NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 October 1920, Page 2

NEWS BY MAIL.

MISERLY MILLIONAIRE. BERLIN, Aug. 17! During the six months’ absence in Switzerland of their employers, Major and-Mrs Aderholt, who are Berlin mul-ti-millionaires, the housekeeper nnd seven servants held nightly orgies in,, the superbly equipped rooms of the Aderholt flat. The finest wines from the major’s cellar were consumed and extravagant bills were run up at the shops .where the major and his wife had credit. The flat was ransacked to provide food, linen, and ornaments.

The servants were brought to trial and alleged as an excuse for their conduct the extraordinary miserliness of Mrs Aderholt, which Major Aderholt himself largely confirmed. Athough the flat possesses four din-ing-rooms, the servants were frequently given only potato peelings fort thei|j| breakfast.

The court took the view that the servants ’orgies were an act of revenge for their mistress’s inexcusable treatment and lightened the sentences accordingly.

DROWNED IN VINEGAR. LONDON, Aug. 17.

It was stated at a Bethnal Green inquest yesterday that Arthur Tillett, 34, of Gnrdiner-road, Old Ford, an ex* Army sergeant and a Military Medallist, committed suicide in a 9,000 gallon vat of sour beer which had been con* verted into vinegar.

An electrician at the brewery sjiid he saw a cap lying at the side of the vat with an income-tax paper affixed on which were the words: “Good-bye 1” X On looking into the vat he saw the body , 1: . floating. : A verdict of Suicide while of Unsound Mind was recorded.

AIR DETECTIVES. PARIS, Aug. 17. A safe belonging to the flying school at Istres, near Marseilles, was carried off the other day with £BOO inside it. ?. The commandant set his pupils to flyC above ttie plain surrounding the aerodrome at a low height and to keep a look-out for suspicious signs. One pilot discovered a cairn which appeared freshly built. Underneath it was found the missing safe still containing the stolen money. The money was removed and the safe , left, while flying men still kept up an aerial lookout. Three soldiers were seen yesterday to visit the cairn, and upon arrest they confessed to the theft.

MILLIONS FOR A CLERK,. - NEW YORK, Aug. 17. By a stroke of the pen in the will of the millionaire, lilr Edward Francis,

Searles, of Methuen, Mass, a modest office employee may be raised to be one of the richest men in the United States. Mr Searles, who was of humble origin

himself, married years ago the enor-

mously rich widow of Mark Hopkins, one of the “Forty Miners” who ruled •California like kings.

In his will he leaves his nephew, Mr Albert Victor Searles, a Boston artist, only £5,000, bequeathing “all the rest and remaining residue” to his monaging clerk, Mr Arthur T. Walker, “a highly efficient business man, but modbst and shunning the limelight.” Ex-

perts put the “rest” at anything from £10,000,000 to £if),000,000. \ ■ Soon after his marriage, the late Mr Searles adopted the title of “Lord Methuen,” and engaged scores of labourers in Methuen as courtiers, who bowed and scraped, addressing him always as “your lordship.” • . .liV.

Mr Searles spent vast sums duplicating Blarney Castle on his estate, and when his wife died he erected a- great mausoleum to which he wished to be . transferred in his coffin with a torch-: light procession at midnight.