Los Angeles herald., 1909-03-28
March rs, 1909.


to your agreement you may get off by paying at the
rate Of $50 per cent year; but If you falter the
sword Of Damocles hangs your head. The loan
company will threaten to inform of you to your EN-.
young men who borrow secretly.
Mercy at Profit.
But the loan sharks have their ways of gain even
here. They can be mercful-when 1t can be shown
that mercy can present profit. Debtors having per-
haps paid three times the of their original loan,
and in the practsed eyes of collectors at the end
of their tether, may be made their own sal
walton. They are useful spies upon others who
owe more; they give advance information as to in.
tending departures and the ships that intended pass.
ing in the night do not pass or are met their next
port of CALL They become the men who whisper. ~
know where you can get some" to other men. Thou.
sands of young fellows however, never reach this
state; many positions vacated daily by those seek.
ing to escape the usurer They even become collec.
tors themselves after various unsuccessful efforts In
beating it." Here their tragic life consists in over
coming the mountains of debt which the Ingenious
compound interest and special fees system of the loan
sharks may bring upon them.
Il can't help it-you can't get away from them
anywhere; I've tried It, help me-" said one recently
And that the companies have extraordinary success
In locating their coy patrons is undoubted. "Chasing
skip" as it is called is expensive the skip IL he
be caught. case occurred in which one classified in
this distinguished division located in Cuba The
company added to his bill the travelling expenses TO
Cuba of representative who never went there. and
some Gargantuan proportions of compound interest
well.
There are certain salaried individuals however
who fail to make any great hit with loan companies
Artists belong to this class. I tried being an artist
with one. The young woman in charge abruptly tore
off her application blank and informed me that they
found that artists were undesirable borrowers Any.
body connected with newspaper, too is beyond the
pale.
Crosses and Losses.
quite perceptibe repression of feature manifested
itself the part of the young woman In regard to the
latter class of creature. Fiftyseven dollars for the
Of $4a37 for six weeks the of this young
PERSONS company. Her superior was out, and she
felt rather free to make remarks
look at the way they wrote us up. And vet they
didn't have it all right either; they put down
our losses-and have losses, too" said this wise
young thing, with great womany desire to proceed
and great loan empoye wish to conclude But I
tried to look arch and said Losses with the interro
cation point after it, and must have in some degree
succeeded, for she forthwith became quite confden
al and in the intervals of gum chewing continued
Losses, yep-about fourteen per cent of our bor-
beat it. and can't locate 'em again-all dead
loss You see," she continued eff people really lay
themselves out to beat u.s. nothing stop them We
only make inquiries as to the they give u.s.
but if they've got them fixed beforehand where are
we? It's just their intelligence against ours"
And there have been many schemes to beat the
salary loan sharks. Friends, before now, have
formed little cooperative associations which gave
mutual help in the matter of references and state
ments regarding the length of employment, and with
pockets stuf1ng with the loaned money have even
threatened to put the things in the hands of the Dis
trct Attorney with effect, for tracers but fable
creatures, and the basis of the salary loan business
after all, is the common human judgment of the
tracer. If his judgment be bad the loan shark loses
if it be good, he wins Let it be noted that he gen.
orally wins.
And that is the that his eye is an uncon.
quering eye and that is the he takes in your
features, and your clothes, and your movements on
your walk up the passage to meet him just prior to
his statement about "42 downtown" Because he Il
pitting his judgment against you-and he wants