it is the princi-
pie Of many corporations, Many Of them
will discharge any employee if they know
he has obtained a loan on his salary. They
have made the rul" after bitter experience.
THE result was that the man was thrown
out to hunt a job without reference In
consequence. he has never had steady
job since until this summer. For four
years he had only odd jobs.
THE family left their village home and
moved into poor tenement. From that
they were dispossessed and would have
been on the sidewalk had not family.
almost as poor as themselves, taken them
in,
"The oldest boy had to be taken from
school and put in as cash boy. and at
times his wages has been all the family
had to live on. They have been helped
by the Charity Organization Society.
During this period of dependency the
loan company did not trouble the man.
But this spring, for the first time in four
years, he got steady job with the Wagner
Car Company as cleaner.
~The long lane seemed TO have found
it's turning, when at the end Of the first
month he went up to get his wages. He
had Sa5 coming TO him, and, to his aston
ishment, they handed him out $40. They
told him that he loan company had made
claim for SIS out Of his wages. The
money is being held to await the courts
decision.
"Curiously enough. the ex-conductor has
sunk into deeper despondency since this
last developm ,nt than in all the time before:
The feeling that the loan company had
watched him and come down on him the
first time he had anything worth coming
after, his resentment at the increase Of the
original debt to s35 and az the Withholding
Of the 335 from him have all had a bad effect
on him. He could not have been a drink
ing man to have he Id one place fifteen years,
but the smell Of liquor is on his breath
pretty often now.
Meanwhile the loan company refuses to
let either him or the bureau Of legal ad-
vice see the contract which he signed, and
he doesn't know what he signed We have
now suit to compel the company to show
its contract and to learn how it made a
debt of 335 out of one of SO
In my investigations went to the agent
of the building the loan company occupies
to make some inquiries. | found it did
big business. Crrbstone brokers, en-
ployees of all kinds downtown. even mes
senger boys. gamble in stocks, and borrow
money of this company and similar ones.
Sometimes their wages or salaries are
pledged year ahead