AN INDIAN MILLIONAIRE.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1753, 28 May 1886, Page 5

AN INDIAN MILLIONAIRE.

A somewhat notable character has died in Bombay (says the Times of India) in the person of Mr Kessowjee Jadowjee, a wealthy Bhattia merchant who was popularly spoken of during life as aj " millionaire." The amount of property he has left behind him does not probably fall far short of ninety lakhs of rupees. Although one of the wealthiest men in Bombay he lived in very humble style a Manbvie, in the native town, and affected no greater display than a man earning a small salary might have done. Hiß dress differed in no respect from that of his fellow-casteman of low degree, and he drove about in a brokendown one-horse shigram. Like many other wealthy men of penurious habits he was extremely litigious. tiiß disagreements with his son, owing to the dissolute and extravagant habits of the latter, will be freßh in the recollection of many in Bombay. The son fell into the hands of moneylenders and others, who expected that the father would, as he had done on numerous occasions previously, discharge his debts, but the old man seemed to have determined that he would no longer minister to his son's extravagances, and he refused to lift a finger to save him from jail. Lilladhur Kessowjee, the son, was on the debtor's side of the jail for some time, and eventually died from disease aggravated if not brought on by his excesses. Owing to the notoriously evil life of the sod, and his flagrant

breaches of caste rules, Mr KesßOwjei and his family were excommunicateby tbeir caste until they had made a pilgrimage to Benares to expiate theii y sins by the course of religious discipline prescribed on such occasions. The old man was too feeble to undertake this journey, and died under the ban of his caste. Aa a consequence, ' enormously wealthy as he was, hie funeral ceremonies were only attended by about ten or a dozen persons. It is believed that the bulk of the deceased's immense property will go tc a nephew, a lad eight years of age, whom he had some intention oi adopting, although he did not live long enough to have the necessary adoption ceremonies preformed.