THREE BRASS BALLS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12292, 20 July 1914, Page 4

THREE BRASS BALLS.

We were talking after dinner, a. I rumen brought from various corners of time and space—talking- of matters of Jiuaiiw, high finance —and suddenly the talker, who came from the "other sale," aiHiouuced that in his particular provim* of IMaiiitobu. there are no pa\v.nsli<j|* (writes Clarence Rook in the. "Daily Chronicle"). Von can't pawn anytliiiij,' hut real estate, which will not lit into Hie shelves- of a shop. "What a horrible place," ' laughed tl»' man from China, and lie ga,\e a swift picture <>f Hie Chinese pav. ushupt-. thai tower with I heir contents, a. country whi'ic everybody has something in pawn to somebody ehx-. And then a ijniet Englishman averred llrUl lie always pawned hi:-- fw coat in April and got it out in November, because—yon will perceive the economy of the scheme—they had to see iff didn't gi-t. moth-eaten. And if you borrowed a sovereign on it, that was cheap storage. My own experience as a. pawner is moderate, but pleasant. I had once, as a student in Leipzig, very hard up, to pack my dress clothes in a bag and take them to an obscure Jew to get 13s for university fees. Then there came the invitation to a dance. The Jew trusted me. He let out my dress clothes fur 6d on condition that 1 brought them back next day. I, having danced, the courtoy was returned, and—well, you may reckon out what percentage was charged on my 'honour to restore a dress suit, hypothecated, borrowed, returned within twentyfour hours.

But as a pawner 1 am a- wretched instance. Aly only modern attempt « iiS to get rid of a bicycle. The conscientious clerk wouldn't take it unless I could produce the receipt, though I pointed tin I linger across the road -where 1 had buuyW and paid for it. He didn't want it. If it had been a ring. All! If tit had bwii a ring! The shop— you must have observed tin 1 front of the pawnbroker's shop, which i* so different from the secreted boxes at the side;—offers you the most surprising bargains. You can buy anything from » flat iron to a pair of opera glasses or full set of dinner plates, or a picture—>ncii pictures! At the front and in the window the diamonds glitter. There is -Aw a notice prevalent among the pawnbrokers that "plate and cutlery are lent on liii<:."* The plate and cutlery are disposed moat alluringly in the windows, and obviously somebody has discovered thut-ready-muney is better "than silver plale, -and someone else has discovered that silver plate brini?> ready-money. It is all a. mystery of high and !"«' finance, for the pawnbroker is doing fur the poor exactly what the bank is Join; for the rich. There are, lam told, occasions ou which a bank .will lend a truth'' —as. an overdraft—a sum of money o" the mere stake of personal honour, ju»t as the Jew trusted me for sixpence on my bare word to return him my dress clothes to-morrow morning. The whole world of trade is built, it seems, on bank; which are glorified pawnshops, with biu of paper as securities, and an occasional access of confidence in the honour of ■' man who means to meet the bills and bunt them.

But the rich man's bank, with its or. i j|§ sional and cataclysmic collapses, has 11 I ||| tho perfect security of tho poor man - H bank. What is tho weight" of a bit f I|| paper against that of a flat ..iron?- ' M§ weighty, necessary, ponderable thing tint ||j has its value—estimated' rightly bv the Si pawnbroker. ' " H The poor man's banker makes no into- El takes, or,, at least, if he does, lie is iu §1 competent pawnbroker. He has tho le_<d B right to charge 25 per cent, on his lu:i i 111 and he has absolute security, bouaui-e. In Ef holds the goods and never lends more thin §g he chooses. And he never charges It » §f| than. 25 per cent, on a loan with tin B'a security he puts in his store. There i* t&f one little difference between the financul fy firms and the pawnbroker, in tint tin- iff former are dealing with the wen who no Eg doubling the value, of their loans, and iht fA latter is chaffering with men who aro 4 halving them. But the pawnbrok i k. t| on velvet. I cannot conceive l nj\ n l"l broker in the Bankruptcy Court Hi K] security is on his shelves," and, if he h-s (J eyes m his, head, he never accepts anything 13 —sjieh as my bicycle—that no ono loull eJ ever, jviui-t |9