STARVED TO DEATH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 738, 10 August 1929, Page 23

STARVED TO DEATH

AN ECONOMICAL CLERK The equivalent of £3 13s 7d was the monthly salary earned by Desider X., a 26-year-old clerk employed by a Budapest firm. His room in a village six miles away cost him 12s 6d a month, and he walked to and from his work in Budapest daily. His one meal a day consisted of bread and a little inferior sausage, obtainable at 2|d a lb. Two pounds lasted him a week, and as a special luxury he sometimes allowed himself a small pickled cucumber, for which he paid a farthing. As a result of his economies, Desider Is believed to have saved £IOB from his meagre salary in the last few years. He was very proud of this bank balance. A year ago he became engaged to be married—but when his fiancee unexpectedly asked for an ice, he said that he could not tolerate such extravagant tastes and at once broke off the engagement. Recently he collapsed at work and was taken to hospital. He died of chronic starvation. It is stated that the heirs to his carefully hoarded savings are comfortably off,