WHEEL OF FORTUNE.

Shannon News, 17 August 1923, Page 3

WHEEL OF FORTUNE.

GARDENER BECOMES A LORD

£24,000 AWAITING AN OWNER. SYDNEY, August 1. Two revelations of the past week go to show that one never knows in Sydney’s hustling crowds what man. ol rank in bushman’s clothes, o-r who of fortune in penury’s guise, arte may rub shoulders with.

Nobody who- knew him suspected Jack Stuart, the efficient and hardworking head gardener at the beautiful home of the MacDowie-ll’s, at Killam, one of Sydney’s select, suburbs, of particularly great, expectations. A •muscular man, of middle age, he t\ame to Sydney more than 20 years ago, and took up land in New South Wales, but adverse seasons pretty well ruined him, and he roamed the world till the eve of the war saw him back in Australia, and the call for volunteers found him among the, first.

A strenuous time in the ranks left liis health impaired, and on his return he sought an outdoor job, and the MacDowell’s engaged him with the utmost satisfaction to both parties. Day in and day out he was to be seen in his. old cabbage-tree hat, hard at work in the well-kept garden, till one niierning he awakes to find himself Lord Stuart, of Ballater, with castle and estates, in Aberdeenshire and a rent- roll of £2OOO a year. But no sudden revelation, in the wheel of forturfe can turn Jack Stuart’s head, and he calmly goes on with his digging and mowing, and will continue to do so until the family solicitor, who is. coming out on the Osterly, arrives. Such is thej story of a. man who has gained a fortune. Another nine days’ wonder concerns one who has left a fortune. Nobody who knew the old ■man. Martin Edward Burke, who eked out a lonely life at a Darlinghurst boarding-house, and was generally supposed to live on a small pension, suspected him ,of possessing big bank accounts arid scrip. When the old bachelor—he was over 80 years of age—became very ill a few weeks ago, the .people in the house were at a loss to know what to do, and at length he was. conveyed to the Royal Prince Allred Hospital, whore he subsequently diled. He had no intimate friends and up relations were known, so the Public Trustee took over what- were belie'ved to be the small possessions of the intestate 1 . The voting cierk who went to take charge of the effects,' however, soon became astonished at what lie found, and reported to his office facts which resulted in letters of administration beiim granted last Friday to t*. Public Trustee over an estate valued at just under £40,000 in shares n,nd bank deposits* ~ lAtt Ut is known of the old man s history or how he acquired this, large sum. The Public Trustee believes that li.e can trace his place of bath, m Ireland, and will search for his next of kin. Burke is supposed to haw! come to Australia nearly hall a ceil Hr ago, anokw-as for years in the nrWtil service' bbingt postmaster at a SS iraneh offleo o ii Sydney when lie reJired. •