“OLD ISAAC" DEAD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 20 June 1931, Page 3

“OLD ISAAC" DEAD

PICTURESQUE AUSTRALIAN

AN ARTIST IN BE(i(SIN(j ST. PATRICK'S DAY RUSH SYDNEY, 32(1i .Tunc. One of Auslralia’s most picturesque ehararlcrs died tiiis week in (lie Old .Men's Home id Parramatta, Sydney, lie was known probably to every .Prime Minj.ster, bishop and other public man

in Australia as “Old Isaac.” Hisi fame, however, rested on the fact that lie had written more begging letters than any other person in the Commonwealth. Old Isaac chose his moments well for his appeals to generosity. When a public man was knighted, he could always count on a laudatory letter from the old man, in which wasi included a request for assistance “in his old ago.” It :s known that the appeals miscarried only rarely. New Prime Ministers, Governors and members of Parliament were treated all alike by “Old Isaac,” and his mail sometimes brought in asi much us £SO as the result of his begging letters.

A favourite resort of his was to manufacture tin harps, paint them green and deck them out with green ribbons, and then, on St. Patrick’s Day, send them to prominent Irish prelates, or public men, reaping a harvest of postal notes. Similarly, on Empire Day, his “victims” would receive emblems of Empire, emblazoned with red, white and blue ribbons, with which, of course, was an appeal for funds. Rarely did theso letters fail to find a response. Old Isaac had lived in the Old Men’s Home for nearly 30 years, and officials stale that it was very seldom that ho did not have plenty of pocket money, which he invariably spent on rum.