HERMIT’S QUEER HOARD

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4911, 4 December 1925, Page 4

HERMIT’S QUEER HOARD

MUCH GOLD AND CIGARS.

STARVING MAN’S FORTUNE.

A fortune of more than £2OOO in gold, notes, and securities was lately discovered in the house of David Jones, a wfell-to-do recluse in London, who feigned the direst poverty and 41jed practically of starvation. The old man, who was 75 years of age, wajs a milkman and teashop pioprietor in Farringdon Street, E.C. At the inquest it was shown that he had a stock of expensive cigars and a current banking account with more than £lo'oo to his credit. The post-mortem examination revealed that Jones was emaciated and badly nourished. A verdict of death from natural causes, was returned.

David Jones, imperious in his bearing, upright ap a sapling, and industrious until the day of his sudden death, was a. mystery figure in Farringdon Street. Without .warning he renounced the world. This strange old man of the sealed lips, who never spoke of his early life in London oi Tregarron, Cardiganshire, was known to the entire neighbourhood, but none suspected that behind the cloak of poverty was hidden wealth. Jones, had one passion in life —he was devoted .to music. In the privacy of his room he poured out his soul at his piano. Once he was accounted a pianist of genius. Neighbours unlearned in the ways of classical music, but responsive to its appeal, would hear the stupendous chords of Beethoven, or .the liquid notes of a Chopin waltz. Towards the end, however, even the piano remained untouched. It is said that a great disappointment over some matter musical made the old man silence his piano, never to wake it into life again. The old man was a bachelor, and owned to no relatives', with the exception of a nephew who. has not yet been traced, until the day of his death. The only person present when the end came was a woman, the wife of a fellow-WelShman, his friend. His sister, believed to be dead, posed for the statue of Science, which stands on the Holborn Viaduct.

The room in which Jones died, atfer an obstinate refusal ,to see a doctor and been finally overcome, bore every evidence of extreme poverty and neglect. The bedclothes of his rickety bed were tattered, torn, and in the last stages, of decay. The furniture was dilapidated and falling to pieces. The forsaken piano was covered with the grime of years.

The closing scene was tragic. The Woman visitor, who had taken pity on his great loneliness and helplessness, asked if he would like some tea and toast. He assented. It was' prepared and taken to him. He smiled his gratitude and ate and drank ravenously.