Other People's Money [130]
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.
But gradually it had enlarged the circle of its operations, altered its by-laws, changed its board of directors; and at the end the original subscribers would have been not a little embarrassed to tell what was the nature of its business, and from what sources it drew its profits.
All they knew was, that it always paid respectable dividends; that their manager, M. de Thaller, was personally very rich; and that they were
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.
But gradually it had enlarged the circle of its operations, altered its by-laws, changed its board of directors; and at the end the original subscribers would have been not a little embarrassed to tell what was the nature of its business, and from what sources it drew its profits.
All they knew was, that it always paid respectable dividends; that their manager, M. de Thaller, was personally very rich; and that they were