RICH BUT HOMELESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 112, 14 May 1929, Page 8

RICH BUT HOMELESS.

SLEPT IN BILLIARD BOOMS. Known as a rich man who had a strong objection to a fixed home, and used to sleep mainly in billiard rooms, a strange philanthropist of the East End of London has died in St. Peter's Hospital. Though he had spent thousands of pounds in the last twelve months, even his many friends, who knew him as "Ike Samuels," never knew him to have a definite address. He spent his money as quickly as he accumulated it, and used to walk about with £100 notes in a pocket inside his waistcoat. He never used a bank, and, although he carried so much money about with him, he was never robbed. To the poor of the East End he was very generous, and he never refused anybody down and out who approached him for the price of a night's lodging. Especially in Aldgate and White - chapel was he a popular figure, as cheerful as he was generous, and one of his chief recreations was to watch the boxing at Premierland. About four years ago he broke a leg in a street accident, and this undermined his health. Taking chances was his specialty. He used to say he made his money in this way and lost it by the same method.