THE PAWNBROKER'S EMBLEM

Evening Star, Issue 17548, 31 December 1920, Page 10

THE PAWNBROKER'S EMBLEM

ITS RELATION TO CHRISTMAS. It is not generally known that the pawnbroker's emblem of the three golden balls is of Russian origin, and can be traced directly to the Russian legend of " Santa Claus." Santa Claus, or Sankt Klaus, Russia's patron saint, was a very wealthy young man. When his parents died they left him all their vast wealth, including three bars of. pure solid gold. These bars of gold he cherished beyond all his other possessions. One day Sankt Klaus was passing the house of a well-known nobleman, when through the open dining room window he heard the latter tell his three daughters that he was ruined, their home would have to be sold up, and all would have to beg their bread in the streets. The young man was very touched at what he had heard. He could not bear to think of these th?ee young girls and their old father being brought to penury, and yet he did not quite see how he could help them, for he knew they would be too proud to take money from him. But at last he had an idea. He would drop one of his bars of gold through the open window of the nobleman's house when no one was about. They could nob _ trace the gift to him, but would ascribe it to the direct intervention of Providence. So that evening be stole awav on his mission, and was successful in dropping the first bar of gold through the window without being observed. Elated with his success, he determined to do the same with the second bar on the next night. Again his ruse was successful; but when he returned on the third night with the third bar he was discovered by the nobleman, who prostrated himself at his benefactor's feet and thanked him for having saved him from poverty and disgrace. "It will be but a loan," he said, "which I will work all my life to repay."' The tale of Sankt Klaus' kindness to the nobleman spread far and wide, and when a business began to be made of lending money on pledges to people in need three bars of gold were adopted as the sign of the trade. In the course of time this sign was transformed into the tm-ee golden balls which we see hanging over every pawnbroker's shop window.