James Greenwood

“ A man's faculties are not generally at their keenest and coolest at the moment when he is about to receive the amount he has experienced so much difficulty in borrowing, and for the use of which his dire necessity makes him in such red-hot haste; and then again, it should be borne in mind that loan-offices as a rule are little dingy, ill-lighted dens, and when a borrower is requested "just to pop his name down here-for the mere form of the thing, he has no reason to assume that he is dealing with rogues and rascals. ”

“ The old law that enabled a creditor to lay hands on a small debtor and carry him away to prison was stigmatised as barbarous, and repealed accordingly, but to wreck and desolate his home is even more cruel. At all events, and although a prisoner, he was only so until such time as his family could raise money for his ransom, and with his ransom his domestic affairs resumed their peaceful and comfortable course; but the breaking-up of a home is very often irrevocable. ”

“ But the Private Gentleman who fearlessly tells the company of loan-mongers that he has not, nor desires, any connection with them, that he eschews their method of business altogether, and has one of his own that better agrees with his conscience - there can be no harm in applying to such a one. No one need ever know it. As the advertisement says, the utmost secrecy will be observed, and repayments may be made by post-office order. This is the sort of customer the Private Gentleman prefers to any other, as affording fatter and more tender picking. ”

“ Were it not for this, the same individual, the borrower and his surety or sureties, might make successful application at every establishment in the metropolis, and so do an immense stroke of swindling business. He must be, however, an extremely clever person who can "raise the wind" at anyone's expense but his own, if he ventures to take the owners of a loan-office in hand as his bellows for the purpose. ”

“ But it is the bona fide, willing-to-pay borrower who is best worth fishing for. The loan-office shark has invented a beautiful and perfect system of late years. So safe! There is not a loan-office in London and for twelve miles round that is not perfectly well acquainted with the transactions of every other similar establishment. Every night of his life the Private Gentleman doubtless receives from the other offices a list of all applicants on the preceding day, together with the results of inquiry into their past lives and future prospects. ”

“ It is common for a magistrate to remark to a poor fellow who comes to him to declare that the loan-office vultures have pounced on his house and cleaned it out, from attic or kitchen, that if he has been guilty of the monstrous absurdity of allowing another man to rob him with his eyes open he must bear the consequences ”

“ It is quite time the law stepped in to enforce the better regulation of petty loan-offices. It interferes with sufficient stringency as regards other of the poor man's facilities for borrowing. No one may carry on a pawnbroker's business without first obtaining a licence, and giving very substantial guarantee for his respectability. He is not at liberty to make the best terms he can with his client. ”

“ Anything, anything, rather than that the loan-office keeper should be rudely shocked to wide-awakedness as regards the world's iniquity, and should feel compelled, however regretfully, to give up business altogether, or do violence to his nature by making inquiries as to the solvency of those who seek his aid. ”

“ He may charge what interest he pleases, and make his own terms as to repayment. For a loan of ten pounds it is his common practice to obtain as security, in addition to a note of hand, a bill of sale for at least twenty-five, that not only the amount still unpaid of the advanced money, but also the "attendant expenses" may be covered; and attendant expenses means just anything that the rapacious creditor may please to name. Besides, it is impossible to hold a more potent screw over a poor fellow than authority to break up and destroy his home. ”

“ It is a satisfactory sign of the advancing philanthropy of the age that these benevolent lenders are increasing rather than diminishing in number - satisfactory both as bespeaking that the spirit of simple confidence of man in the integrity of his fellow keeps pace with the progress of civilisation, and that instances of abuse of the said confidence are rare. ”

“ A PRIVATE GENTLEMAN, with a few thousands at his command, is desirous of negotiating loans of small amounts, - say from five pounds to twenty-five, - with persons of integrity who are temporarily embarrassed. Tradesmen, clerks, and others must be prepared to furnish credentials as to their respectability, as the system of inquiry adopted by the principals of ordinary loan-offices is dispensed with. ”

“ In the first place there is the enormous loss the debtor sustains by the sale of his goods by auction. Such sales are invariably "Without reserve," and anyone at all conversant with the subject is aware of what that means. Nothing more nor less than the banding together of half-a-dozen unprincipled brokers, who take care not to bid against the one who is deputed to secure at his own price every lot that is put up, the whole gang dividing the spoil afterwards. ”

