BEGGING LETTERS.
SOME COOL DEMANDS. •‘TOUCHING” A MILLIONAIRE. How would you approach a millionaire for a gift, or even for a loan ? Lots of people would like to knew the proper method. Mr David White, ot Sydney, who recently inherited the wealth of an uncle in South Africa, could tell them. But Mr White is not telling, though he has sampled every known —and many previously unknown —system of approach. Ever since the announcement of his fortune he has been inundated with begging letters to the amazing total of ,£147,000. Much of his spare time has been occupied in reading them —none of it in ansyeting them. Mr White has been asked for everything that could be imagined, from £lOO,OOO to a football. The latter request has been the only successful one. It was made by a boy who pathetically told the millionaire that he wasi an orphan. A MOTHER’S GRATITUDE. Mr White was touched. He- sent the boy the ball—and the lad’s mother wrote a grateful letter of thanks. That is only one example of the imagination that is brought to bear by those who have not on the task of extracting from those wihp have. The man who asked for £lOO,OOO was a Brisbane herbalist. He said he wanted it to finance a medical cure. He did not specify what he was going to cure and Mr White did not bother hiin for details. There was also a young lady who wrote from South Australia. Her request was simple and to the point. “I am 19, and weigh 8s 41b,” she wrote. “I have had a good education, but my parents are poor, through no fault of their own. My one ambition is to travel the world first-class alone, and to visit Hollywood. What about it ?”
She may not have thought it much to ask. Mr White smiled when he read that letter, and laid it aside with the rest. His education has also been a good one.
He smiled also when he read the following bold demand : “Please send me £47,000. It is nothing to do with you what I want it for. Just send it.”
That sounds simple. No doubt if it had come off it would have passed for a stroke of nothing less than genius in the world of those who live by their wits. But it did not come off.
ONE LOOK AND THEY RUN. Neither has anything else. Mr White, as has been mentioned, has had a good education. Part of it was obtained in the New South Wales police force. That is why many a man who calls at his door takes one ook at his face andl leaves hurriedly through the gate. Mr White explains, with a grim smile, that while he wore the blue he got to know most of the criminals of the city by sight. Most of them also got to know him. You never really know how popular you are until you- inherit a fortune. Mr White has discovered friends and relations who he thought never existed. Or, to be more accurate, they have discovered him. Much of his time is spent convincing callers that he is not a “mug.” He does not have much trouble in doing this, for he does not look like one. He has liis own plans', which-he has not disclosed for publication. Presently lie will put them into execution, and nobody will talk him into doing what he does not want to do. Lots have tried—in vain. In delightful contrast to the greed which the thought of wealth provokes is the spirit of the lady who wrote to him : “Some people are born lucky ; some are not. Wisli I had half your luck. —From a Well-wisher.” SHe gave neither name nor address.
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Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5155, 22 July 1927, Page 1
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631BEGGING LETTERS. Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5155, 22 July 1927, Page 1
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