AN EX- MILLIONAIRE. Found by a Friend Carrying a Hod, but Very Happy.
When Dave Kirk, tho well-known independent oil-producer and general foe of monopolies, was afc.the JM onongahela House Pittsburg he told a story which iDustrate s well the truth of the saying that money doesn't necessarily bring happiness to the man who possesses a big lump of it. A few years ago Duncan S. Karns, or Dune Karns, to give him the name by which lie was known all over the oil regions, wa3 perhaps the richest man in Butler country. Early in the seventies he was a cardriver in Alleghany City, and yet by 1876 he possessed tracts of the best oil land in Butler country and had a city and a railroad named after him. Domestic infelicity hastened his ruin,and fiually he disappeared from Butler country altogether, and was no more heard of in Pennsylvania. While Mr Kirk was traveling in Colorado he happened to read in the little paper of the country town in which he was staying that a new saloon was to be opened in the neighbouring 1 town of Florence- Mr Kirk is not as a rule much interested in saloon openings, but the announcement of this one riveted his attention because the name of ,the baloon-keeper was that of his old f 1 iend Punc Karns. The initials were tho same, i and as he had nothing better to do that day, he resolved to drive over to Florence and see who this D. S. Karns might be. He reached Florence an hour or two after making this resolution and inquired for the saloon. He was directed to a new building of very modest proportions. It was not completed, and a man at the very moment Mr Kii'k got up co ifc was carrying a hodful of bricks up a ladder. Mr Kirk stood and watched the bricks sandwiched with mortar into a chimney stack, and, when the mason came down for some more material, Mr Kirk called to him. The face which was turned to him was unmistakably that of the Butler country ex-millionaire. Dune Karns also recognized Mr Kirk instantaneously, and they shook hands heartily. Then they sat down on the edge of the mortar bed and talked of old times. Mr Kirk produced some cigars and then j\Jr Karns aplogized because he couldn't set up anything better than lemonade. But they smoked and sipped lemonade and talked till nearly sundown. Mr Karns had married again, and said he Avas as happy as a king. He looked right well, better by far, so Mr Kirk thought, than he did when he could sign a cheque good for a million. In fact, he himself admitted that humble circumstances agreed with him perfectly, and left no room for regrets for the wealth he had lost.
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Te Aroha News, 26 November 1887, Page 5
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474AN EX-MILLIONAIRE. Found by a Friend Carrying a Hod, but Very Happy. Te Aroha News, 26 November 1887, Page 5
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