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Show Grows As It Sleeps. THAT HISTORICAL story about the money borrowed by Edward III from an Italian banker in 1C40. appearing on another page, is a striking strik-ing illustration of the result of inter-jest inter-jest compounded, w hich almost staggers : ordinary comprehension. At the time this English king gave his I O U to the Florentine banker, the amount le-; le-; presented a sum equal to $12,0'i0,ij00. iThe Italian banker's descendants still hold that I O U. and the original note, with interest compounded, has been formally presented to each successor of the royal borrower since the day he politely told the banker to wait for his money. The debt, therefore, which the present king inherits represents more money than there is in the world. I but this fact does not destroy the legality le-gality of a note given by the third Edward and confirmed by his parliament. parlia-ment. It has all the moral force he-hind he-hind it to justify settlement as any other debt honestly contracted. It will not do for the English people to set up the plea that all this happened hap-pened so long ago, away back in the middle ages, that a twentieth century -statute of limitation could wipe out the debt forever. That would be dis crediting a king's word and dishonoring dishonor-ing royalty. And so long as all the court customs of Edward H are to be reproduced aiong with other tomfoolery tom-foolery to give eclat to the coronation of Edward VII, why should the heirs of the Italian banker be excluded from a show which really belongs to them, from the king down to the king's jester? What lawful obstacle could be interposed to prevent an attachment upon the whole court paraphernalia, by the same right a creditor has for attaching the stage outfit and box receipts re-ceipts of a theatrical troupe? None whatever. If law could be applied to royalty as it is applied to the common people. The chief virtue of this historical narrative, however, is the impression which interest compounded forces upon the mind and the magnitude money attains if allowed to slumber. A local example of this wa3 brought to our attention not long ago. A Salt Lake man deposited a dollar years ago in a New York savings bank and carried the book with him to Utah. The other day he found the old bank book. The book was sent back to New Y'ork and 'n due time the owner received a draft upon a Salt Lake bank for more than double the amount of the first deposit. This is only a trifling example of the growth of interest compounded, but it prepares the mind for greater ones. A sum was paid to the Dutch colonists of Manhattan island, upon which the great city of. New York is built, which was hundreds of thousands less than the cost of a modern battleship. A friend of the writer, who amuses himself him-self with mathematical novelties., worked out an example in compound interest, taking the principal paid oy the English fc: the iJand of Manhattan Man-hattan as a bafs. The result showed that if the money paid to the Dutch had been placed in a bank and allowed to draw interest compounded, the amount would be ample to discharge our national debt at the close of the civil war. ., |