"When I think," said Coleridge, "that every morning, in Paris alone, thirty thousand fellows wake up, and rise with the fixed and settled idea of appropriating other people's money, it is with renewed wonder that every night, when I go home, I find my purse still in my pocket."
And yet it is not those who simply aim to steal your portemonnaie who are either the most dishonest or the most formidable.
To stand at the corner of some dark street, and rush upon the first man that comes along, demanding, "Your money or your life," is but a poor business, devoid of all prestige, and long since given up to chivalrous natures.
A man must be something worse than a simpleton to still ply his trade on the high-roads, exposed to all sorts of annoyances on the part of the gendarmes, when manufacturing and financial enterprises offer such a magnificently fertile field to the activity of imaginative people.
And, in order to thoroughly understand the mode of proceeding in this particular field, it is sufficient to open from time to time a copy of "The Police Gazette," and to read some trial, like that, for instance, of one Lefurteux, ex-president of the Company for the Drainage and Improvement of the Orne Swamps.
This took place less than a month ago in one of the police-courts.
The Judge to the Accused - Your profession?
M.Lefurteux - President of the company.
Question - Before that what were you doing?
Answer - I speculated at the bourse.
Q - You had no means?
A - I beg your pardon: I was making money.
Q - And it was under such circumstances that you had the audacity to organize a company with a capital stock of three million of francs, divided in shares of five hundred francs?
A - Having discovered an idea, I did not suppose that I was forbidden to work it up.
Q - What do you call an idea?
A - The idea of draining swamps, and making them productive.
Q - What swamps? Yours never had any existence, except in your prospectus.
A - I expected to buy them as soon as my capital was paid in.
Q - And in the mean time you promised ten per cent to your stockholders.
A-That's the least that draining operations ever pay.
Q - You have advertised?
A - Of course.
Q - To what extent?
A - To the extent of about sixty thousand francs.
Q - Where did you get the money?
A - I commenced with ten thousand francs, which a friend of mine had lent me; then I used the funds as they came in.
9 - In other words, you made use of the money of your first dupes to attract others?
A - Many~people thought it was a good thing.
Q - Who? Those to whom you sent your prospectus with a plan of your pretended swamps?
A - Excuse me. Others too.
Q - How much money did you ever receive?
A - About six hundred thousand francs, as the expert has stated.
Q - And you have spent the whole of the money?
A - Permit me? I have never applied to my personal wants any thing beyond the salary which was allowed me by the By-laws.
Q - How is it, then, that, when you were arrested, there were only twelve hundred and fifty francs found in your safe, and that amount had been sent you through the post-office that very morning? What has become of the rest?
A - The rest has been spent for the good of the company.
Q - Of course! You had a carriage?
A - It was allowed to me by Article 27 of the By-laws.
9 - For the good of the company too, I suppose.
A - Certainly. I was compelled to make a certain display. The head of an important company must endeavor to inspire confidence.
The Judge, with an Ironical Look - Was it also to inspire confidence that you had a mistress, for whom you spent considerable sums of money?
The Accused, in a Tone of Perfect Candor - Yes, sir.
After a pause of a few moments, the judge resumes, Q - Your offices were magnificent. They must have cost you a great deal to furnish.
A - On the contrary, sir, almost nothing. The furniture was all hired. You can examine the upholsterer.
The upholsterer is sent for, and in answer to the judge's questions, "What M. Lefurteux has stated," he says, "is true. My specialty is to hire office-fixtures for financial and other companies. I furnish every thing, from the book-keepers' desks to the furniture for the president's private room: from the iron safe to the servant's livery.
In twenty-four hours, every thing is ready, and the subscribers can come. As soon as a company is organized, like the one in question, the officers call on me, and, according to the magnitude of the capital required, I furnish a more or less costly establishment. I have a good deal of experience, and I know just what's wanted.
When M. Lefurteux came to see me, I gauged his operation at a glance.
Three millions of capital, swamps in the Orne, shares of five hundred francs, small subscribers, anxious and noisy.
"'Very well,' I said to him, 'it's a six-months' job. Don't go into useless expenses. Take reps for your private office: that's good enough.'"
The Judge, in a tone of Profound Surprise - You told him that?
The Upholsterer, in the Simple Accent of an Honest Man - Exactly as I am telling your Honor. He followed my advice; and I sent him red hot the furniture and fixtures which had been used by the River Fishery Company, whose president had just been sent to prison for three years.
When, after such revelations, renewed from week to week, with instructive variations, purchasers may still be found for the shares of the Tiffla Mines, the Bretoneche Lands, and the Forests of Formanoid, is it to be wondered that the Mutual Credit Company found numerous subscribers?
It had been admirably started at that propitious hour of the December coup d'etat, when the first ideas of mutuality were beginning to penetrate the financial world.
It had lacked neither capital nor powerful patronage at the start, and had been at once admitted to the honor of being quoted at the bourse.
Beginning business ostensibly as an accommodation bank for manufacturers and merchants, the Mutual Credit had had, for a number of years, a well-determined specialty.