LEGACIES OF ILL-LUCK

Evening Star, Issue 20057, 24 December 1928, Page 6

LEGACIES OF ILL-LUCK

DAUGHTER MADE BANKRUPT A MISER'S HIDDEN HOARD HEIRESS BECOMES PAUPER. When the late Mr Clifford, a resident of England, made his daughter a gift of £17,000 he co.uld never have dreamed that the result of his generous present would be to force her into the Bankruptcy Court (says a London paper). Yet that was the' result. The money was in £1 shares of an assurance company. which afterwards failed and was liquidated. But the shares had never been fully paid up, and by law the holder of such shares is liable for the whole of the unpaid balance. This, with unpaid calls and interest, came to £16,781, and since Miss Clifford could not pay it she was made bankrupt. If one suddenly heard that someone had left him £I,OOO one should be highly delighted. Y r et there are people who stand in terror of great riches and their responsibilities. A girl named Sonin Lauricz, when told she was heiress to £2,000,000, poisoned herself.

A naturalised American named Kaufman had a letter to" say that he had inherited a fortune in Germany, but the lawyer added that he must claim the legacy within a certain time. His doctor told Kaufman that he was not fit for a long iourney; but Kaufman vowed that this was nonsense, and started from New York with his wife and child in the liner St. Paul. Two days out ho had a serious heart attack, and on the third day he died hud was buried at sea.

Precisely the same fate befell a Scotch lady, Miss Agnes Grey, who had sailed from Liverpool to claim a large fortune Eft to her by a relative in Mexico. She also was warned by her doctor that she eras not fit to travel. It is a curious coincidence that she also was a passenger oil the St. Paul,

With liis Inst breath llie miser, Maximilian TTarshol. trior! to whisper to liis adopter] daughter, Bella, the secret of where lie had left his money, hat death ent short the words explaining the whereabouts of his fortune, which was known to oxcced £200.000. After his death a will was found, leaving everything to the adopted daughter, hut giving no .details of where the money was. The girl spent years and every penny she possessed in a search for the money, hut never .succeeded in finding it. In the end she died a pauper, the unfortunate victim of her lost legacy. One cannot claim a legacy without giving his real name and submitting to certain legal formalities. An Italian woman, a cook named Teresa Tirone, was informed that a relative in France had died, and that she was next heir to a fortune 'of some £14,000. She borrowed enough to pay her fare to'Lyons, and successfully claimed her money. Then she rashly allowed herself to he interviewed by a reporter, and her photograph was published. A detective, happening to see the photograph, put on his thinking cap, and. presently turned up the police records. He found that the woman had been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment .some years earlier, but had forfeited her bail! So before enjoying her legacy Teresa had to servo her sentence. Legacies are sometimes accompanied by conditions unpleasant to the legatee. In a recent case a poor London woman was left a house, with the proviso that a man and his wile should be allowed to remain on in two rooms, rent free The legatee herself went to live in the house but found that she could not cr C t on with the tenants. She offered to buv them out, but the man scornfully refused to move. Matters went from bad to worse, and in the end the unfortunate woman poisoned herself and died.