TUMPTY'S "IOU'S

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 15 June 1917, Page 1

TUMPTY'S "IOU'S

A HOW GERMAN MILLIONAIRE'S SOS e ! ; LIVED IN STYLE. There has just been decided in the Higl Y Court at Leipzig a case which for year: aroused great interest in Germany, and tin t chief fiaure in which acliieved notoriet; '• in England about a dozen years ago ii what will be remembered as the " Tumpty ' breach of promise case. He is the son o Herr August Thyssen. the millionaire iroi d king of Germany.. In 1885 an agreemen le was drawn up between Herr Thyssen am I his then wife, by which the children wev l S allotted equal portions of the family foi >t tune, with a proviso that Herr Thysse ehquhl till his <teatli control the funds i

question. The wild- youth, " Tumpty'" pe Thyssen, eventually quarrelled with his « father and broke off all relations with his ra family. In order to supply himself with !i! funds,, young Thyssen. mortgaged his lights , under the family agreement to a Dutch -" bank >for a quarter of a million pounds, y.He began to set up a. cement factory/when m his father interfered, disputing the legality R of his son's action in mortgaging hi's oi rights, and the factory was never completed. The matter was taken into the courts, and the Provincial Court at Berlin decided in the son's favor, though the j" higher Court reversed the decision. Now s] the Supreme Court decided against the b father's appeal for a revision of the agree- h ment. A long' legal struggle ends, there- n fore, in the son's favor. tl NOTED BREACH OF PROMISE CASE. E For a long while the son lived by a ?! remarkable method in a high-class Berlin hotel. As he could not be cut off with a j shilling, and was bound to come into a 0 considerable fortune on the death of his p father, the hotel supplied, him with funds, \i paid Ms bills, and gave him credit in ex- h change for lOU's. He scattered such documents right and left wherever he went v as well, and eventually "Thyssen lOU's "'xY were in certain class Berlin society ac- ' oepted as ordinary bank notes. Just be- ' a fore the war the number in circulation b must have amounted in value to several g million marks. r, The remarkable breach of promise case 3 referred to above aroused intense interest in this country. It occupied the attention of Mr Justice Grantham's Court for four days, and ended on November 12, 1905.. s in the jury failing to agree. An attractivelooking actress, Miss Marion Draughn. whs the plaintiff. Her .veal name was stated i by her counsel to be Florida. Settle, and 1 she was the daughter of ;i Xorth Florida '■' , Judge, at one time a prominent man. c Earfy in life, after the death of her father and mother .she left bonie and took to s the stage, where she was successful, both \ in America and England. \ After appearing in 'The AVater Babies.' < she was offered a part in ' The Cingalce.' but this 6he refused at the instance of ' Heinrk-h Thyssen, who was then living in style in Park place, St. James's. His in- i fa'tuation, according to counsel, was speedy. A number of affectionate letters were read. ] be signing himself as "Tumty No. 1," \ and she as "Tumty No. 2."