THAT THEY CAN BE ACCOMMODATED WITH
MONEY UPON THEIR OWN NOTES OF HAND
AT THE SHORTEST NOTICE," by applying by
letter to Mr. Smith, at such a number in such
a street.

Of course I don't give my own name. At
the place named I have an office, a single room,
which I pay only twelve shillings a week for
the use of, and a desk; a boy at five shillings
a week, whose only duties are to appear busy
when any one calls, and to reply to all inquiries
that Mr. Smith, my office name, "is out,"
and that "it is impossible to say when he will
be back."

I have two ways of doing business, the one
by means of advertisements, the other by
private information. By the former mode, I
wait until the fish has nibbled at the bait, and
then I land him at my leisure. By the latter,
I profess merely to act as the pleasant gay
fellow, glad to help a friend out of a scrape in
money matters. I will illustrate my meaning.

The advertisements I put into the papers
serve chiefly to attract gentlemen, who, although
in want of "accommodation," are not so very
much pressed for time as to make a day or
two, more or less, an object of vital importance
in their getting the money. Such persons, in
nine cases out of ten, answer my advertisement
by letter, and state what money they
want, and upon what security. The latter is
almost always a bill, and the applicant is as
invariably a young man—a clerk in the Foreign
Office, an officer in the army, or some one
who has, what money-lenders call, "an available
position." To such letters I send
a prompt reply, stating that the applicant
shall have a definite answer in the course
of the day. The actual means of such persons
are either known, or can be easily ascertained
in the course of a few hours; in many cases I
have no inquiries to make, for I already know
all about them. I at once proceed to one
of my principals, one of the money-lenders,
and show him the application. If he be
willing to "do" the bill, well and good; if not,
I go to another party of the same calling.
When I find my chief ready, I write at once to
the applicant, from my office, not in my own
name, and tell him that if he will call at such
an hour the following day upon Mr. So-and-
so—the money-lender—he shall have what he
requires. He does so, and for his note of hand
at three months for a hundred pounds, receives
probably seventy pounds, being interest at the
rate of one hundred and twenty per cent per
annum. If he demurs at this, the money-
lender informs him that he will "do" the
bill for ten or fifteen pounds less, provided
he, the borrower, will get another name to
the document, knowing well that the said
applicant would pay any interest that could be
named, rather than divulge his want of money,
or put himself under obligation to a friend. In
ninety-nine instances out of a hundred, the
business ends by the borrower taking the
money and giving his bill. In such instances
the lender relies chiefly upon the "available
position" of the borrower, who must pay
ultimately, though he may, perhaps, be a little long
in doing so. What matters delay when
interest upon interest at the rate of a hundred
and twenty per cent per annum is paid? Thus,
if the note of hand for a hundred pounds be
not paid at maturity, the debtor probably will
have to pay thirty pounds down by way of
interest for renewing the document for three
months: the original debt remaining at a
hundred pounds. The schoolboy's sum of the
nails in the horseshoe is as nothing, in rolling
up figures, as are these simple methods of
increasing their wealth resorted to by the
West-end London money-lenders. Compound
interest at the rate of one hundred and twenty
per cent, and the amount turned over every
three months, is an interest not dreamed of in
the wildest schemes of the financial companies.

When my principal has "done" the bill, I
call and receive my commission of five per
cent; and when the same is renewed, I
receive a commission of two and a half per cent
upon the amount renewed. For this commission
I am supposed to make "no mistake"
about the party or parties I introduce. If I
do—if I represent an individual as being "all
right" and he turns out to be "all wrong," my
reputation with the money-lender suffers, and
it is probable that I may do no more bills or
business with the individual who has been "let
in for it" by my inadvertence. At first I used to
make these mistakes, but I seldom do so now.

I must not boast, however. Not six months
ago I was the innocent victim of a trap, which
has seldom been equalled for cleverness. In
reply to one of my usual weekly advertisements,
I received a letter dated from
Cheltenham, stating that the writer was an
Indian civil servant at home on leave, that his
income and allowances amounted to about a
thousand a year, but that he had been extravagant
since his return to England, and was in
want of ready money until his next quarter's
salary became due. He wanted an advance of
five hundred pounds, upon .a bill drawn by
himself and accepted by an Indian military friend,
who had retired from the service, and taken up
his residence in England. The writer ended a
short business-like letter by giving me, as
reference for himself, a first-rate East India house
in the City, and as reference for his friend, an
equally respectable army agent in the West-end.

I called at both these references, and found
that Mr. So-and-so and Colonel Blank were
both well known and highly respectable gentlemen,
and both men of means. Determined to
be cautious, and feeling certain that neither
of these gentlemen was likely to meet me in
the set I moved in, I wrote offering them
a personal interview for a certain day. They
both came to my office, and appeared to be
gentlemanly men, of a decidedly Indian appearance.
After some conversation—in which the
intended borrower bargained very hard for a
lower rate of interest than I had proposed, and