A LUCKY PRINTER.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2295, 26 July 1880, Page 3

A LUCKY PRINTER.

A poor compositor in Now Haven, United States, has unexpectedly become heir to a fortune of £150,000. Ten years ago when John E. Skinner was a lad of fifteen, and an apprentice in the office of the “ Independent Press,” at Port Jefferson, L. 1., he befriended a dissolute young compositor named Antoine Mercer, a native of the Island of St. Thomas. Mercer had been discharged from the “ Independent Press” for drunkenness, and .was needy, dispirited, and homeless, when young Skinner proved a friend in need by inducing his parents to give Mercer a temporary home. He remained with his benefactors for months until his repeated lapses from sobriety compelled liis new friends to banish him. The dissolute typo left Port Jefferson, and in a few years was almost forgotten. Time passed, and with the usual luck which attends poor printers, Jack Skinner’s family increased more rapidly than his salary. He secured a situation on the “ Journal and Courier,” of New Haven, and one day not long since, while struggling over his “ case ” with a very “ solid take,” he was shown an extract from a. West India paper, to the effect that Antoine Mercer had some years before inherited the estate of a deceased uncle, in St. Thomas; that Antoine Mercer had since occupied the estate, and recently died there, leaving a fortune of £150,000 to John E. Skinner, the good-hearted typo who had befriended him when he was homeless. None of Jack’s friends envy him for his luck, although all of them w r onld cheerfully assist him in the distribution of His “ fat take.”