REWARDED WITH MILLONS

Hokitika Guardian, 10 February 1921, Page 1

REWARDED WITH MILLONS

TIT E HAWKER’S KIND ACT

SYDNKY, Jan. 5

Formerly a hawker of tea and coffee hi the suburbs of Sydney, David Kidd Byrne—the Byrne only recently added —is now settled in Bathurst, N.S.W., in unmolested possession of an estate worth at least two millions. The story i s a most romantic one.

About 15 years ago, David Kidd was hawking tea in Montreal. He was an earnest young man, interested in good works, and a Y.M.C.A. missionary. He was accosted one night by a voting woman, who asked him to buy her a drink. Kidd did not accept the suggestion, but he told the girl that she “ought to have a drink from the fountain of life.” He talked to ber very earnestly about bersclf. and evidently impressed her. She lollowcd him home iiiul sought another interview. Kidd -.tied his best to help her, and then discovered she was Lucy Byrne, the : 11 iv daughter of a millionaire living in Florida. She had drifted into a liie of dissipation, and run away, and her lather had been searching in vain lor her. Kidd communicated with the tat her, and, maintaining his influence over the girl, he was responsible for her repentant return to her father. Her health was undermined, however, and An* died at home a few months later. Kidd then came to Australia, where for a. few months he hawked tea and coffee in and around Sydney, and -had many ups and downs. The millionaire Byrne, succeeded in tracing him, took him hack to America, and established him at the head of a church in Chicago, where lie was given ample funds for evangelical work. He was named in the old man’s will for L‘sooo. When his daughter died, Bvrne rearranged his will, and when lie died a couple of years ago, it was found that Kidd had 'inherited the whole of his estate, worth £2,000,000, consisting mostly of oil and mining interests in Mexico, and mining interests in Australia and the Argentine. When Kidd was struggling in Sydney, he got down and out, and a Bathurst dentist, named J. H. Stocks, lent him £5. “You’ll never regret it” said Kidd. It has taken a couple ot years to settle the affairs of the estate. Now, Kidd (now Byrne) lias taken Stocks to live with him.