BRAVE DEEDS THAT MADE FORTUNES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2490, 4 December 1901, Page 69

BRAVE DEEDS THAT MADE FORTUNES.

SOMETIMES PLUCK PROVES MORF PROFITABLE THAN HARD WORK. Mrs Ernest Williams, a wealthy Yorkshire widow, could not b;ar the sight at her nephew, a boy named Fiarcis Livingstone. The reason was that, as he grew from childhood, his features became exactly like those of his fat hei, Mrs Williams's biothei in -law, a man who had brought disgrace and ruin on his wife and family.

The boy, who was a quiet, hard-working, clever youth, was miserable at his aunt\ evident dislike. At last, at the age of 16, he discovered the reason. He thought over it for some time, and then_ mode up his mind to a desperate step. Instead of coming home as usual from school at the end of the summer term of 1898, he wiote to his aunt, asking that he might be allowed to go abroad for a time to study German. She gave hei permission promptly, and sent him money to do so. Mrs Williams did not see her nephew again until Christmas, and then she got the greatest shock of her life. She did not recognise him until he spoke. Eyes, nose, jaw — all his features weie changed. All the unfortunate likeness to his father had disappeared. Then he told her that he had induced a German surgeon to operate on his face. The muscles controlling his eyelids had been cut a little, 50 that his eyes opened more w idelj ; his upper lip had been shortened by cutting a piece from the jaw ; and his nose and ears and chin altered in shape by tightly-fitting frames.

When his aunt died a year ago she left all she possessed to her " dearly beloved nephew, Francis Livingstone."

Mr John Magee, once British vice-consul at San uose, in Guatemala, did much better for himself tban Hcbson. and reaped an immense fortune t>y a plucky deed. "During a revolution twenty-five years ago the 20mnaaudant sent Mr Magee v rude message to appear before him. Magee kicked the messenger off the verandah. The dictator thereupon sent and had the British representative dragged before him, and ordered him to apologise for not "oming >efore. Magee faced the roomful of armed men with quiet dignity, and told them in plain terms what would happen if they did not apologise for their insult to Britain. Whereupon the commandant triced him up, and gave him fifty lashes. Magee took his punishment without wincing, though he fainted at the er>d. Needless to say, Britain did put her foot down very abruptly. Two hundred pounds a lash was the price exacted, and so .scared was Banios, the President, that he gave the consul the privilege of building a pier and collecting tolls. When Mr Magee died a year ago his estate w as valued at a million. A big and most valuable estate in Canada was the reward of a few minutes' nerve test eleven ye:irs ago. The ownership of the property lay between two men. named Warden and Hilbert. They both knew that if they went to law it would be years before the case was settled. High words passed, and at last Warden challenged Hilbert to a duel.

" I don't care about pistol 51 or swords," said the latter ; " but this is what I propose : I will set a keg of gunpowder on a beam acioss the stream that runs through the property. I will stick a lighted candle into the powder, and you shall sit on one tide of the keg and I on the other, till the caudle has burnt down to the powder." Warden agreed, and, in the presence of several spectatois, who stood at a &afe distance, the ordeal began.

It was a deathly still evening, md the steady light of the candle shone on the two set faces. Inch by inch the wax burned away. Warden, who wns the bigger and younger of the two, got more and moie nervous. The perspiration trickled down his forehead.

The flame was a short inch fiom the powder, when he could stand it no longer. He sprang up and bolted. Hilbert sat still a moment longer ; then^ he carefully removed the burning candle-end, flung it into the water, qnd ro.^e, winner by hits pluck, of 350 acres of rich land.

" King of Valour " is the name Madrid has given to Tancredo Lopez. Apprentive to a shoemakei four years ago, he is now getting £40 apiece for five 'bull fights, a week, which makes his yeailv income a trifle over £10,000.

Dressed in white, he stands in the centre of the aitna, while the savage black Andalusian bull charges furiously at him .vith lowered horns. Everybody expects to see him hurled, a mangled corpse, into the air. Instead, the bull invariably turns off, and passes him. It is said that he does not know what fear is, and that this property gives him his extraordinary power over even the bravest beast that lives.

George Bristow, the platinum millionaire, who died a few months ago in Paris, started out in 1873 with a prospecting party of four men across the Moiave Desert to look for gold. The heat was fearful, dust storms constant, water scarce. There was no *ign of precious metal, and all but Bristow became utterly discouraged.

One day they came to a terrific gorge, xur.uing north and south as far as the eye could see. There was no way of crossing it. Bnstow's companions insisted on turning back. Bri&tow wa-s left alone, with very little food, on the edge of the chasm. He set to work to find a place where descent was possible. A day of hard walking, and at nightfall he came to a >reak in the wall. After a climb down two thousand feet of almost sheer precipice, he reached the stream which ran at the bottom. There he camped. Next day he found the lode of gold and platinum which ha« since ma dp his name famous.

When he attemjrted to reascend the gorge walls he found the task impossible. He was forced to travel down the river to its mouth. His adventures were endless. Forced to swim rapids, battered on rocks, living on mosses and crayfish, he never despaired, and arrived safely, three weeks later, at Merriton, at the mouth of the stream. Bristow's estate was valued at his death at £2,700,000.

Diver Smetton earned £8000 by a plucky piece of work. He was the ninn cl'O'-en to explore che wreck of -he Ksiaeraida, which sank, with £105,000 tiboird her, off Gibraltar, in l£.oft of water. Kight clivers had tried the job, but the depth wns too great. Smetton was promised 10 per cent, of what he could recovei.

Smetton found the vessel lying acros- a sandbank. He was obliged to use a bla.-t-ine charge to get at the hold. v. Inch was choked by wreckage. Going down again after the explosion, he reached the hold, when the vessel suddenly broke in two, and the diver sank to the bottom of 140 ft of water, a depth at which a diver can ordinarily work for only six minutes at a time, owing to the pressure.

As he fell a piece of timber fell upon him, broke his lifeline, and rendered him unconscious. He lay for over an hour at the bottom before his companions managed to rescue him. Yet, not in the least daunted by this awful experience, he went down again the very next day, and eventually recovered £80.000. When paid his share he abandoned his work, and is now living happily in Palmero.