REWARDED WITH MILLIONS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17063, 7 February 1921, Page 8

REWARDED WITH MILLIONS.

TEA HAWKER'S KIND ACT. (from otth own correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 25. Formerly a hawker of tea and coffee I in the suburbs of Sydney, David ICidd 1 Byrne —the Byrne only recently added —is now settled in Bathurst, N.S.W., in unmolested possession of an estate worth at least two millions. The story is a most romantic one. About 15 years ago, David ICidd was hawking tea in Montreal. He was an earnest young man, interested in good works, and a Y.M.O.A. missionary. He was accosted one night by a young woman, who asked lum to buy her a drink. Kidd did not accept the suggestion, but he told the girl that she "ought to have a drink from the fountain of life." He talked to her very earnestly about herself, and evidently impressed her. She followed him home and sought another interview. Kidd tried his best to help her, and then discovered she was Lucy B;pnc, the only daughter of a millionaire living in Florida. She had drifted into a life of dissipation, and run away, and her father had been searching in vain for her. Kidd communicated with the father, and, maintaining his influence over the girl, he was responsible for her rea taint return to her father. Her th waa undermined, however, and she died at home a few months later. Kidd then oame to Australia, where for a few months he hawked tea and coffee in and around Sydney, and had many ups and downs. The millionaire, Byrne, succeeded in tracing him, took him back to America, and established him at the head of a cnurah in Chicago, where he was given ample funds for evangelical work. He waa named in the old man's will for £SOOO. When his daughter died, Byrne rearranged his will, and when he died a oouple of years ago, it was found that Kidd; had inherited the whole of his estate, worth £2,000,000, consisting mostly of-oil and mining interests in Mexico, and muiing interests in Australia and the Argentine. When Kidd was struggling in Sydney, he got down and out, and a Bathurst dentist, namod J. H. Stocks, lent him £5. "You'll never regret it" said Kidd. It has taken a couple of years to settle the affairs of the estate. Now, Kidd (now Byrne) has taken Stocks to - live with him.