FROM POVERTY TO WEALTH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 11, 12 January 1918, Page 15

FROM POVERTY TO WEALTH.

STORIES OF UNEXPECTED WINDFALLS. SUDDEN LEAPS TO FORTUNE. It is usually relatives who die abroad who enrich their kin by unexpected windfalls. In many cases persons have been raised from poverty to wealth by legacies I from testators on which they have never set eyes, and of whose existence even tbey [were hardly cognisant, says a Glasgowpaper. Vlttoria Mariana, a ticket offlci clerk in the Tivoli Railway Station, in the suburbs of Rome, working at a salary equal ito £1 a week, came ln for a windfall exceeding £1.000,000. Forty years ago his uncle, Slgnor Allesondro Corrandolnl, who was then Italian consul at Alexandria, |was obliged to fly for his life during an anti-Christian persecution. He went to Buenos Ayres, where he succeeded in amassing a huge fortune. After his death it was found that his entire fortune had been left to his nephew, the ticket oflice clerk at Tlvoll, who had been kept in absolute ignorance of the good luck awaiting him.

When Mr. Llghtfoot, an Englishman long resident in France, died intestate, leaving an estate of over £60.000, lawyers searched far and wide for an heir. At last he was found in John Kirkley Llghtfoot, a Journeyman printer, and grandson of the dead man, who knew nothing whatever about bis benefactor, except that some fifty years earlier he had gone to France. Another French case, even more remarkable, was that of a lady who. after ignoring the existence of three humble relatives, died and left £120,000 to be divided amongst them. One of the lucky ones was a navvy, earning the equivalent of £1 a ' week, the second was a clerk In an oil factory, the third was a cattle dealer on a small scale.

£1,400.0U0 FOR FACTORY GIRL. It was a poor factory girl named Esther j Sleight, of Kingston, New York, to whom 'Mrs Charle3 Vandewater, widow- of a Vancouver ""lumber king.*' left her entire (fortune valued at £1.-100,000. When Mrs. [Vandewater made the girl's acquaintance 'she was working as a servant in an Atlantic City hotel, and she was so attentive to tbe widow that a friendship sprang tip between them, and this was maintained up to the widow's death. When this took place, Miss Sleight was employed ln a : cigar factory and helping to support her 'parents. The "lumber king's" widow had mo children, and in leaving her estate to •twenty years old Esther Sleight, she wrote •of her as the girl she regarded as "a dear , daughter."

I The great wealth amassed by Frank A. 'Morrison of California, was left to William

| Warren Morrison, a young lad employed in a Boston printing office, and who Happened itobe a grand-nephew. Despite the fact i that he bad inherited the enormous fortune nf £4,000.000, William Warren Morrison continued for some time to'carry on at his : job of trotting around with proofs, answering the telephone, and miscellanous I errands. I £15.000 FOR REVUE ARTISTE. By a few lines written in the paybook of a lieutenant of the Gordon Highlanders, I who fell at Neuve Chapelle, a chorus girl 'inherited £15,000."" This was the sequel !to a probate action heard in December of last year before Mr. Justice Horridge. The lady sought to have the contents of the !wIU, which had been lost, established. Early in 1015, when in England on leave, the lieutenant showed her a will written at the end of an army paybook, which she declared read:—"ln the event of my death I leave all my property and effects to

." The twain had been lovers for quite a time. Most of the legacy was in stocks and shares. These amounted to about £15,000. Then there were two small properties in Ireland, and a house in Southsea as well.

! When Mr. William Ranse Whittingham, 'of Guestling Hill, near Hastings, died three years ago, it was found tthat he had left nearly all his estate of £46,000 ln equal shares to his son and daughter. The son, however, had been lost sight of for some years, having sickened of doing nothing and gone to London to earn his own living independently of his parents or rich relatives. The missing heir was found In the top floor of a Soho lodging-house, and he

was earning his living as a taxi-driver. Some of the jobs he had filled included:— Attendant ln a picture house, film actor, mail van driver, and omnibus driver. When discovered, he owned a taxi cab, and was on the point of purchasing two additional cabs when the news of his good fortune was conveyed to hlmf* WINDFALL FOR LABOURER. While working as a pavlor's labourer for the Bolton Corporation, William Tunstall received information that his father-tn-law ln Australia, a man named Westwell, had left him his fortune of £200,000. Westwell left Lancashire many years ago for West Australia, where he amassed a fortune in the silk and pearl Industries. The will set forth that Tunstall should receive £30,000 In cash, and each of his four children £15,000, besides silk and pearl fishing plants, and an estate of several thousand acres, the whole being computed at £200,000. For some time after receiving news of his good fortune, Tunstall continued to ■work as usual, earning a wage of 28/ 'per "week, and living In a cottage rented at 5/ per week.

'Some years ago, a pauper In a London workhouse became the heir to real and personal estate valued in the aggregate at £300,000. It appeared that a sister of the pauper's father died Intestate, leaving a personality of £140,000 and a considerable amount of property In the west end of London valued at £IGO,OOO more. This handsome fortune went begging for several years, when the next of kin was discovered in the person of the pauper referred-to, a man well advanced ln years, and who was an Inmate of a workhouse at the time he heard of his unexpected slice of luck.

After a hard life, and at the age of 50, Mr James Currie of Blackpool unexpectedly found himself in the possession of £20,000, left to him "by a cousin whom he had only seen once, and that when he was just eight years of age.

£100 FOR SMILING. ■Among bequests by a Chelmsford lady was one of £100 to the wife of a cashier at a local bank. The legacy was received simply for smiling pleasantly at Miss Hodges as they left church. When told of her good fortune the bank cashier's wife said she used to sit near Miss Hodges in church, and as they came out she smiled at her and exchanged a few -pleasant words.

An elderly gentleman was walking down a Liverpool street when a sudden gust of wind blew his hat off and carried It down the street. A young man pursued and oaptured the hat and aaiitely returned It to its owner, who his hearty thanks, and offered to exchange cards. A warm friendship sprang up between the two men, and in the course of time the elder gentleman died, leaving his young friend a welcome legacy of £5000. A solicitor's clerk In Belfast was in the habit of giving a civil gresting to a crusty old gentleman who did business with his master. He would also help him off and on with his great coat and take charge of his umbrella or walking-stick. For these courtesies he rarely received so much as a grunt. Judge the clerk's surprise, when on the death of the old gentleman he learned he had been left a legacy of £500. BEFRIENDING AN ORPHAN. •A few years ago two women in Rossshlre got the biggest surprise of their lives —each receiving a legacy of several hundreds of pounds. It was one act of kindness which brought them their good luck. Over forty years ago an orphan lad In Easter Ross made up his mind to go to Canada, but he had difficulty in finding his passage money. His going abroad was opposed by his brothers and sisters, who refused to help him in any shape or form. A young married woman, whose home the lad frequently visited, took pity on him, however, and fitted him out for his journey across the sea. Never a letter did he write home, and forty years rolled by. Then word came that tbe orphan boy who had become a prosperous farmer had died, and left a will in which it was set forth that his money was to go to the woman who had befriended him, and her daughter—the latter being brought in "because she had the same name as his mother.

Such are* a few of some of the romances of sudden leaps to fortunes which can be related. Among others which may "be mentioned are those of the million pounds that fell to Jlichard Roberts, a Durham sandw-ichman; and that of Ed-ward Corcoran, a Dublin saddler, who succeeded to £365,000 left to him by an old friend, John Sullivan, who in his youth had gone to Canada and "made good."