YOUTHFUL SHYLOCKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1359, 27 April 1920, Page 6

YOUTHFUL SHYLOCKS.

HOTBEDS OF USURY. The Shylock of Shakespeare's creation was a mere novice in the gentle art of financial juggling compared with the "firm" of schoolboy financiers, whose doings have just come to light in the courts. It was at the hearing of a charge of embezzlement before the Juvenile Court of Lichtenberg, near Berlin, that the astounding revelations were made. The case against the accused, a boy of 15, made it clear that practically every secondary school in the German capital was a hotbed of usury and illicit traffic in money and luxuries. Amongst other things, it came out that most of the pupils in these schools were heavily in debt to youthful moneylenders, who used the lever pretty well in getting their own back—with interest. Tobacco, cigars, expensive confectionery, and the kinema were stated to be the chief causes of the boys seeking the "good offices" of their money-lending schoolmates. In the case before the Court, for instance, the prisoner, in order to provide himself with these luxuries, borrowed £5 from a schoolmate at an interest of 5 per cent, for each day, or 1800 per cent, per annum. On the expiration of 12 days the creditor demanded repayment. The boy then borrowed £lO from another pupil, with which he repaid his original debt of £5 plus £2 15/ for interest, spending the balance on enjoyment. He repeated this practice on three further occasions, each time borrowing a large sum from another boy in a neighbouring school until at length he had incurred a debt of £25 with one creditor alone. This creditor had demanded security for the loan in the shape of a diamond ring which the borrower had stolen from his mother. The boy found finally that he was unable to extricate himself from his debts, and he ran away to Pomerania, intending to obtain employment on the land. A farmer engaged him as goose herd. The following day, however, the young bankrupt, separated six geese from the flock and drove them through the country lanes to Stettin, where he intended to sell them. He was captured just before be entered the town. The Court sentenced him to six months' imprisonment.