"ISAAC GORDON" CLOSES HIS LEDGER.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10637, 23 April 1900, Page 4

"ISAAC GORDON" CLOSES HIS LEDGER.

The English and American newspapers con* tain many references to the death of Isaac Gordon, the moat notorious money-lender of the cetiiury, -who under various aliases carried on extensive money-lending operations in various parts of Great Britain. A mere glance at Gordon's alias list, as one paper remarks, will show that he spread his net very widely. Here are; only a few of the names under which he Carried on hie nefarious trade:—Gordon, Williamson, Spencer, Elliot, Edwards, Cook, Wallace, Rylands. During tie last ten years lie has been frequently before the Law Courts, and our readers may remember tfiat he was mixed up with the Ardlamont and other noteworthy trials. He also gave come very remarkable evidence in 1898 before a Committee of the House of Commons, and there is no doubt that it was chiefly ctue to him that Lord James's Bill, dealing with money-lend-ing, was introduced. Isaac Gordon, who wae only thirty-five when he died. Was a Russian Jew, and arrived in England friendless, and. almost pftnniless, seventeen years ago. After being clerk for a short time in the office of a Worcester money-lender, he commenced business on his own account, and throve so rapidly that bis connection spread i throughout the kingdom. He ie said to have possessed a wonderful capacity for work, and had neither interest nor pleasure outside his business. His headquarters were at Birmingham, and here it was be died. The manner in which he carried on Ilia business may be judged from the following. On one occasion a Herefordshire farmer applied for a loan of £50, and Gcr- ! don admitted that he got him to sign a promi«sory note for £200! A Chester gen- [ tleman borrowed £5,000 from him, and repaid £14,0001 and even then went through the Bankruptcy Court in the end. These are by no means isolated cases, but may be regarded as fair samples of Gordon's mode of doing business—and people. For this joke we beg to state the Chancellor of th« Exchequer cs responsible, and not we. Gordon was, of course, frequently exposed in the Law Courts, but by mean of his many aliases, as soon as a customer escaped from one of his nets, he caught him in another, and his knowledge of commercial law was so acute, that lie seldom failed to enforce his preposterous demands. Bat at length His. ledger is finally closed, and be has gone to giv« bis account before a Tribunal where justice can be turned aside by no technicality. He was staying at the Pitman Hotel, Birmingham, when he was taken iIL The manageress sent for a doctor, but Gordon refused to allow him to make any examination until ive had announced <&is fee. Seate time before be had been.nn.weH, and had been recommended Jay a physician to go to the Souihof France for tie winter, but had replied thai; tboagb "he-supposed he could affiord it, - business." Hβ consented to--4w»v» a nurse, however, but afterwards dismissed Jher because he considered two guineas too - much to pay. The end -earner jsiddettly. His confidential clerk called on& ■ him about some business, and ia*<hffi~aEm& r he died. No will had been dcscnessedEetan. the last mail lef b-Engiind ,.bathe is believed to have left, beimaLover-e. ra&ion-ij&aMßey. It iS,a inBTJ' Jtmet , * Leodeca- BSV' jgmed,

through Committee in the House of Lords about the ease time that Oordoa died.

It wotrid be easy to moralise on such a life. Here was a man-, evidently endowed with great business capacity, spending all tods powers in acquiring a million of money. To accomplish his purpose, he brought ruin and misery upon scores of financcally helpless people, brought himself into constant eonsßiet with the law, and made his name to be execrated throughout the land. Nor does he himself seem to have got any advantage from his money, for he lived a penurious, homeless life, flitting from hotel to hotel, denying himself even the needful comforts of the sick, possibly destroying, through parliamentary interference, the very trade by which he had amassed hia money, and at last passing away at the eariy age of thirtyfive, amongst strangers, im last moments attended only by a clerk. Are we not again reminded that even money may be purchased too dearly, and that it is only valuable as it is made to contribute to the comfort, happiness, and advancement of mas?