SWEEPSTAKE WEALTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 81, 7 April 1931, Page 7

SWEEPSTAKE WEALTH.

ITALIAN /WINNER'S PLANS

LONDON, April 2.

"Myself and my relations have shared in miseries. They shall share in my good fortune!" declared Emilio Scala, aged 45, who after lifelong penury and hard work as an ice-cream vendor and coffeehouse keeper in the poor district of Battersea, finds himself the possessor of a fortune of £99,917. The sum consists of a quarter-share of the first prize in the Irish sweep on the Grand National, plus £10,000 for which he sold three parts of his ticket, and £1281 for drawing a horse.

Scala's luck in drawing a runner caused the greatest excitement in Battersea, where mounted and foot police were necessary to keep the crowd outside his shop in order during the race.

Interviewed by the London correspondent of the "Corriere Delia Sera," Scala said that he had already written to Signor Mussolini, "In this greatest day of my life my first thoughts turn to your Excellency, and the wonderful way in which, with the aid of the Fascismo, you are ruling my country," adding that it is his intention to return to hie birthplace, the little Southern Italian village Isola del Liri, where his 80-year-old parents reside. "I have received thousands of letters, which I am not going to read, owing to the magnitude of the task," he said. "They will serve as fire-lighters. Among the few opened was an offer by an American film company to invest in an Italian film, another offering a system of gamblihg for Monte Carlo. "I shall turn down both, for I have plenty of use for my money in assisting my relations, including an invalid 50-year-old sister and an unemployed brother in Rome. I shall give a donation to the Italian hospital where my son was treated."

Scala's 19-year-old daughter has already received 10 offers of marriage. His wife was discovered by the correspondent washing the dishes. "Why are you doing that when your husband is rich?" he asked. "I have been dish-washing all my life, and cannot change now," she replied.