The San Francisco branch mint, in 1857, was robbed
of ten or fifteen thousand dollars by the coiner's head
cutter, Wilham Bein, a Belgian. Bein was arrested
the 1 9th of August, confessed the crime, and gave up
to the United States most of the proceeds of his crime.
The gold taken was in blanks and clippings, and the
circumstance which aroused suspicion was the deposit,
by a banking house, of certain small, rough, gold bars
of standard mint value. Bein was promptly convicted.
Others implicated in mint swindles were arrested
shortly after. Isador and Henry Blum were brought
up on a charge of conspiracy against T. A. Szabo, in
attempting to extort money from him, believing him
a mint-defaulter and in their power. Augustin Har-
aszthy, melter and refiner of the San Francisco
branch mint, on the 1 9th of September, was indicted
by the United States grand jury upon a charge of
embezzling gold to the amount of $151,550. He was
arrested and released on $20,000 bail. Afterward he
was tried and sentenced to six years in the state
prison and to pay a fine of $2,000.
Californians early determined that as mind and manners were here free, money should be free also. Dante could have found in California a better answer to the question why usury offends divine goodness, than the silly one Virgil gave him. It was in the realms below that the two were sagely discoursing, and the sage and master answered that in Genesis it is written that man is to work and multiply, and that the usurer thwarts nature by taking money without working for it. Good reasoning that may be in hades, but it sounds silly in California. Our first answer is that usury does not offend God; our second that money like any other commodity is regulated in its price by the immutable law of supply and demand, and is worth what it will bring in the market. If a person finds it profitable to borrow money at ten per cent a month, why should he not be permitted to do it ? If he can get it for less he will not pay that ; if he
