THE BITER BIT.—A WILL CASE.

Evening Star, Issue 3166, 14 April 1873, Page 3

THE BITER BIT.—A WILL CASE.

A Melbourne journal of tbe 22nd ultimo relates the following :—The biter is sometimes bit with a vengeance. the latest victim of hia own sharpn as is a host of an hotel not an hundred miles from Melbourne. There arrived at bis house a young man from New Zealand, whose father was known as the squire in the English village in which the landlord saw the light of £r>y. Tho stranger from Ngyy Zealand produced a paper in which the death of bis father was announced, and in which it was stated that the son was entitled to LIO,OOO. The heir confessed that he had no money, and proposed that the landlord should lend him L2OO, promising to make a will in bis favor in case he should die on the passage home. The bargain was concluded, the money paid, ami the will drawn ; but instead U repairing on shipboard the yogng gum began a career of dissipation in Me'bourne, tho landlord in nowise anxious to put a stop to his vicious courses. At last an attack of delirium tremens ensued. A doctor was called in, and then as the ease grew serious, another w'as sent for. Chloroform was administered, but this and two medical men were too much for any mortal frame to stand, and so the patient died. Tho landlord gave each of tho doctor’s a stiff cheque, paid the funeral expenses without a murmur, amt even erected a handsome headstone over the grave of hia friend. He then wrote to England, and enclosed the will in order to touch the fruit of his generosity. He had thrown his bread upon the waters truly in vain. News came back that tb,o old squire was alive and in good health, and it was then ascertained that the youni s l er bad bimsdl caused the advertisement, which was to establish his identity as an heir, to bo in serted in the paper. Tho landlord has now a supreme contempt for the veracity of the press, and looks upon htirs as pire mythical creations of adventurous or impecunious brains.