A Fortune for Somebody.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 6, Issue 46, 11 June 1895, Page 3

A Fortune for Somebody.

The following remarkable paragraph is published by the Bristol Times “lama photographer in Bristol, and had one of the queerest experiences I have ever had, in the following way: One day a gentleman of about forty walked into the shop, purchased the photograph of a young lady which was exhibited in the window, and having enquired her name and address—which I was unable to give him, for I had only recently purchased the business, and the books were muddled—left me, having previously informed me that he would give £2O to anyone who could find her. After that, he took the most active steps to discover her, but without avail. He died five years ago unmarried, and left a legacy of £4,000 to the nameless lady whose photo he dad purchased, to go to her if she were found within seven years of his death. Money was also left to the executors to enable them to prosecute a search for her. Less than two years now remain.

A Story from the Soudan

A singular and interesting occurrence is related by Slatin Bey, the recently escaped prisoner of the Khalifa. In December, 1892, the Khalifa handed him a small capsule, ordering him to open it and explain what it meant. It contained two small slips of paper, each about the size of a visiting card, with an inscription in German, French, and English, stating that the capsule was attached to the neck of a crane, bred on the estate of Herr Faix-Fein, at Takanea, Nova, in the province of Taurida, South Russia, who had released the bird and requested its future captor to communicate to him particulars of date and place. Slatin, who speaks only from memory, as he was not allowed to retain or even to copy the writing (the possession of any European writing being a punishable offence), thinks that the date of the bird’s release was June or July, 1892. It was killed about November of that year at Dar el Shaigai and the capsule was sent to Younes, the Emit of Dongola, who forwarded it by special messenger to the Khalifa at Omdurman, a total journeying of about 800 miles by camels. Slatin has written to Herr Falz-Fein, informing him of the incident, the remarkable point of which is that the paper reached the only man in the entire Soudan who could comply with the wish of the breeder of the crane.