Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1887 — A Whole Town Held in Pawn. [ARTICLE]

A Whole Town Held in Pawn.

j It may not be generally known that ! the little seapbrt town of Wismar, in ■ the Baltic, is virtually in the same position as Montague Tigg s shirt—namely, at the pawnbroker’s. It was in 1803 j that Sweden pawned the town to the Duchy of Meck.enburg for a round sum of money. It was then stipulated ■ that the town should be restored to Sweden at the end of a century, pro- ' vidcd the sum lent, together with in- : terest, were paid back to Mecklenburg. : This sum is now said to amount to’several hundred million marks, and ap- ' parently there is little chance of Wis- ! mar being able to pay it at the date , fixed.— Pall Mall Gazette.