VISITORS WHO BRING GOOD FORTUNE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2274, 30 September 1897, Page 49

VISITORS WHO BRING GOOD FORTUNE.

But ark Ruthlessly Turned From the Door.

It is unwise to assume that a man is poor simply because he dresses shabbily. Many wealthy people love to masquerade in clothes which even a tramp would be ashamed to wear, and delight in contrasting their affluence with the sordid character of their garments. It is a luxury of the rich, this utter disregard of conventionality, and few of them neglecb to indulge in it. A wealthy property owner who is noted for the shabbiness of bis attire recently quarrelled with his solicitors, and determined to take his business to a young and struggling practitioner, believing that a man who had his name to make would serve him better than a well-established firm. He therefore went to theoffice of a young lawyer and craved an interview with him. For once in a way the lawyer was busy, and did not choose to be disturbed by casual visitors, so he asked the clerk who announced the new client to give a description of him. " He is a shabby old fellow with a dirty face," answered the clerk. " I really believa he is begging."

" Then tell him that I'm too busy to aea him to-day," commanded the solicitor.

The clerk delivered this message, and without another word the indignant propertyowner departed, patched up bis disagreement with his old solicitors, and swore that he would cever again enter the office of the lawyer who had slighted him. Thus the' young man missed a client whose yearly law bill invariably amounted to £600 or £700.. He never refuses to interview seedy old men DOW.

A doctor's wife was having a aieita one hot July afternoon when, she heard a loud knock at the front door. The only servant whom she could afford to keap bad gone out on an errand end. much to her annoyance sbe if&b

forced to answer the peremptory summons herself. Opening the door in a very bad temper, sho beheld an old woman in a ( ragged gown, a faded bonnet, and down-at-fheel shoes.

" Nothing to-day, my good woman," she snapped. "Get away quick; I'm too tired to talk to you."

The old woman tried to remonstrate, but the doctor's wife did not intend to listen to any arguments. Instead, she slammed the door in the caller's face, and went back to her couch.

Ou the following morning, however, she had reason to regret her hasty action, for the shabby old lady proved J;o be her husband's aunt, who was so disgusted with her reception that she disinherited her nephew. The unfortunate doctor lost £10,000 through his wife's superciliousness. A man who looked for all the world like a tramp presented himself one morniDg at the door of an artist's studio and aaked to see the occupant. The artist, on learning from his factotum that the visitor carried a rauchdamaged black bag and refused to give his name, at once jumped to the conclusion that he was about to be pestered by a canvasser, and determined not to admit the man.

After a great deal of expostulation the visitor at last departed, leaving a note for the artist, which the latter contemptuously tossed aside and forgot. Three weekß later this note again came to light, and the artist, reading it, was horrified to see that ifc was signed by one of his best friends, a stockbroker in the city.

" Sorry you can't see me " (the note ran), " because I have good news for you. Bay alt the shares (now at par) you can lay your bands on, and await developments. I told you I would do yon a good turn some time, and you'll find I've kept my word."

In frantic haste the artist rushed off to his friend and explained the situation to him ; but he was too late. The shares the stockbroker had advised him to buy had already gone up so enormously that many speculators had made fortunes out of them, and the artist had only himself to blame that he had not similar fortune.