theergasse.

Although the clock had not yet struck eight, quite a little crowd was already assembled there, before the door of a great convent. They were working people for the most part, of the poorest class too; judging by the look in their eyes it was only the chosen few among them who had breakfasted. None the less, they chatted away quite cheerily, and indulged in jokes at each other's expense; for the sun was shining, and it is only when there are clouds overhead that the true Viennese is in clined to take life sadly. They all had bundles in their hands of one sort or another; and they kept glancing down at them from time to time, with an odd expression on their faces. Evidently these burdens of theirs were, for the moment, important factors in their lives.

Besides the men and women who took up their station boldly before the convent itself, there were others of a less sociable nature, who hovered about in the neighborhood-in Stefansplatz and the

Kapuzinerstrasse. They passed and repassed the end of the Dorotheergasse, but always in the most casual fashion; and, if by any chance they did so merely for the purpose of studying the architecture of a certain Protestant temple that stands there. Some of these persons were women, thickly veiled, and in long dark cloaks, and among them there seemed to be much nervous excitement. It was quite pitiable to note how convulsively they clutched whatever they held in their ha ds, when they heard footsteps behind them. Manifestly they were bent at any cost on avoiding intercourse with their kind.

On the stroke of eight the convent door was thrown open. At once all laughing and talking ceased and every one became intent on his own affairs. The crowd entered the building quietly, by twos and twos, and made their way up-stairs in the most business-like fashion. There two policemen were stationed who scanned carefully the faces-the hands, too-of all who passed. Some seemed to regard the scrutiny to which they were thus sub

jected in the light of an ordeal; while others resented it as a piece of gratuitous impertinence on the part of the authorities. So righteously indignant, indeed, was one great fellow, that the moment he caught sight of the officers he turned on his heel and quitted the convent-with more speed than dignity. Such people as these, however, were the exception; to the majority the presence of an official more or less was evidently a matter of profound indifference. As a much-bewrinkled old woman remarked shrewdly: "Policemen must have standing-room somewhere, and they are less in one's way here than in most places."

From eight o'clock in the morning until two in the afternoon, the stream of men and women up that staircase never ceased; nearly two thousand must have passed there that day. But even when the throng was greatest there was never a touch of confusion, all things were done decently and in order. Indeed, the only sound to be heard was just from time to time a shrill little cry of "Nicht genug"-always in a woman's voice. They did not stay long in the place; within a very few minutes from the time when they crossed its threshold, they were back in the street again, with money in their hands, too, as one could see by their faces. For the most part they seemed fairly content with what they had received, although some of the women cried bitterly as they trudged on their way. It was a case of outraged feeling as often as not, some little treasure or other by which they laid great store, had met perhaps with but scant appreciation. It is terribly hard for the feminine mind to grasp the fact that, in the eyes of an official valuer, a wedding-ring, for instance, is not worth one single whit more than any common little golden nugget of the same weight. A few of those who had entered the convent had their bundles still in their hands when they came out and all who had seemed to be in the very slough of despond. And little wonder either, for they who cannot dispose of their wares in the Dorotheergasse, have not much

chance of finding a market for them elsewhere. For the very raison d'être of the institution in the convent there, the Imperial Pawn Office as it is called, is to give a helping hand to the poor and needy.

Early in the year 1707 there was great distress in Lower Austria. The streets of Vienna were thronged with hungry men and women, who clamored for food so fiercely, that richer folk thought twice before venturing out among them. The very air was alive with cries of "Brod, Brod, Gieb uns Brod;" and one might have thought the city was beset with wolves from the strange sounds to be heard there. The emperor himself-it was Josef I.-could not eat his dinner in peace owing to the tumult made by his starving subjects; while as for his councillors, they went about declaring that their lives were not worth living, so untoward was the generation in the midst of which their lot was cast. Something must be done, that was clear, but no one knew what. At length, just when those in authority were at their wits' end, a suggestion was made by whom tradition does not say. It was that an institution should be founded of the same kind as one which had already relieved much suffering among the poor of the city of Amsterdam. This institution, it seems, helped the poverty-stricken to tide over times of exceptional distress by lending money to them almost gratis.

