WEALTH BRINGS—WHAT?

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 6 December 1927, Page 9

WEALTH BRINGS—WHAT?

WINNERS OF FORTUNE. IN THE CALCUTTA SWEEP. What becomes of the men and women who by a turn of Fortune's wheel become the possessors of vast .wealth, the people who. for example, make a fortune on the Calcutta Sweep ? For a day or two their names loom largely in the news, they bask reluctantly in the limelight, they are interviewed, they are cross-examined as to how they are going to spend the money that bus come to them l-'ke a bolt from the blue —then they are completely forgotten— they vanish. Are they happy with their newlyacquired wealth? Are they spanning it to the best advantage? Last June a dentist's assistant named Kilpatrick, a man of 40. who has 'been a vaudevili# artist, won over £90,000 on the Calcutta Sweep. He then worked in South Africa. Quietly 'Mr Kilpatrick took his money and returned inconspicuously to Englund, where he bought a home for himself and his father and mother On the other hand, there Was Captain T. Alban Jones,, a picturesque old salior, who’drew the Derby favourite, Humorist, in the sweep i.l 1921. He dabbled in Indian Exchange and cleaned up £5OOO. Then he put £20,000 into a railway company and stepped out with another £55,000. Living a peaceful life in a beautiful country estate outside London, he.is said to have only one extravagance, and that is the purchase of a Calcutta Sweep ticket each year. James Carew, a Liverpool marchant, had a chance on the 1925 Derby. Be wus 53 then, was married. but childless, and deeply interested in a home for girls at Great Crosby. ADOPTED 300 CHILDREN. One day Carew went to the orphanage. One of the girls foilnd the sweep ticket in his pocket, and wanted to know what it was. Carew explained, and he smiled as he looked into the curious eager eyes. "If 1 'Should win,’’ he said, "we will have the biggest party ever, and I’ll adopt—oh, say, 300 of you.” He was not particularly excited when he heard his number was drawn at Calcutta, and during the race lie was sitting at home smoking his pipe. But the orphans at Great Crosby believed he would win, and he did. The night of the race he carried out his promise, and completed arrangements lor the adoption of 300 little girls. Everyone wondered' when little Miss Gwen Thomas, who had been a stenographer in a Liverpool insurance office for many years, won the pool on Lord Woolavington’s Captain Cuttle in 1922. She had been earning £5 a week, and contributing to the support of her mother. For weeks Miss Thomas worked on as though nothing had happened Then, one day, she resigned. She bought a pretty little cottage in North Wales, gave her mother onesixth of her money, donated a good sum to hospitals and charities, and settled down to helping poor mothers and children. Mrs Nellie Ford, who won £30,000 in the Otley sweepstake of 1923, was a weaver in a factory town. She and her husband still live in the same cottage they have occupied for many years, the only addition to the furnishings of which is a large framed portrait of Papyrus in the. parlour. The Derby victory of Papyrus likewise brought fortune to Captain Anthony Poole, who secured the first prize in the Calcutta Sweepstake. Captain Poole had gone into business in Zanzibar after the war. He utilised his winnings to launch out ■tn East Africa, and now has a fine estate near Nairobi,