"BLOW THE MONEY"

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 101, 2 May 1938, Page 17

"BLOW THE MONEY"

SOBS £20,000 BOY.

EX-ARCHITECrS LEGACY. BELIEVED POVERTY-STRICKEN In a poor New Orleans boardinphoiisc a London-born boy of 13, who had just been left £20,000 on condition that he is brought up in London, sobbed again and again: "Why do I have to go to London ? I like it hero. I don't want to go. Blow the money." The boy is Olond, touele-haired Herbert Massey Lewis. The legacy was left by hie father, a former London architect, who was thought to have been povertystricken.

Herbert's father, Edwin Lewis, died in the boardinghouse where he had lived with his son. A few days before he died, he asked for a lawyer, Mr. Norman Tilder.. To Mr. Tilden he told his story. He wae once a well-known architect in London, and owned much property. He was married, had three sons and a daughter. Something happened, he said, which made him unhappy in London. So with his son Herbert lie sailed to America. Edwin Lewis wanted every one to think he was poor. He bought the boardinghouse in which he lived and employed a landlady to run it. He paid her rent in order to keep up the makebelieve. Said he to Mr. Tilden: "Now I want to make my will." He revealed that he I had thousands of pounds banked in New Orleans. New York, and Reno for the 13-year-old eon who had cooked and leaned up for him in his one-room home. Altogether Lewis left £30,000.