The emperor was delighted with the idea. He promptly issued a decree in which he called upon his subjects to organize in Vienna what was practically a philanthropic pawn-shop; or, as he put it in his quaint old-fashioned German, "Ein solches Mittel vor die Hand zu nehmen wordurch denen jenigen betrangten Partheyen geholfen werden möchte, welche auff eine kurtze zeit eines Geldes bedurfftig waren." He did more, he interested himself personally in the scheme, decided the lines upon which it should be worked, and gave money out of his own privy purse towards providing it with the necessary capital. From that day the Imperial Pawn Office has been under the special

protection of the emperors of Austria; and even now its managers rank as government officials, and are under the control of the minister of the interior.

"

Notwithstanding the favorable auspices under which it was founded, the Imperial Pawn Office had at first a somewhat chequered career. The Gross Armen Haus, as the council which administered the relief of the poor of Vienna was then called, undertook to organize and work it, upon the understanding that, if the scheme should prove a success, any money made by it should belong to the council. The directors of the Haus raised what additional capital they needed for their enterprise by bartering away the right they possessed of levying a contribution of fuel on Vienna, Korneuberg, and other towns. With some of the money they thus obtained they bought from the Count Von Weltz a house in the Annagasse; and there, on March 14th, 1707, they opened their pawn-shop. The rules by which they conducted their business were very simple. All the articles brought to them were divided into two classes, viz., those which would not deteriorate and those which would. On the former they advanced in money two-thirds of their value, and charged interest on it at the rate of a heller a month for each florin; on the latter they advanced one-half of their value, and charged two hellers for each florin. To no one person, however, would they lend more than a hundred florins.

Just when things were in working order, the plague broke out in Vienna; and for three years the Annagasse business was at a standstill; for its managers dare not take clothes in pawn. and the class of clients with whom they had to deal had nothing much else to offer. When once this disaster was passed, however, the office soon became quite a thriving concern, at least from a philanthropic point of view. It was the means of relieving much real distress, especially among the respectable poor, who, when evil days came upon them, had recourse to it gladly, and were often able to ward off ruin by the loans they thus obtained. But finan

cially, for some little time, the undertaking was not a success; indeed, as the directors of the Gross Armen Haus complained, instead of its being, as they had hoped, a source of income to them, it involved them in expense. This was due to the fact that, as much more eagerness was shown in pledging than in redeeming, the managers had constantly left on their hands a large supply of wares, of which they found great difficulty in disposing. They were forced, therefore, to increase their working capital, and to do so must borrow money at six per cent. interest! Under these circumstances, pawnbroking, as carried on at the Imperial Office, could never be very profitable; still, before long, the institution became self-supporting. Already in 1717, ten years after it was founded, it could boast of profits-1,231 florins on a capital of 124,231 florins! Then the emperor stepped in, and insisted on the rate of interest charged being lowered by one half. Whereupon the Gross Armen Haus rose in revolt-as it had the Church at its back it often took up an oddly independent attitude with regard to the crown. It declared that it would wash its hands of the whole concern, and demanded that the capital it had invested in it should be refunded. But this was out of the question, as much of the money was gone, and no one knew where. The quarrel raged for years and ended in a compromise. The Pawn Office was reorganized and placed under the management of certain imperial officers, who undertook, in return for being allowed to retain the use of the capital invested in it, to pay to the Gross Armen Haus a yearly contribution of two thousand florins.

In the hands of its new managers, the Imperial Pawn Office extended its business in all directions, and soon had more clients than it could possibly deal with. Before long its profits amounted to ten thousand florins a year, and these were always added to the working capital; for when it came to the point, the man-, agers stoutly refused to hand over any portion of their gains to the Gross

Armen Haus-all former promises and pledges notwithstanding. They admitted that, according to the Emperor Josef I.'s decree, all money made by the office must be spent on the relief of the poor; but they maintained that, by granting small loans on easy terms they did thus spend it, and in a much more beneficent fashion than the Gross Armen Haus, with its eternal almsgiving, would do. After a time the Imperial Office seems to have lost much of its

philanthropic character; its officials became more intent on money making than on helping their clients. But when Josef II. came to the throne he speedily put an end to this state of things, for he was not the man to tolerate abuses in an institution which was under his protection. He reorganized the office completely, with the result that it soon recovered all its old popularity. By 1787 its business had increased to such an extent that it became necessary to remove it to larger premises. It was then that the convent in the Dorotheergasse was bought, and there the institution has ever since had its home. Some ten years ago a second Imperial Pawn Office was opened in Vienna, in the Feldgasse, and there is good reason to hope that there will be a third before long.

