YOUTH’S “FORTUNE.”
A TOWN HOAXED. A country youth named Frederick Charles Brown, living at Higheiere, near Newbury, has had a few crowded hours of glorious life, says the London Daily Chronicle correspondent. Ho informed his friends that he had come into a fortune o*. £MOOO in cash, 2000 acres in Canad/, and an estate in Yorkshire. Not only diu he become the hero of the hour in the village in which he lived, but his fame extended to Newbury. He arrived there with a land girl aged 17, whom he had promised to marry next Saturday, and on the strength of the supposed fortune launched out into a series of extravagances. Visiting a garage he told the proprietor that his wedding was to take place at Newbury Parish Church, and that In wanted three cars to bring in the guests. He also prevailed on the proprietor to supply a car to enable him to do his shopping. At a loocal shop he selected furniture' to the value of £4OO, and from another firm he ordered a grand piano and a gramophone, which, he said wo"e for his Yorkshire mansion. He took his prospective bride to a dressmaker’s and . ordered a trousseau for her and dresses for the bridesmaids, which were to be hurried forward for the wedding. On Wednesday Brown said lie must go to London to she his solicitor, and motored to Victoria street, Westminster. He went into an otlico there, and on coming out said to the chauffeur, “it’s all right; I have got some money to go on with; here arc two drafts for £4OO each.” On Thursday the crash came. The garage proprietor asked Brown to pay for the cars hired to date. Leaving his prospective bride outside the garage Brown told her. he would have to go to the bank and get the money, and would be back in ten minutes. The girl waited for three hours, but her lover did not return, and at last she left ir tears for her home. Brown was arrested at It is house. He then had Is 7d in his possession. Charged at Newbury with obtaining credit by fale pretences, Brown pleaded guilty and admited that the story of the fortune was a myth. He was sent to prison for three months. Brown is a house painter by .trade. "He was formerly in the Army, and had suffered from malaria.
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Bibliographic details
Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14260, 17 November 1920, Page 2
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402YOUTH’S “FORTUNE.” Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14260, 17 November 1920, Page 2
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