SPENDTHRIFT'S STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18943, 14 February 1925, Page 2 (Supplement)

SPENDTHRIFT'S STORY.

ASTONISHING CONFESSIONS, WINE FROM GIRL'S SHOES. IN LIONS' DEN FOR A BET. A young Englishman who, on inheriting a fortune, squandered it in living the gay life of a man about town; drank wine out of the shoes of a dancing girl in Paris; frequented a London night club at which men and women danced in clothes made of paper and tore pieces off each other's garments; and entered, for a bet. a cage containing five lions; told his life story to a representative of the Sunday News in London recently. This man, Mr. Ralph Tonge, of Leigh, Lancashire, who is 38 years of age, went through a fortune of £34,000. He was found not long ago in an hotel in Wigan suffering from veronal poisoning and was later charged at the local Police Court with attempting to commit suicide; but the charge was dismissed. Tonge inherited most of his money from a grandfather, who was a brickmak'er and had a sudden turn of luck after finding half a sovereign in some clay. Before his death ho became owner of a large brewery business and of 32 licensed houses Ut various parts of Lancashire. In Paris. Young Tonge was only 18 years of age when he came in for this inheritance. He had been articled to a Leigh surveyor, but finding himself a wealthy man he abandoned his career and pursued the. gaieties that money could buy. An initial success at racing, which brought him in £2400, made him take to betting. Ho married in 1908, when only 22, but left his wife ti year later to live in Normandy, within oasy reach of Paris. Victim of Morphia. " It was at. Lo Bat Mort, in Paris," Tonge said, " that I made the acquaintance of a dancing girl and drank champagne out of her shoes. She got, lots of money out of me. I later returned to my wife, and we were reconciled. But every month or so I used to slip away to London. I paid £SO in order to get into a night club. " The custom at this club was for men and women to put on paper clothes. While dancing we used, for fun, to pluck pieces of paper out of each other's garments. It was about this time that I began taking morphia and continued the habit for about nine months, when a doctor told me tt> cut it out and get drunk on brandy as the lesser evil. " Returning to France, I lived in Rouen, bought a motor-car, and used to take trips to Paris, accompanied by girls. There was a menagerie at Rouen, and I took a bet of 3000 francs—about £.IOO at that time—with an American who was going the pace like myself, that I would enter a cage containing five lions. I went in with the lion-tamer and stayed there while he put the lions through the usual performance of jumping through paper hoops. I was not afraid, for I was under the influence of absinthe. The American paid the bet., but a few days afterwards he shot himself dead in a cafe. Wife to the Eescue. -Becoming pressed for money, Tonge returned to Leigh and tried to leam dentistry, but soon tired of this and became a licensee. . The war followed, and m failing to get into the Mechanical Transport Tonge took up munitions work and became inspector of shells j)t a. Bolton factoi\. lie subsequently saw service in France. After demobilisation his wife gave him all her life savings, which amounted to £I2OO. in order to set him up again in life She died last year, and Tonge marI ried again. He has two children, a boy i aged 13. and a girl aged 11, bv his first ! wife and a baby by his second. His second wife obtained a separation from | him a few weeks ago.