Year: 1870

man, cIeanly dressed, cleanIy shaved,
with short, crisp, white hair, and a face
like red pippin, such face as is hard
ly ever seen out of this country, and
even here rarely, save among farmers,
game-keepers, and others who are
much in the open ar, and at all sea-
sons. This little-fO he was very
small indeed as to size-this little old
gentleman was encountered in a first
class smoking carriage on tie South
western Railway.


" Curious trial before the Lord Chief
Justice" continued the old gentleman,
as If Ire wished to promote further con-
verSatiOn. I was once tried for MUIR
der myself, f,"-with a pleasant smile.
" Yes" said the old gentleman, "and'
Cooking pleasanter than ever every
nearly hung too. I did not get off free
= I was sentenced to transportation for
life; went through seven years of il /;
and then they pardOned me for WI


had never done.


"You see," said the little gentleman,
smiling more than ever, as the five
other smokers in the carriage stared at
him, "yOu see, l was for many years a
cattle merchant in London. My busi-
ness consisted in receiving from abroad
from Holland, Germany, Normandy,
or wherever I could form connection
oxen, COWS, sheep, pigs, some on my
account, others to be sold on commits
sion for correspondents who sent their
animals to me for sale. The trade was
q profitable one. Every beast sent
over on my account was fully insured,
so that, ifit died on its passage, it came
upon the insurance company. | had
very few bad debts, and taking one
thing with another, L may fully have
calculated upon realizing at least tWen-
ty-five per cent. on my capital every
three months. In either words, [ got a
profit of a hundred per cent. per annum
on the money [ had commenced busi-
ness with.


"But with money comes the desire
for more. There was Il time before
began to deal in cattle, when I thought
myself rich if, at the end of the year, I
had a couple of hundred pounds in the
bank over and above my expenses for
the past twelve months. Now it was
otherwise. l lamented that [ had not
ALWAYS an idle balance of fifteen hun
dred or two thousand pounds. l was
fond of money for moneys sake. l
could not make money fast enough for
my wishes on the cattle trade, and
therefore determined to do little in
the loan and discOunting way.


y
l have gone through a great deal of
trouble since. My system was never
to put too many eggs into one pot
never to lend very much to any single
person-but to lend many small
amounts to various people. l used to
answer the advertisements of trades
men in difficulties, and, if found that
a borrower had good security to offer,
would lend him perhaps thirty OF forty
pounds, taking ten pounds for the ac-
cOmmOdatiOn for a month, and much
more in proportion for longer periods.
One Of my clients was printer with a
small business, near what was called
the New Road, now MarylebOne Road.
He had often borrowed twenty, thirty,
and once as much as sixty pounds from
me, and had alway Arepaid me to the
day. The security he gave me was al
ways the same, the joint note of hand
of his brother, a grocer up Hackney
way. The name of this borrower was
Strange l,IEdWard Strange. He Is in
q delicate ke of health, always SUI
fering frOnfS lis chest, and in severe
winters he used to be laid up for weeks
together with a bad cough. He was a
WidOWer, without children.


zone day Strange came to me and
said he had an excellent offer to enter
into partnership with q printer who
had been established in business seve-
raj years. The sum required to be paid
for the partnership was $500, and he
asked me to advance him that amount
upOn the security of a policy of insU-
rance for $1,000 upon his own life. On
inquiry, found that, three years before
Strange had, When.a young and healthy
man, had effected an insurance upon
his life for $500, and afterwards in
creased it to $1,000. This policy he had
always managed to keep up, and still
wished that it should not relapse. As
it had been running on for nearly tWen-
ty years, and as he paid very small
premium, and was now in bad health,
the insurance company would have
been glad to purchase it back. There
fore, after looking at the affair in every
possible way, l came to the conclusion
that the security was good, and that l
might safely advance the sum of 93OO
upon the security of the policy being
endorsed over to me. This was done
and I advanced the money! Gentle
men, the worst days business 1 ever
did in my life.


"In general, a creditor sees but little
of his debtors, whether they are few or
many. The man who owes money
generally avoids the individual to
whom he owes it. But it happened
otherwise with Strange and myself.
With the new business that he had
bought, he was not expected, nor even
wished by his partner to interfere; and
his own Indifferent health made it very
desirable that he should be as free as
possible from the confined air of the
close printing rooms. The partnership
he had purchased secured him 4 certain
amount of incomes which, together
with what he had besides, allowed him
to go about to divers parts of the cOun-
try, travelling being much recommend
ed by his medical attendant. Know
ing that had to make weekly trips to
Harwich, and that l had often to go to
Rotterdam in the way of business when
looking after cattle, he asked me
whether he could be of use to me as a
clerk. He asked for no salary, only
his actual travelling expenses; and fOl
this he was to keep my accounts, write
and copy my letters, and make himself
generally useful. The bargain was a
good one for both parties. On the one
hand my business was increasing every


week, and having to knock about q
great deal at fairs, and to see a great
many dealers, had no time TO lOOb
properly after my accounts, which
I
! the other hand, Strange had enough tC
/ live upon, but not enough to pay traV-


cling expenses with comfort. Having
| been friends for several years, when we


travelled together we always had Oul


meals in common; and in country
! places or where the inns were very full


we generally took dOuble-beded room
! between us.


After a time I found Strange's assis
! tance of such value to me that l wa.
able to increase my connections very
materially indeed. Being a shrewC


man, he was able at the end of a twelve


months to make purchases and cOnduc


my business as we'll as / could. Thi


led naturally enough to a partnership


being formed between us, by the term


of which l was to lend him five hun