A PEOPLE'S PAWNSHOP.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12021, 21 March 1903, Page 3 (Supplement)

A PEOPLE'S PAWNSHOP.

Mr Cleveland Moffett describes Paris panwshops in the " Century Magazine " for January. He remarks at the cutset on the different moral feeling with which the central roont-de-piete is regarded, as compared with oar pawnshops:—"Seven thousand a day in Paris pass through the big doors with almost none of the shamefaced hesitation that Anglo-Saxons feel. In their minds this is no stronghold of the enemy, no plunderer's den, but a friendly place created for the peopl:, with profits going to the people and nowhere else—so reads the law of France. Over these portals is no sinister emblem, but the flag of the land (in Paris it is the hairdressers who hang out golden ball*). There is neither concealment nor embarrassment. These people want a little money, as may happen to anybody, <>nd they come here to get it in a legitimate way. We see a one-time disreputable industry cleansed of its usurer crew and made honourable, whereupon all having to do with this industry are lifted in their own esteem, so that citizens oi Paris to-day deal with the mont-de-piete in full self-respect, very much as they deal with the savings-bank."

The writer ascertained that the largest single loan ever made by this manv-street-ed city of a pawnshop *a 450,000 francs, but one client has received a number of leans amounting to about three millions. Unredeemed pledges are s?ld by auction in what is nominally an open sale:—"But usage has long since made it a close-bound affair among dealers, who deliberately bid ' up prices against an outsider, even if thev have to divide a los 3 among themselves. It must be mad« clear that this vulture feast is strictly reserved for vultures'." MAKING BICH PAT I'OE TOOK. - The proceeds are held for the owners during three years, and after that are given to the hospitals of Paris. This annual gift of forget fulness now amounts to 150,000 francs. The chief fault Mr Moffett has to find with the French pawnshop is the smaliness of the loans advanced, and the appraisers* responsibility for deficits. The loans advanced by private pawnbrokers in England and America are much higher on articles of value. An interview with Monsieur Duval, however, elicited the fact that in this pawnshop it is the rich who pay for the poor:—"He proceeded to dwell on this manifest superiority of the mont-de-piete over any other pawnshop system, that it is really a grt.it p-oples enterprise, where th* profits on transactions with the rich . pay for the losses on transactions with the i poor. 'Then some of your transactions are jat a loss':' 'Most o: them are at a loss." And he spread before uie one of their admirable statistical charts, wherein it was set forth in tinted diagrams that fur the year 1899 the mont-de-pltte uf Ports made something over 1,900,000 loans on pawned articles, of which more than 1.200.000 were effected at a loss, this being more than offset, however, by returns fioia some 617,000 loans on which there was; a profit. ' You may say in ge-r.erai.' he added, • that We lose money on all loans under twmtv francs, and these form two-thirds of our operations, about four thousand a day in Paris alone. In other «crds, we advance money every year to a million and a -[tiaiter people who would be sent away without money if we were unwilling to make loans at a io-.s.' " Why is there so much loo?' I a.-ked. -Because these small loans yield too little at seven per cent to pay for what they cost.'" AN AVKSCt lOK CHAKITY. Not only is this people's pawnshop a _;-eat ani popular, as well as respectable boon, but it offers an excellent opportunity :•■! well-invested ch-rity:—"Many times -inc.- tlie founding «>t' the present system (in 1777) p.i.ple of wealth and station have b-.-.-n sfiriwd, e.-pe..: >!ly in periods oi great cold aui central cL-.!re<-, to give back to tiie poor oi Paris c rtaiti articles from the vast mor-t-de-piet.;- --ore That might be. regarded a; of the tint necessity: shoos, clotriin.. bei-covertnes, mattresses, etc. . Thus, iu 1783. l,,!:s"\Tl. gave 300.000 francs, >rt 1735 the National Convention : i gave nearly 800.000 fra--.es. in 1870 the • [ Commune gave 700,000 francs, and so on ■ j through a lung list azzteiaMitg ever three : an t a hsii million francs."