THROWN- WAY FORTUNES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2080, 4 January 1894, Page 42

THROWN- WAY FORTUNES.

Some Strange Freaks of Goldwasters. While moßt people are troubled over " ways to make money," there are some who seem at their wits' ends to know how to get rid of it, and most extraordinary are many of the means they have chosen to expedite their progress from wealth to the workhouse. In general the spendthrift seems to have been a person who, by some apparently " happy stroke of luck," has been raised from poverty to riches — an accident which has, at the same time^converted him into something very>like a madman, judging him by his subsequent conduct. You can hardly visit a workhouse in the kingdom without meeting with the inmate who was once rich, and who has only himself to thank for the fact that he is pot so still. I We remember baviog pointed out to us two of these melancholy specimens of human wretchedness in a London charitable institution recently — one of whom had wasted a fortune of £7000 a year, and the other the sum of £37,000. bbnzon's little gift. The career of Mr Ernest Benzon, the "Jubilee Plunger," who declared when before the official receiver that he had " made a record " by getting through a fortune of £250,000 in 18 months, furnishes several examples of Btrange freak?. The presentation of a black pearl ecarfp:n, which cost him £500, to one of his companions simply beciuse he had paid one of his tradesmen's bills for him was, perhaps, tbe most notable of his eccentricities. £80,000 on dogs. Having inherited a large fortune at his father's death, a young gentleman in Berkshire a few years since built enormous kennels, and proceeded to stock them with dogs of every kind. No price for a rare specimen was too high for bim, a staff of men were engaged to look after the pets, and the butcher's cart drove up twice daily to the kennels with food. At length the end came. In ten years from the time of hia father's death be had squandered no less a Bum than £80,000 in this absurd manner. MANCHESTER'S SPENDTHRIFT CLOGGER. Some time since a poor Manchester clogger, a friend of mine, came into a sum of £4000. Whether his wealth turned his brain I cannot say, but his great anxiety seemed to be how to get rid of his money from that day forward. He had a kind of cart built in the shape of a clog with cartwheels underneath, and big

enough to hold about 20 people, and in this, drawn by four horses, he used to drive about with as many of his former friends as he co ald persuade to accompany him, " treating " them at every publichouse they came to. The money was soon spent, the carriage and horses followed, and the spendthrift clogger died six months later. SOVEREIGNS AS STONES. The present representative of one of our most ancient noble families perpetrated as queer a spendthrift freak as could be well imagined some seven j ears ago. StandiDg at the window of ar? London West End club with some brother military officers, he, made a bet of a "pony" that he would throw missiles at 100 different people as they passed, hit them, and they would not resent the action. The bet having been made, the young nobleman wrote a cheque for £100 and received 100 sovereigns for it, with which he commenced operations on the passera-by. At first all went well, for selecting the persons aimed at judiciously, the young fellow had the satisfaction of seeing each of them pick up the sovereign and walk off in anything but a bad humour. Seventy-four "soys" had gone when the thrower "had a chuck" at an old shabby- ! looking personage walking elowly by, and who seemed to be really a fit object; for charity. It was Mr , one of the wealthiest West End property owners, who promptly exploded with wrath at the insult offered him. Thus £70 and a " pony " were thrown away. HAD HER HOBSE SHOD WITH GOLD. One of the most remarkable instances of reckless extravagance was that of a lady who had her horse shod with gold. The shoes, which were attached with gold nails, were made in Edinburgh, costing over £500, and for some time the fair equestrienne could be eeen riding in the streets of that city, followed by an admiring crowd. Ultimately she became quite insane, and is now within the walls of an asylum. A £50 PARROT FUNERAL. A maiden lady, who lived at Glasgow, afforded a fine instance of wanton waste of money some time since. Among other pets she had a parrot, of which she was inordinately fond, and Poll falling sick and dying, in spite of all efforts to keep him alive, she resolved to bury him in great state. A coffin, lined with velvet, and with adornments "to the tune" of £50, was prepared, and the parrot was at length consigned to the earth of the back garden. " SCATTERED TO THE WINDS." A gentleman, rich, highly connected, but recklessly indifferent to the value of money, was some years ago returning from a racemeeting (where he had won several thousands), accompanied by a friend. As their carriage rolled along, they passed a man breaking stones on the highway, and, seized with a sudden impulse, the gentleman placed several notes of value loosely on his knee, at the mercy of the breezes, and, with a laugh, he. watched them slowly blown away and disappear from view. A bank note of the value of £100 fell at the feet of the astonished roadman, and no inquiry of any kind was made concerning that or any of the others. This was certainly scattering money to the winds. The perpetrator of this freak died in a lunatic asylum at an early age, after squandering an immense property. RUINED BY FLOWERS. It might seem a hard matter for a man to ruin himself — run through a fortune bringing him in £2000 a year— with flowers, but that is what a friend of mine did. He lived in Kensington, and bis house with tho flowers he bought and hired was a. sight which would have afforded me much pleasure had I not known the cost of it all. Ten or twelve guineas was nothing to him for some rare specimen which took hia fancy, and in one week I know his flower bill came to £127. Strange to say, he took no pains to preserve, rear, or keep the flowers, but having bought them and had them transferred to his house, had them placed where be directed, and beyond ordering an attendant to keep them well watered, troubled himself no more abouttbem. HaviDg at length spent the whole of hi 3 fortune in this manner, he died at the end of 18 months, during which time he subsisted on the charity of boine friends. "THIS STAR OF IHB RA.CKCOUBSI3." No spendthrift; could beat Colonel Mellish, the " Star of the Racecourse," as be was called in hia day. His fortune was immense. He was a clever painter, a fine I horseman, a brave soldier, a scientific farmer, an excellent whip, but a spendthrift. The like of his style coming on the Newmarket racecourse was never witnessedi tnessed there before or since his time. He drove his barouche himself, drawn by four beautiful wl.i c horses, wich two outriders, as matches to them, ridden on harness bridles. la his rear was a saddle-hcrse groom, leading a thoroughbred hack, and on the heath was another groom — all in crimson liveries — waiting with a second back. He possessed 38 racehorses in training, 17 coaohhorce-, 12 hunters ia Leicestershire, four chargers at Brightop, and many backs. By his racing speculations he was a gainer, his judgment pulling him through ; but he would gamble at cards to the extent of £40,000 at a fitting— indeed, he once staked that sum on a siDgle throw of the diee — so that it wae not surprising to find that tbe princely domain of Blythe passed from his possession in order to liquidate hia debts. Like too many of bis " like," he became the tenant of a premature grave. "The bowl of pleasnre,"says Johnson, " is poisoned by reflection on the cost"; and here it was drunk to the dregs. He ended bis days in a cottage within sight of tbe mansion that once had been the pride of his ancestors and of himself, his only consolation being that "he never wronged anyone but himself." A MAD DRAGOON. On beio'g discharged at Maidstone after 20 years' service, a dragoon, wbo had just returned from India, received £90 credit from the Savings Bank and Ship's Clearance.

