FROM POVERTY TO WEALTH

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16039, 25 January 1918, Page 4

FROM POVERTY TO WEALTH

STORIES OF UNEXPECTED WINDFALLS. It is usually relatives who die abroad who enrich their kin by unexpected windfalls. In many cases persons hare been raised from poverty to nchos y h -'acies from testators on whom tnoj have never set eyes, and oi whexse existence even they were hardly cognisant. Vittorio Mariana, a ticket omce clerk in the Tivoli Railway Station, m the suburbs of Romo, working at a salary equal to £1 a week, cjjjo in for a windfall exceeding £1,060,000. Forty years ago his uncle, Signor Allesandro Corrandoini, who was then Italian Consul at, Alexandria, was obliged to fly for his life, during an antiChristian persecution. He went to Buenos Aires, whore he succeeded m amassing a huge foitune. After his death it was foutid that his entire fortune had been left to his nephew, the ticket office clerk at Tivoli, who had been kept in absolute ignorance of the good luck awaiting him. ■ When Mr. Lightfoot, an Englishman long resident in France, died intestate, leaving an estate valued at over £60,000, lawyers searched far and wide for an heir. At last he was. found in John Kirkley Lightfoot, a journeyman printer, and grandson of the dead man, who knew nothing whatever about his benefactor, except that, some 50 years earlier, he had gone to Franco. Another French case, oven more remarkable, was that of a lady who, after ignoring tho existence of three humble relatives, died and left £120,000 to be divided amongst them. One of the lucky ones was a navvy, earning the equivalent of £1 a week, the second was a clerk in an oil factory, the third was a cattle dealer on a small scale. £1,400,000 FOR FACTORY GIRL. It was a poor factory girl named Esther Sleight, of Kingston, New York, to whom Mrs. Charles Vandewater, widow of a Vancouver ‘ ‘lumber kino-,” ' left her entire fortune valued at £1,400,000. When Mrs. Vandewatcr made the girl’s acquaintance she was working as a servant in an Atlantic City Hotel, and she was so attentive to the widow that a friendship sprang up between them, and this was maintained up to the widow’s death. When this took place, Miss Sleight was employed in a cigar factory and helping to support her parents. The “lumber king’s” widow had no children, and in leaving her'estate to 20years old Esther Sleight she wrote of her as the girl she regarded as “a dear daughter.” The great wealth amassed by Frank A. Morrison, of California, was left to William Warren Morrison, a young lad employed in a Boston printing office, and who happened to bo a grand nephew. Despite the fact that he had inherited the enormous fortune of £4,000,000, William Warren Morrison continued for some time to carry on at his job of trotting around with proofs, answering the telephone, and miscellaneous errands. , £15,000 FOR REVUE ARTISTE. By a few lines written in the paybook of a lieutenant of the Gordon Highlanders, who fell at Keuve Cha-

pelle, a chorus girl inherited £15,000. This was the '-oquel to a probate action hoard in December of last 3 - ear before Mr. Justice Horridge. Hie lady sought te have the contents of the will which had been lost, established. Early in 1915, when in England on leave, the lieutenant showed her a will written at the end of an, army paybook, whch, she declared; rend: “in the event of my death 1 leave^ all my property and effects to -• ’ Iho twain had been lovers for quite a lime. Most of the legacy was in stocks and shares. These amounted to about £15,000. Then there wore two small properties in Ireland, and a house in Southsca as well. When Mr. William Ranse Whittingham, of Guestling Hill, near Hastings, died three years ago, it was found that he had left nearly all his estate of £46,000 in equal shares to his son and daughter. Tile son, however, .had been lost sight of ,for some years, having sickened of doing nothing and gone to London to earn his own living independently of his parents or rich relatives. The missing heir was found in the top floor of a Soho lodging-house, and ho was earning his living as a taxidriver. Some of the jobs he had filled included: attendant in a picture house, film actor,/mail van driver, and omnibus driver. When discovered, he. owned a taxi cab, and was on the point of purchasing two additional cabs when the news of his good fortune was conveyed to him. X WINDFALL FOR LABOURER. While working as a paviour’s labourer for the Bolton Corporation, William Tnns'tal] received information that his father-in-law in Australia, a, man named Westwell, had left him his fortune of £200,000. Westwell left Lancashire many years ago for West Australia, where ho amassed a fortune in tho silk and pearl industries. The will sot forth that Tunstall should receive £30,000 in cash, and each of his four children £15,000, besides silk and pearl fishing plants,- and an estate of several thousand acres, the whole being computed at £200,000. For some time after receiving news of his good fortune Tunstall continued to work as usual, earning a wage of 28s per week, and living in a cottage rented at Ss per week.

Some years ago a pauper in a London workhouse became the heir to'real and personal estate valued in the aggregate at £300,000. It appeared that a sister of the pauper’s father died intestate, leaving a personality of £140,000, and a considerable amount of property in the West End of London valued at £160,000 more. This handsome fortune went begging for several years, when the next-of-kin was discovered in the person of the pauper referred to, a man ■well advanced in years, and who was an inmate of a workhouse at the time he heard of his unexpected slice of luck. After a hard life, and at the age of 59, Mr. James Currie, of Blackpool, unexpectedly found himself in the possession of £20,000, left to him by a cousin whom.- he had only seen once, and that when he was just eight years of age. £IOO FOR SMILING. Among bequests by a Chelmsford lady was one of £IOO to the wife of a cashier at a local bank. The legacy was received simply for smiling pleasantly at Miss Hodges as they left church. When told of her good fortune the bank cashien’s wife said she used to sit near Miss Hedges in church, and

as they came out she smiled at her and exchanged, a few pleasant words. , | An elderly gentleman was walking down a Liverpool street when a sudden gust of wimj. blow his hat off and carried it down' the street. A young man pursued and captured tho hat and politely returned it to its owner, w'ho expressed his hearty thanks, and offered to exchange cards. A warm friendship sprang up between tho two men, and in tlio course of,time tho elder gentleman died, leaving' his young friend a welcome legacy of £SOOO. A solicitor’s clerk in Belfast was in tho habit of giving a civil greeting to a crusty old gentleman who did business with his master. Ho would also, help him off and on with his great coat and take charge of his umbrella or walking-stick. For these courtesies ho rarely received so much as a grunt. Judge the clerk’s surprise when on the death of the old gentleman he learned ho had been left a legacy of £SOO. A few years ago two women in Bossshire got' the biggest surprise of their lives—each receiving a legacy of several hundreds of pounds. It was one not of kindness which brought them their good luck. Over 10 years ago an orphan lad in Easter Boss made up his mind to go to Canada, but,he hafl difficulty in finding his passage money. His going abroad w-as opposed by his brothers and sisters, who refused to help him in any shape or form. A young married woman whose home the lad frequently visited took, pity on him, however, and fitted him out for his journey across the sea. Never a letter did he write home, and 40 years rolled by. Then word came that the orphan boy who had become a prosperous farmer had died and left a will in which it was set forth that his money was to go to the woman who had befriended him and her daughter—the latter being brought in because she had the same name as his mother. Such are a few of some of the romances of sudden leaps to fortune which can be related. Among others which may be mentioned are those of the million pounds that fell to Bichard Boberts, a Durham sandwichman, and that of Edward Corcoran, a Dublin saddler, who succeeded to £365,000 loft to him by an old friend, John Sullivan, who in his youth had gone to Canada and “made good.”