AN ECCENTRIC MILLIONAIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 273, 8 April 1911, Page 10

AN ECCENTRIC MILLIONAIRE.

In Paris there is to be seen daily the only wealthy man who has carried out a resolution made some time in his life —a promise made by many youths in their teens, but rarely performed—of "being an engine-driver when 1 grow up.' He is the Duke of Saragossa, who is twice a grandee of Spain, is fabulously rich, and is the representative of one of the oldest and most distinguished noble families in the Peninsula. The Duke regards an engine not, like the rest of us, as an evilsmelling, dust-distributing, but necessary evil; be calls it "that sublime invention of the human mind," and when he could no longer devote himself to his toy engines dragged over the nursery floor, he had a miniature line constructed in his vast estates in over which he used to drive a baby train. At Inst an engine became as necessary to his happiness as a ship to a sailor, and though he Has more money than he knows what to do with, he qualified for the profession, and became an engine-driver in the employ of a French railway company, participating, though unwillingly, in the recent French strike. When on his engine no signs of his "blue blood" creep out, and you probably would not know him from his mate, the fireman, except for a collar that is a few shades further from grey, and the cut of his boots. During Spain's last "little war" in Northern Africa the Duke forsook his beloved engine and fought for his country, where he gained great distinction.