“ These, it may be presumed, will suffice, - these and the tradesmen's note of hand, to the effect that, as soon as it may be convenient, he will refund the amount of the loan advanced, and the Private Gentleman will forward the money at once.
The most wonderful part of the business is, that despite the vast number of "embarrassed ones" who must be constantly on the look-out for a friendlily-disposed person, such as the "Private Gentleman," and the certainty that thousands must ere this have found him out and profited by his munificence, he has not tired of his good-natured task. ”

“ It would really seem like an encouragement to thriftlessness, the abundance of cheerful beckonings from persons of means, who are above all such paltry considerations as interest for their vested capital, and who are at the expense of keeping offices and clerks, and advertising in the most expensive of newspapers, with the sole and single aim of assisting their downcast fellow-creatures. ”

“ He is a very lucky person if, having meddled with the limed twigs that the rapacious villains hold out so temptingly, his wings are not so utterly crippled and clogged as to be useless for free flight for many a year afterwards. ”

“ It can scarcely be that the philanthropist who so frankly appeals to the "Embarrassed" intends by his indefinite promise to subject those who apply to him to the trouble and inconvenience of looking up anything in the shape of tangible security he may happen to be possessed of, and which the lender might like to hold, or that he will be expected to procure a signed bond for the amount from two or more substantial householders. ”

“ By means of this arrangement it is not at all uncommon for house furniture worth, say, forty pounds, to realise not more than seven or eight pounds; and if the auctioneer is "in the swim," of course the matter is much simplified. There can be no doubt that the misery arising from this source is wide-spread and increasing. As already has been mentioned in this paper, the patronage of three loan offices is enough to occupy the time and attention of one auctioneer who has extensive warehouse room. The ordinary rate of business at this last-mentioned establishment is four hundred "lots per week. ”

“ And, after all, a man who attaches his signature to a paper he has not first carefully perused, or one that is folded over so that part is invisible, is certainly no greater simpleton than the one who is led by a skittle sharper to stake all his money, and then to go and pawn his watch to raise more with the certainty of losing it; but although the magistrate is apt to tell a greenhorn of this class that he has no pity for him, he sentences the skittle sharper to a few months at the treadmill. ”

“ THE unfortunate individual in humble circumstances who has no relative or private friend wealthy and willing enough to advance him the wherewithal to overcome his temporary pecuniary embarrassments, need not look far afield before he may discover signal lights of succour. ”

“ It has been said so many times that it is scarcely worth while repeating here, that men who do such rash things are unworthy the sympathy and condolence of men of sense; at the same time, it should not be forgotten that it comes fairly within the functions of the law to protect fools from the machinations of rogues. ”

“ Likewise they are not unfrequently heard to grumble about the proneness of the rich to grind and oppress their brethren in distress, and of the monstrous difference there is in the rate of interest exacted from the humble compared to that which is cheerfully accepted from the well-to-do. ”

“ Such, according to their own showing, are the amiable men of money who advertise their willingness to assist their fellow-mortals in distress. They are even at the pains to invent ingenious "catch-lines" to head their advertisements, each one trying to outvie his fellow-philanthropists in this respect, in order that he may gather to himself the greater number of subjects for the exercise of his sovereign healing. Every morning, all the year round, do these charitable ones call aloud from the newspapers ”

“ But he relies as well for a goodly share of his profits on the many who come to bite, and find themselves bitten, - on persons of the Micawber breed, who, in order that the steed may not starve while the grass is "turning up," will borrow at every available opportunity-men who have dabbled in "loans" obtained at the regular offices until their names are no longer good for anything at those establishments. ”

“ Surely he must be ruining himself-unless, indeed, s business is like that of the Cheap Jack, who lost by every separate article he sold, and whose only hope of making any profit was in the enormous extent of his dealings. Either this, or the majority of the "respectable public to whom he so candidly appeals, must have discovered that the Private Gentleman is an arrant humbug, the most objectionable humbug of the whole loan-office fraternity, who, as a rule, are merely wolves in sheep's clothing, while Mr. ”

“ Another kind of public benefactor who proclaims his disinterested desire to benefit his species, is a person who, having money to lend, is by no means disposed to be confounded with professional financial Samaritans. ”

“ The gentleman has no connection with professional money-lenders, and makes the offer as a bona fide boon to the public, on a New and Improved System, whereby all respectable persons can have immediate cash accommodation. ”

“ He must submit the proposition to his lawyer, without whose advice he never acts, and his lawyer's fee is ten shillings - a mere trifle only, in fact, ninepence in the pound, but it must be paid in advance. ”