These Imperial Pawn Offices are organized and worked for the express purpose of helping the poor. If members of the higher classes choose to have recourse to them, when in need of money, they are free to do so; nay, more, they are made welcome; for were it not for their patronage, the offices could not be self-supporting-they would have to be either subsidized or closed. Still it is not the convenience, or the interests, of persons who can afford to borrow money in the open market, that are consulted when arrangements are being made there, but those of the poor, the respectable poor above all. Not that outwardly, at least, there is anything that smacks of a charity about these institutions; on the contrary, they are essentially business concerns, managed upon strictly business principles. They who go there-even tlre most poverty

stricken-never dream that they are receiving a favor, or being laid under an obligation. Indeed, an Austrian would no more think of being grateful to the Imperial Pawn Office for lending him money, than an Englishman to the Post Office for carrying his letters. In the one case as in the other the transaction is regarded simply as "business." Yet practically the offices are centres for the distribution of relief in minute portions; only so quietly and discreetly is the work carried on, that the fact is hardly suspected. Help is given there, and at the very moment when it is most needed; it is given, too, in such a way that the accepting of it involves no humiliation even on the most sensitive. Of the crowd assembled in the Dorotheergasse that morning, one-fourth at least received charity before they went on their way; yet it is very doubtful whether one among them realized that such was the case.

The terms upon which the Pawn Offices deal with their clients would not, at a first glance, strike the uninitiated as being specially philanthropic; ten per cent. interest per annum is charged for all money lent, no matter whether it be one florin or ten thousand. But it must be remembered that for one person who pledges his goods for a year, there are a dozen who pledge them for a week. Some men make a point of depositing their Sunday clothes with their "Uncle" every Monday morning throughout the year and of redeeming them every Saturday night. By such little transactions as these our London pawnbrokers manage to make some four hundred per cent. on the money they advance; while the Vienna Pawn Offices are compelled to content themselves with clearing twenty per cent. And this twenty per cent, would be only ten, were it not that a regulation is in force by which they are allowed to charge interest for a full fortnight on what they lend, even though it be repaid at the end of the day.

Supposing that the sum advanced to the hebdomadal pawner on his clothes were 108., then the use of those shillings, from Monday until Saturday, for fifty

two weeks, would cost him about £2, if he lived in London; whereas he could have the use of them for 2s. if he were in Vienna.

The regular pawner, however, is not an individual whose interest the directors of the Imperial Offices-or any one else-feel called upon to study. The institution does not exist for his benefit, but for that of the occasional borrower, of him who has just fallen a few steps behind in the race. If a Viennese artisan be out of work, or be laid aside by illness, for a month or two, he must have a more scant supply of possessions than most men of his class, if he cannot raise in the Dorotheergasse what money he needs to help him over his day of trouble. All he has to do is to deposit at one of the offices articles to the value of one-fourth more than the sum he requires. If the tables, chairs, clothes, watch, or whatever else he may send there, be in the judgment of the official valuer worth £4, £3 is advanced to him on their security. And he receives the £3 in full, for no charge of any sort is made for the loan until the time comes for him to redeem it. Then, supposing it be at the end of three months, 18. 6d. is the amount he is rerequired to pay as interest. This 18. 6d., nota bene, is the whole expense the borrowing of the money entails on him; for in Vienna there is no levying of "Hanging," or "ticket," fees. Even if, instead of borrowing £3 for three months, he had borrowed £20, 10s. is all that he would have to pay for the use of the money.

But most of the people who resort to these offices, it is well to remember, go in search not of sovereigns, but of shillings. During the year 1893, 866,015 articles were pledged there, and on 773,120 of them the sum lent was under ten florins; on 90,069, the sum lent was between ten and one hundred florins; on 2,773, between one hundred and one thousand florins; and on only fifty-three of them was it over one thousand florins.

On an average 2.380 persons a day pawn at the offices some one or other of their possessions; and one hundred