B0Y'S ROMANTIC CAREER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10767, 16 May 1911, Page 4

BOY'S ROMANTIC CAREER.

A REMARKABLE ROMANCE. HEIR TO VAST ESTATES. [By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.] (Per Press Association.) Received May 15. at 10.50 p.m. Berlin. May 15. In the Kwileeki child substitution case the Supreme Court lias quashed the decision given in December. 1909. and has rejected the petition of Frau Meyer, the soi distant mother, for the surrender of Joseph Kwileeki. The lad is now heir to estates worth half a million. [lt was in 1903 that the first details ol : the story became public, as a consequence of Courite'ss Kwileeki being put on -her trial charged with childsubstitutionj fraud,' aiid perjury. The charges were made at tlio instance of Count Hector Kwileeki, head of another bianch of tho family, wlio asserted that the Kwileckis, who were childless, had'bought the Child from a peasant woman aiid passed' it off as their own. It w'as asserted that the Kwileckis were in straitened circumstances, but could not borrow money, as they had no male children, and vast estates in East Prussia were entailed. Then, quite unexpectedly, it was an'nbunced that the countess, who was then 52, had given birth to a son ancl heir. The prosecution alleged that this announcement was false, and they put into tlie/hox aGalician peasant woman (now Frau Me^er),' 1 who" T stated on oath that her infant boy had been purchased from, her,,by a midwife at the instance' of the' Kwileckis.' 'The countess swore that the child was hers. It was oath Iversiis 'oath. ' Stanislaus, a pretty bov, was in court; 'liis resom'blauce to the countess was proved, and a verdict, was given in the K'wilenkTs' favor. The countess died iu91908, and Meyer, instigated, it is believed, by the' heir-apparent', reopened the. suit,. this time befortf; the Supreme Court at Posen. Tho verdict was given for'the plaintiff, the'elder cotjut t«i pay all the costs. The boy, who was tlieh nearly* 13, and was bright, handsome, and a general favorite, had to leave the castle which he had been taught to ■■ consider I his inheritance for a railway man's oabin, and to be known henceforth as Stanislaus Meyer, the peasant's son. The official father of the young boy, Count Ignatius, gave notice of appeal to the Supreme Court'. The verdict or tho Posen Court was chiefly based upon the evidence of a lauded proprietor, a neighbor of Count Kwileeki, who stated tjiiit' some years ago tho late countess had told him in private conversation that Joseph was not her own son. It was considered strange that the court should have attached such importance to this evidence, given after the death of tho countess, who ;alon'e would have been ill a position to either confirm or contradict its correctness. It was also remarked that this same neighbor was a witness at the trial .of 1903, and did licft say a word .about this supposed confession at that tim'e. The lad, who became plain Stanislaus Moyerj grew up a handsome, vigorous child, with' curly black hair and an affectionate disposition. His tutors found him peculiarly apt and intelligent. His father is said •to have been an Austrian military officer.]