Montclair
a town in Essex co.
N. J., on the Erie and the Lackawanna railroads; 6 miles N. by W. of Newark, on the first range of the Orange Mountains, at an elevation of about 300 feet. Many New York and Newark business men reside in Montclair. The town has a hospital, military academy, State normal school, art museum, public library, high school, State and savings banks, weekly newspapers, many handsome residences.
Pop. (1910) 21,550; (1920) 28,810.
MONT DE PIÉTÉ (mông duh pē-ā-tā'), a public benevolent institution, existing in Italy, France, Spain, etc., and said to have been first established at Perugia in the later half of the 15th century by Father Barnabas of Terni, and to have taken its name from the hill on which it was situated. The object was to deliver the needy from the usurious Jewish money lenders, by lending money at lowest cost on pledges. The mont de piété of Paris advances to the value of about two-thirds of the pledges, charging interest at the rate of 4½ per cent. per annum, besides 3/4 per cent. per month for the expenses of the establishment. The monti frumentarii are granaries established in different parts of Italy to supply the needy with grain on the same principle as the monts de piété.
In 1894, the Rev. David H. Greer, D.D., rector of St. Bartholomew's Protestant Episcopal Church, New York city, inaugurated a similar system.