Pocketing the cash, he tho same day went to a tobacconist's shop, where he purchased

meerschaum and otherexp9mivo pipes, which he distributed among a crowd which he had gathered outside. This " memento " giving went on till the whole of his £90 was gone. The next morning the men of his old regiments subscribed the money to send him home, as be hadu'c a farthing left. WHAT SOME SPEND ON DRESS. What can be done in the way of scattering money on dress is borne witness to by the accounts furnished in connection with the bankruptcy of a lady of high family a short time since. From tha statement ifc appeared that she had spent no less than £4000 in dress in one year I One costume alone had cost her £300, a hat £85, and a bodice £73. Gloves came to the respectable total of £60, and boots and shoes to £67. Parasols at 12ga apiece and stockings at 7ga the pair Van up to a good total, while a jacket at a less sum than £50 seemed to be considered as unworthy of this lady's notice. While the prices were high, the goods were, it would seem, not satisfactory after all, for otherwisa id'would be hard to account for the faot that dress afcer dress was laid aside after it bad been donned three or four times, never to be worn again. GOOD FOR THE LANDLORD 1 la the .gold-digging days in Australia miners often found themselves in possession of several thousand pounds, witn.nothing particular on which to spend it. Three .of these individuals turned up in Sydney one day arid went to a hotel, when, to the astonishment of the landlord, they asked him what ho would take lor his hotel, as it stood, including wines, &o. The landlord did not want to sell his property, but a Urge sum hiving been offered bim, he accepted. The three men then proceeded to bring up all the champagne they could find in the cellar?, which they uncorked and emptied into buokets. Having filled about a dozen large pails, they went to the front of the premises, got two.or three swabs, and began cleaning the hotel windows with champagne 1 J In this way they amused themselves for an hour, when they resold the hotel to the landlord, at a considerable reduction of course, and went their way. TO THE WORKHOUSE IN A COAOH-AND-FOUB. Three years ago there died inthe workhouse here (in the north of London) a man who had, as he was accustomed to boast, been once in possession of an income oE £3000 a year. He had been an ironmonger in Liverpool, and having come into a fortune left him by an uncle, proceeded to throw it away in the strangest manner possible —by driving about the country in a coach which he had specially built for bim, drawn by four horses, for eacn of which he paid £400. He never took a friend with him, but used to drive alone, save for a coachman and another man-servant. At hotels be spent his money in the most reckless fashion, and he created a sensation at a Brighton, hotel once by ordering a _buckefc of champagne to be brought out for his horses.. ■ • He succeeded in driving through his fortune in .little less than three years, and, penniless, and a mere wreck, he betook himself to the workhouse, where he at length died. ' • .. ,'■". . •