A SINGULAR STORY.

Colonist, Volume XII, Issue 1244, 27 August 1869, Page 4

A SINGULAR STORY.

(From Hie Home Neivs.)

Tub Preston Guardian toll the following singular sbory:—Tlio following facts, if not authenticated beyond dispute, would scarcely bo credited. On October 1, 1867, a Blackburn manufacturer procured from the Manchester and County Bank, Manchester, in payment of a cheque, £100, of which five £20 Bank of England notes formed a part. These five £20 notes were paid to a Blackburn yarn merchant, and by him hauded over to his spinner, On reaching home, a little beyond Colne, the spinner gave the notes to his father, who was also his partner, and the payment was duly entered in the cash-book at the mill. The old gentleman did not keep a private cash-book, but simply deposited the money where many thousands had been placed before, and for the time thought no moro about it. A little more than a fortnight ago, a man, with a gipsy physiognomy, along with a child of a about ten years of age, called at the house of the spinner, soliciting charity. Compassion was excited, the man and child were fed, a pair of trousers was given to the former, and from the wardrobe of the spinner's daughter the child received ample contributions. On the same evening the man returned, sayinghe had found in the lining of the trousers a £20 note, which he handed to the benefactor. The man was rewarded for his honesty, and went away rejoicing, The fact of the £20 having turned up so strangely was told to the police-officer stationed there, and he in his turn told the circumstances to the police-sergeant at Colne. Unfortunately, our hero of the raven locks and olive complexion now assumed another character, and the romantic incident which told so well for him was altogether changed. The fact is he found in the pocket of the trousors not one, but five £20 notes, and report says, though this might not be true, finding he could not get them changed, ho offered them as flash notes at 3d. each, and yet was unable to part with thorn. He then thought that he could ascertain what the notes really were by taking one back, and finding out its value the worth of the other notes would then also be known. Shortly after the man had discovered that the notes were genuine he was seen in Colne, and he got very drunk. He purchased at Nelson a quarter of a pound of tobacco, and tendered a £20 note, which, after some precaution on the part of the shopman, was cashed. Being now in funds and in the height of his hilarity, he ordered a pair of trousers to be made for himself, bought shawls for the child, and in short squandered the money he had so strangely obtained. It is believed by the police that one of the £20 notes was used for lighting a pipe ; but, as the number is known, if it ha 3 been destroyed the value can be recovered. The man was taken into cusody, and the case came before the magistrates at Colne. The cashier of the County Bank proved the identity of the notes recovered; the facts above stated were sworn to by other witnesses, but as the man pleaded Guilty the case was summarily treated. He was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment in the Preston House of Correction. The money recovered to the pinner amounts to a little over £61.