The Hawaiian gazette., 1905-03-17
HOW TWENTY
5 S 5 GREW
trrvn Wednesdays Advertiser,

: fFrun. Wednesdays Advertiser)
Following is a statement of Charles
Lake to the Attorney General in re-
gard to another usury case:
NY name is Charles Lake. Some
time in the month of April or May of
last year 1 went to Charles Martin and
William Peterson to borrow some
money, they being money lenders In
Honolulu. l wanted a loan of 500;
they refused to lend me the money
unless l would buy from them a sec
.ond- hand watch, of which they had a
number they were trying to get rid
Of, and as could not get loan 9TH
erwise I therefore bought one of the
watches. for which they charged me
the sum of s25. and signed a note for
the same which they prepared for me.
They gave me the 500 and I signed
another note, for it. They told me that
the lowest rate of interest for which
they did business was ten cents on
every dollar every two weeks. was
not familiar with the law and thought
that they charged me only what was
legal
son and Martin on the street and they
told me that they were going to San
Francisco and for me to come to the
office and sign a new note in place of
the two that l had already signed. ]
went with them and they prepared a
note for $3.50. objected, that the in
terest could not have come up to that
amount on my original loan of $45,
but they told me that they would sue
me and garnishee my wages, unless I
signed the note, and IL signed the
note 1 would have plenty of time before
they required payment. / objected to
signing the note and argued for some
time, telling them that they were
charging me too much, but finally yield
ed to their threats, that they would
Immediately sue me and tie up my
salary, so that could not get any
money to support my family unless l
signed this new note.
They did not give me back the old
notes. l understand that after this
they went to San Francisco and were
gone for about month when Peterson
returned.
and told me to come to his office. When
got there he produced the note for
$25 which had originally signed when
they made me take the watch, and
told me that he wanted the money on
that note with interest amounting to
about 1913. ] told him that I had no
money and could not pay him at the
time, SO he had me sign three new
notes; two for $40 and one for $13.
asked him for my old note back again,
but he said that was unnecessary;
that he would tear the note up before
me; he tore up what l believed to be
the note that / signed for $25. 1, at
the time, asked him IL / was to sign
these three notes why l did not get
back my notes for $55 which covered
the whole Indebtedness; he said that
it was locked up in the safe and that
Mr.. Martin had the key, therefore he
could not give it to me, but that 1t
would be destroyed when Mr.. Martin
got back. Two or three weeks after l
signed these three notes Mr.. Peterson
had my wages garnished for these
three notes and was paid the full
In the last part of last year or in
January of this year, Martin and Pc
terson met me in front of the govern
ment building. where / was working In
the road department, and made a de-
mand on me to pay the note for s55,
with more interest. I told them that
I had already paid a portion of this
by their collection of these
notes for s33, and that would pay the
balance on the original loan. They
told me that I must pay the interest
up to date, which would make the sum
very much larger, and to come to their
Office and sign new note By this
time ] was afraid to go to their office
because they had so many of my notes
and had never returned me anything,
and l did not know what they would
try to get me to sign, and I refused to
go; they then brought suit against me
for my note for $55 and garnished my
salary in the road Departmental re-
tanned a lawyer in the lower court,
but did not make my explanation there
under his advice and had no money
to appeal the case when judgment was
given against me, so that now they are
the full amount of this note
from my salary. I never borrowed
but the 500 from them.
CHARLES LAKE.
Subscribed and sworn to before me
this 18th day Of March. A. d. 1905.
JNO. NJ KEA,
Notary Public. First. Jud. Circuit Ter
ritory of Hawaii.